Is it time to raise the minimum wage? It's now $7.25 an hour, and it's been more than five years since the last increase.

• Position: Debate

In November, voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota approved ballot measures raising the minimum wage in their states. That brings to 29 the number of states that have minimum wages above the federal rate of $7.25 an hour (see map). President Obama has proposed raising the federal minimum to $10.10 an hour, but so far that idea has been unpopular with Republicans in Congress.

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YES When you're in high school, a minimum-wage job can go a long way. If you work a few hours a week, you'll be able to afford that pair of sneakers you've been eyeing, concert tickets, or even a night out with a date.

But almost 90 percent of Americans who get paid at or just above the minimum wage aren't teenagers looking for an after-school job. They're adults over the age of 20, trying to earn a living. If you have a family to feed and rent to pay, earning only $7.25 per hour for a full-time job doesn't cut it. That's why we have to raise the minimum wage.

The last time the federal minimum wage went up was in 2009. Since then, basic expenses like food, rent, and public transportation have shot up--some by double-digit percentages. But the minimum wage hasn't budged at all, which means the costs of household necessities are squeezing families tighter and tighter.

In the U.S., if a family of three earns less than $19,790 per year, that's considered living in poverty. A full-time minimum-wage job pays just $15,000. It's morally unacceptable that in the richest nation in the world, a single parent who works full-time year-round has to live in poverty. Every hardworking American deserves an opportunity to succeed.

Raising the minimum wage is not only morally the right thing to do, it's also great for business and the economy. A higher minimum wage of $10.10 an hour would raise the incomes of almost 28 million Americans and put billions of additional dollars in their pockets. Because people earning minimum wage don't have a lot of money to spare, those dollars would largely be spent on things like food and clothing. That additional spending would create tens of thousands of new jobs around the country.

The minimum wage shouldn't be a political issue; it's a question of right versus wrong. Let's do the right thing and raise it. *

--SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND

Democrat of New York

NO Growing up in Reading, Ohio, I had every type of job you can imagine--mopping...