Inherent in our economy is the very real concept of inflation. Inflation isn’t necessarily a bad thing-it can be a sign of growth-but whether the effects of inflation are good or bad remains contingent upon economic policy. One heavily discussed piece of economic policy is the minimum wage. 

Our fearless leaders in Washington have been debating tirelessly over whether the minimum wage should go up or stay stagnant. Okay, that was a lie-they haven’t-but they certainly should be, especially with 5.2 percent of all hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing minimum wage. Restaurant servers-who make up 22 percent of hourly-paid workers-are not included in the prevailing minimum wage figure; neither are workers who live in states where the minimum wage is higher or lower than the federal minimum wage.

It’s a surprise that Americans haven’t heard much from their leaders about increasing the minimum wage. The last real push to increase the prevailing minimum wage was during President Obama’s campaign in 2008, when the then-senator promised to increase the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour. It’s four years later, wage earners are still making $7.25, and there seems to be no real talk of the issue in Congress. In the immortal words of Notorious B.I.G.: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”

Those opposed to the minimum wage cite purely capitalist reasons for their ideology, arguing that having a minimum wage leads to increased unemployment since employers are forced to pay above-market-price wages for labor and are thus able to hire fewer people.

Paul Krugman , a Princeton economist who earned a Nobel Prize in Economics, disagrees with those who say wage cuts would raise employment by increasing liquidity, lowering interest rates and lowering price, thus increasing demand.

“A falling price level raises the real value of debt,” Krugman wrote in a recent New York Times column. “To the extent that debtors are more likely to cut spending in such a case than creditors are to increase it-which seems likely-the effect of the wage cuts will actually be a fall in demand.”

So why is all of this important to college students? As tuition costs increase with rising inflation, more and more students are taking on at least part of the cost of college, many of us working 20 to 30 hour weeks to help foot the bill for our education. Many of these part-time jobs are menial and do nothing to make students more competitive in the job market. It doesn’t help that the minimum wage hasn’t kept up with inflation. If it did, the minimum wage would be $10.55 an hour, so President Obama’s $2.25 increase would still leave people struggling to claw their way out of poverty.

If  the minimum wage went up, more Americans would be closer to meeting our ever-rising costs of living-and more college students would be able to graduate with fewer loans.