10 Minimum Wage Analysis

“A 15 percent increase in the minimum wage nationwide would destroy about 290,000 to 590,000 young people's jobs, and about 400,000 to 800,000 jobs overall” (Henderson, David R). Due to the Fair labor Standards act, the federal minimum wage, or the lowest you can pay an employee for work, currently stands at $7.25 an hour. Although a number of Americans think that raising the minimum wage would benefit our country, it would actually bring a number of problems to our economy, such as a rise in job loss and high school dropout.

Ira Knight, who is an author of article “Let’s Make the Minimum Wage a Living Wage”, expresses an opinion that increasing the minimum wage would help all struggling workers and at the same time improve U.S economy. On the other side, Janice Steele in her article “Keep the Minimum Wage Where It Is” argues that raising the minimum wage would have bad effects on workers, consumers and small businesses. Ira Knight’s article seems to be the stronger of the two positions because her arguments are based on several recent studies, and last but not least, she had a personal experience with the minimum wage job.

The current minimum wage is $7.25, which equals two gallons of milk, one fast food meal or two gallons of gas. Can you imagine yourself working 12-hours a day and only having enough money to pay for rent and put food on the table for your family? With working all those long hours, you can barely afford to pay your utility bills and after that you don’t have enough money or time for luxuries like clothing or vacation. You have no savings as matter of fact, you are in a huge debt and you are living paycheck to paycheck. This is the story of millions of American worker, who are employed on minimum wage. The shocking part about this story is that million of Americans would be saved from this poverty life, if the American government raises the minimum wage. This would not only help the workers, but also the economy because raising the minimum wage would put extra money in the pocket of minimum wage worker and extra spending would help restore consumer spending.

The federal minimum wage should be raised $10.10 an hour. The reason why the federal minimum wage should be raised is because having a job extremely hard as it is, therefore the government should contribute into helping the citizens and make their lives better. Looking for a job is very difficult and once people have found a job than it should pay enough for their well living and other aspect of their lives. People are constantly complaining about how they are not getting paid enough, but are required to work at least full time to pay their utility bills, phone bills, gas bills, etc… I myself have been working hoping to find a decent car for legitimate transportation; which

$7.25 equals two gallons of gas, one fast food meal, or a simple school supply. With the minimum wage at the current rate you must work one hour to earn the seven dollars and twenty-five cents that only supply you with small necessities for everyday living. This problem was encountered before and was resolved with the agreement to higher the minimum wage from $5.85 to the current $7.25. Although that was a big increase in salaries, was it truly enough? This controversy can lead to a major change in everyone’s everyday lives and boost our economy to a period of prosperity. The minimum wage should be increased to bring our economy out of a recession, bring families together,

The government spends millions of dollars supporting poor families every year. Since the government is already in an estimated $19.4 trillion debt as of 2016, raising the minimum wage would be a way to save them money and pay back some of that debt (Lantigua-Williams). By raising the minimum wage to $10.10, 1.7 million workers would no longer need governmental support to be financially stable. With this amount of people no longer needing the government's help, the government will have extra money to use. Just from the increase of minimum wage, the government would save $4.6 billion from not having to send out as many food stamps alone. And over just one year, the increase in pay would reduce the government spending on income-support programs by $7.6 billion (“Should Federal Minimum”). The government will be able to use this money on other important things that will help the country grow and

Raising minimum wage has been a battle for many decades and it has always been a battle to raise it. Many families that work for a minimum wage job often have trouble making ends meet because making $8.75 just isn’t enough in this today’s economy. Some jobs are paying $2.13 an hour but this is mostly at restaurants that are family owned but if they don’t make enough on tips they must get paid $7.25 per hour they worked. Although minimum wage has changed dramatically since 1938 when it was $0.25 cents (Kurtz&Yellin) American families simply cannot live on minimum wage. Raising minimum wage should be raised to help families that need it the most.

According to procon.org “if we were to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 there would be economic loss of up to 500,000 jobs.” When people think about the idea of making $10.10 an hour they think about money not all the other people that will probably get laid off if the minimum wage goes up. In a recent survey they asked 1,213 businesses what they would do if the legal minimum wage were to go up to $10.10. This survey showed “38% of employers who currently pay minimum wage said they would lay off some employees if the minimum wage was raised to $10.10. 54% said they would decrease hiring levels.”(procon.org) This is a highly substantial loss of jobs in the U.S.

Other studies have found that while some job losses may occur, there can still be an economic net gain thanks to the fact that so many workers will have more money to spend. A $10.10 minimum wage would mean a direct raise for 16.7 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, who would then have more money in their pockets to spend on goods and services, boosting the economy. It also found that a gradual increase to $10.10 by 2016 would increase wages by $35 billion, which would boost GDP growth by about $22 billion. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that even when potential job losses are taken into account, an increase in the minimum wage to $9, as President Obama proposed in his 2013 State of the Union, would increase household spending by $28 billion, or 0.2 percent of GDP. That extra spending stimulates the economy, which can lead to more job growth. There is also real world evidence that minimum wage increases don’t hurt jobs.

A movement to increase the federally mandated minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 has been gaining momentum across the nation in recent months. Although the Senate struck down a bill that would have made the idea a law this past April, studies conducted by top economists and governmental agencies are finding it to be highly beneficial in practice. It has been over five years since the last change in the federal minimum wage, and the government needs to make adjustments for the modern economy. It should take action towards setting the new minimum wage to $10.10, even if in small steps.

Increasing the FMW would be devastating to many small businesses. According to the SBA size standards ninety-nine percent of companies in the United States qualify as small. Therefore, they are just as crucial to the american economy and workforce as the large corporations. Raising minimum wage would hit these small businesses the hardest, because many times they do not have a surplus funds to fall back on. In “Seattle’s Coming $15 Minimum Wage” Alexander(2015) reveals the harm that Seattle's $15 minimum wage hike has done to small businesses. The author supports their argument by getting testimonies from multiple small business owners all over seattle. One of them Joe Salvatore, general manager at a The Recycling Depot, states a common misconception

I learned that my life expenses on a minumum wage job will not last long because I won't be able to pay every thing. I am going to be a coach which will help me with with my expenses. I will have two jobs Dentist and coach. This project helped me plan out my future and figure out a example of what I will be spending ever month based on how much I am going to make each week/month. I definatly prefer a a good paying job so I can afford my expensive

What is minimum wage? Minimum wage is the lowest legal paycheck a company can give to an employee. It is illegal for a company pay an employee less than minimum wage (Principles of Microeconomics). Unemployment, on the other hand, is the percentage of the total workforce who are without a job and are currently looking for a paying job. The unemployment rate is one of the most closely watched statistics due to its relationship with the interest rate. If the unemployment rate is rising, it shows the economy is becoming weaker and may even need a call for cut in interest rate” (businessdictionary.com).

“Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do, but it makes for good business”-Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco. Many of America’s employees are not being paid well, however, for the annual income of a full-time employee who works year-round is less than $16,000 (about $15, 080) according to the current federal minimum wage (Rebuilding). To put into retrospect how out-dated the federal minimum wage is, consider that the minimum wage of 1956 amounted to exactly $7.93 in 2009 (Henderson). How progressive is it that our nation’s workers being paid less today than workers from the 50’s? The federal minimum wage should be raised in order to assist families out of poverty, to ensure the effort and loyalty of workers, and

The idea of having a federal minimum wage is a good one. The idea is to protect low and unskilled workers from discrimination and allow all workers to earn a living wage. The recent debate on the floor, though, is whether or not to raise the minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour up to $10.10 per hour. President Barack Obama made this proposal during his annual State of the Union Address on January 28, and following this there were many hot debates about it. The debates focused not only on the advantages and the disadvantages of increasing the minimum wage, but also the alternatives to increasing it.