Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The federal minimum wage increased by 70 cents today, which will affect about 2 million American workers. It jumps from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour. Next year the final of the three yearly increased will bring it to $7.25 an hour.

It's projected that the final increase will have an impact on over 5 million workers, as the hourly rate will surpass some of the existing states which have higher standards in place.

Already a number of small businesses are having to increase prices and pass the artifical price hikes to their customers, effectively increasing inflation. Profits are slim for a lot of small businesses, and the harmful miniumum wage laws make it more difficult to compete.

This is another reason politicians need to keep their hands off the economy, and let the market dictate what wages should be. All this does is make them look like they're helping out so they can get votes, while the overall population suffers from government-sponsored inflation.

Another thing the miniumum wage does, is socialize people into staying in their low-paying jobs, believing the government will come to their assistance and give them forced raises from their employers.

Other economists believe it's possible that the increased wages will now cause inflation in the food sector, increasing the cost there as well. Thanks Washington.

Jobs that pay low wages are never supposed to be the life work of people, and their unwillingness to improve their situation shouldn't be rewarded by wage increases to encourage them to stay.

Lower paying jobs should be there to help people develop working habits and how to be productive. Once they're there for some time; whether to earn extra money while going to school, or because they temporarily have to, they should be looking to improve their skill levels and move ahead to better paying jobs.

Minium wage laws do nothing at all to make that happen, and really don't do anything to help those working in those situations thrive.

It's just become a political football to make politicians look like they're doing something meaningful, when in fact they're causing destructive ripples the resonate throughout the economy.