(Chuck Kennedy, Wikimedia Commons)

During his State of the Union address, President Obama touched on a multitude of topics that he was expected to cover. But he also brought up an issue that was not necessarily expected.

“We know that our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages,” said the President. However, as he continued, “even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong.”

“Tonight,” he told America, “let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.”

As the President pointed out in his speech, the federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009, and since that time 19 states have raised their minimum wages. In 2013, 10 states will raise their minimum wage—and that means it is high time for the federal minimum wage to be raised as well.

While many analysts feel that the President's calling for a raise in the minimum wage came out of left field, it is not the first time this particular topic has recently come into question. In this past November’s elections, voters approved minimum wage raises in San Jose, Albuquerque and Long Beach with 60, 59 and 63 percent of the vote, respectively.

According to the National Employment Law Project, when adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage should be $10.58 per hour, which is significantly higher than the current $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees, and definitely higher than that of tipped employees: a miserable $2.13 per hour. As a chart from CNN shows, the minimum wage is worth considerably less than it was 50 years ago.

Furthermore, according to the Universal Living Wage campaign, 42 percent of the homeless are working, underscoring the impact that the current wage scale is having on the working poor. In twenty-first century America, it is simply unacceptable to have millions of people with jobs homeless because their wages cannot afford them a place to live.

The argument against raising the minimum wage is centered on the consequent suffering of business and employment prospects. However, studies done by the National Employment Law Project have shown that an increase in the minimum wage can actually lead to increased spending, which has the ability to boost local economies. Additionally, nearly 70 percent of businesses that pay the minimum wage have more than 100 employees and CEOs who are making salaries equating to hundreds of times those of their workers.

As a chart from Business Insider shows, the American minimum wage is far lower than that of France or the U.K., countries with comparable economies that offer much more reasonable salaries for their workers. Additionally, a survey that was conducted by Lake Research Partners in February 2012 found that 73 percent of those who were polled supported a raise in the minimum wage to $10 per hour. All of these occurrences cannot continue to be ignored.

In America, we seem to love to criticize China. Yet, if China can be freely criticized for its harmful labor laws and policies, then America cannot sit back as millions of its own workers continue to unfairly suffer. As President Obama said while touring a factory in North Carolina this past Wednesday, “If you work full-time, you shouldn’t be in poverty.” The price of living continues to rise and the difficulties of living on a minimum wage continue to increase, yet nothing is being done to fix this. It is time for those in Congress to take notice; and in 2013, it is time for the federal minimum wage to be raised.

Reach Contributor Mathew Goldstein here.