PBS
The Lowdown — Living Wages in CA: Ratio and Rate in the Real World
How much money is enough money? Future wage earners explore the minimum hourly wage and then use it to calculate monthly and yearly earnings. They use an interactive to consider living costs and determine whether earning a minimum wage...
Federal Reserve Bank
Would Increasing the Minimum Wage Reduce Poverty?
Here is a fantastic and relevant question to discuss with your class members. Using detailed reading material and a related instructional activity, your learners will learn about labor markets, equilibrium wages, price floors, and...
ProCon
Minimum Wage
The first ever minimum wage in America was set at 25 cents per hour in 1938 and has been steadily, if slowly, increasing ever since. Using the provided website, pupils decide if the United States should further increase the federal...
Curated OER
Chapter 28: Wage Determination
Answer questions on minimum wage and labor models with this economics presentation. Thorough and precise, these slides make a great accompaniment to a lecture on labor and wages. A list of key terms allows viewers to readdress and...
Curated OER
Wages, Salaries, and Such
Learners investigate the economics of a job by computing wages based on days, weeks and years. For this vocational lesson, students complete hourly wage worksheets based on employment information. Learners utilize average income data...
Federal Reserve Bank
“W” Is for Wages, W-4 and W-2
Don't let your young adults get lost in the alphabet soup of their paychecks and federal income taxes. Using sample pay stubs and reproductions of government forms, your class members will identify the purpose of such forms as a W-4 and...
Curated OER
Should the State of Michigan raise the minimum wage from $5.15 of $7.15 per hour?
High schoolers evaluate the effects of raising the minimum wage on employers. Define specific advantages/disadvantages of raising the minimum wage. Formulate and argue the pros and cons of minimum wage increase with given data.
Radford University
Exploring Equations through Life Goals
What do I want to do when I grow up? Learners research job categories and determine a career within the category. Using the chosen job, pupils find the hourly wage and calculate future income based on percentage wages. Individuals then...
Federal Reserve Bank
Unintended Consequences
What would your class members say to the opportunity to take two years off of school between grades 10 and 11? Examine the economic concepts of costs, benefits, and unintended consequences with this unique and engaging approach.
Curated OER
What Does It Cost? Wages and Expenses in Historical Context
Students research the relative value of a historical dollar. They use old newspapers to find costs for food, housing, clothing, and transportation and then calculate the number of hours a worker would need to be employed to live...
Curated OER
What's a Good Job?
Upper graders almost always stress about life after high school. To ease the transition to adult life, discuss how to select a job to meet personal needs. Two writing prompts are included to help learners consider what they'd like to do...
Curated OER
The Labour Market: Supply and Demand
Students question and evaluate the relevance of the traditional model of the labour market and apply it to public sector workers. They investigate problem problems and apply theories such as marginal revenue product to service sector...
Curated OER
Inequalities in the Workforce
Fourth graders examine careers that differ in the amount of wages paid to women and men. They interview their parents and discover they are contributing to society. They discover their role within the community as well.
Curated OER
Creating Line Graphs
Students draw line graphs. In this math lesson plan, students interpret minimum wage data and graph the data in a line graph. Students predict the next minimum wage and figure the earnings for a 40 hour work week for someone earning the...
Curated OER
Employee Payroll Simulation
Students simulate creating and calculating employees payrolls using hourly wages, deductions, and proper taxes.
Illustrative Mathematics
The Price of Bread
As part of an initiative to strengthen our young adults' financial understanding, this problem explores the cost of bread and minimum wage since the 1930s. Learners are asked to find the percent increase from each year and compare it...
Curated OER
Family Letter
Middle schoolers, working with their parents, calculate and complete five word problems associated with multiplying and dividing decimals. Students research the current Federal minimum wage at the library or on the Internet.
Illustrative Mathematics
Who Has the Best Job?
Making money is important to teenagers. It is up to your apprentices to determine how much two wage earners make with their after school jobs. Participants work with a table, an equation, and a graph and compare the two workers to see...
Curated OER
The Labour Market: Influences on the Labour Market
Students investigate key issues surrounding the factors determining pay and conditions. They explore the imperfections in the labour market that lead to gender discrimination.
Curated OER
Applying Central Tendency
Twelfth graders calculate the mean, median, and mode of various wages. They apply these skills to asking for pay raises. They discuss whether the mean, median, or mode provide the highest wage increase.
Curated OER
Ford's Revolution
Industrialization and mechanization of products such as cars have deeply affected the US economy. The class discusses the affects of Ford's assembly line production of automobiles. They watch a video, fill out worksheets, and investigate...
Curated OER
Labor Matters
Students examine the labor movement. In this labor issues lesson plan, students discuss the role of labor organizations and research their beginnings in order to better understand the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act.
Curated OER
Mean, Mode, Median
In this mean, mode, and median worksheet, 8th graders solve and complete 6 different problems that include determining the mean, mode and median of various sets of numbers. First, they explain how to determine the median, mode and mean....
Curated OER
Acts of Defiance?
Students contemplate, discuss and share responses to critical and analytical questions regarding impending war in Iraq. They write persuasive essays arguing the pros and cons of the United States waging war unilaterally.