General Goal: To persuade
Specific Goal: To persuade my audience
about the need to change minimum wage to adjust for an individual's household composition.
Thesis statement: Living adequately off
of the federal minimum wage is not adequately possible and therefore should be changed
based upon an individual’s household composition and not a flat rate.
Introduction
I.
Attention
Getter (ever earned minimum wage/ live adequately off of it/add people)
A.
75.3 million workers in the United States age 16 and over were paid at hourly
rates, representing 59.0 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those
paid by the hour, 1.6 million earned
exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.0
million had wages below the federal minimum. 4.7% www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012.htm
II.
Thesis
Statement: Living adequately off of the federal minimum wage is not possible
and therefore should be changed based upon an individuals household composition
and not a flat rate.
III.
Preview
of main points:
A.
Main
point 1 (History and purpose of minimum wage)
B.
Main
point 2 (Logos Need: Why change it)
C.
Main
point 3 (Pathos Need: Story/Personal relate)
[Transition: Know points, let’s roll]
Body
IV.
History
and Purpose of Minimum Wage
A. The purpose of the minimum wage was to stabilize the
post-depression economy and protect the workers in the labor force. The minimum wage was designed to
create a minimum standard
of living to protect the health and well-being of employees. www.law.cornell.edu/wex/minimum_wage
[Transition:
Know Point 1/Why Change It ]
V.
Logos
Need: Why Change It
A. Purpose
of the federal statute and current fixed amount is in conflict with common law/legal community findings throughout the United States.
1. It is black letter common law that what
would constitute an undue hardship on a person is the inability to sustain
economic adequacy or decent standard of living. A “decent standard of living”
or “economic adequacy” is found to mean by common law throughout, at a minimum,
150% of the federal poverty level (“FPL”) for household size and composition. American Law Inst., Principles
of the Law of Family Dissolution: Analysis and Recommendations; §
3 Glossary, page 649. Further, poverty threshold is intended to estimate the
bare minimum necessary for human survival; it does not reflect actual consumer expenditure.
Please see Id. Principles of the Law
of Family Dissolution; § 3 Glossary, page 649, (20)
2. These general legal findings are
support by the states in that at least here in Utah, for the purposes of
indigence and waiving legal fees, appointing state counsel to represent a
person in legal actions, etc. Utah law defines a person as indigent as having
an income level at or below 150% of the United States poverty level as defined
by the most recently revised poverty income guidelines published by the United
States Department of Health and Human Services (“USDHHS”). Utah Code Ann. §
77-32-202(3)(a)
Federal Poverty Level – Household Composition
3. FPL provides that a person with a
household composition of one, I.E. just you, would need to earn at least, as of
February 2015 sum $17,655.00 a year to avoid falling under the 150% poverty
threshold and therefore according to the federal government, state government
and legal common law throughout, be adequately able to sustain income for
necessary human survival. Therefore, a person with a household composition of
one on average in the United States would need to earn a minimum of $9.19 an
hour at 40 hours a week to maintain that threshold finding. A person with a
household composition of two (single mother and child) would need to be earning
$23,895.00 a year to avoid falling under the 150% FPL; or, at least $12.44 an
hour at 40 hours a week. A person with a household composition of three (single
mother and two children) would need to
be earning $30,135.00 a year to avoid falling under the 150% FPL; or, at least
$15.69 an hour.
4. If Time: Disparate Impact v females (single parents)
[Transition:
Know Point 2/Why Change It - Logic ]
VI.
Pathos
Need: Story/Personal relate
A.
As
of 2011 CDC reports per 1000 population 6.8 people are married and per 1000
population 3.6 divorce. This comes to about a 50% divorce rate for all
marriages in the United States.) Alternatively, 50% of all kids in married
families will end up being raised by a single parent. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm
B. Might think Utah, LDS church is strong here, no way getting
divorce. CDC as of 2008 reports divorce rate for women in Utah are
significantly above average. National average being 10.5 per 1000 women
divorcing. Utah it’s 11.7 to 16.5. http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/marriage/data/acs/Evaluation_figure.pdf
1.
Men
no better. Men National average being 9.9 per 1000 men divorcing. Utah its 10.9
to 21.0.
C.
Struggling
families/single parents raising kids.
1.
Minimum
wage not adequate to support a single person let alone multiple people in a
household.
2. Divorces
occur before 20 years of marriage. Often times, early and resultant of
financial issues. Persons are young, starting life, students, gaining skills
necessary to be marketable. Not their fault nor are they being irresponsible or
lazy.
3.
Me:
two jobs, full time. School full time. Divorced father. CS/Daycare/Medical
Expenses. AGI. $1260.00 $450 survive.
[Transition: Know Point 3/Why Change It - Human Experience (Emotion)]
Conclusion
VII.
Restate
Main points
A.
History/Purpose
B.
Need
1 Logical
C.
Need
2 Human Experience (Emotions)
Bibliography
American Law
Inst., Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution: Analysis and
Recommendations (2001).
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