Should persons working 40-hour work weeks earn enough to ensure they have an adequate standard of living? Of course, people should not be working for poverty wages. Hence, the government should take steps to raise the federal minimum wage to a practical level on which workers can live. In a nation as geographically diverse and expansive as the United States, the living wage, or the wage necessary to maintain an adequate standard of living within a community, varies widely from state to state, county to county, and even district to district. This has led to a wide spectrum of opinions on the topic, dividing the debate along and within party…