Project Summary: Writing Assignment 1: Minimum Wage Minimum wage laws in the US were established in response to a lack of regulatory statutes. IOW, a business would pay what they desired in a similar fashion to a citizen paying a teenager to mow the lawn. The complexity of federal (and state) regulation is often overlooked when discussing the minimum wage. Even FDR seemingly conflates the minimum wage with a livable wage: It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. — Franklin D. Roosevelt (Links to an external site.) No business at all, eh? Really?