Texas lawmaker, Trey Martinez-Fischer representative of Bexar County, filed a new bill this week in hopes to raise the minimum wage in Texas to $10.10 an hour. The current Texas minimum wage is the same as the national rate of $7.25 an hour and has been set at that rate since July of 2009.

Many people argue that if the minimum wage increases then businesses won't be able to afford to pay their employees and will, inevitably, have to shut their doors. I argue that if business can't afford to pay their employees a respectable rate of pay so that they can survive and flourish like a decent human being, then they should take a look at their budget and move some numbers around. I'm sure that there are cuts that could be made to ensure employees are compensated in a way that can keep up with the ever growing cost of living, but I digress.

Although I believe the minimum wage should be higher, I also believe that people should get paid for the job that they do and at what level they're doing said job. I think that $7.25 an hour is a perfectly acceptable rate for a teenager starting their first job at a fast food chain but ludicrous for companies to think that an adult, at any age, should be able to survive on that. People should be paid for their work performance and rewarded with higher pay for a job well done, not just because a law tells them to do it.

So, it's a double edge sword really. At one end, you have the adult that couldn't afford to go to college, just trying to make ends meet, getting worked over by a company that thinks $7.25 is an acceptable means of pay. Meanwhile, the pimple-faced teenager serving you your burger and fries is wanting more money so they can buy those $200 pair of jeans mommy and daddy won't get them.

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