Advantages And Disadvantages Of Minimum Wage In South Africa

There are a lot of people around the world who struggle with money and a satisfactory way of life. Whether they be in the United States or across the globe, there is a standard minimum wage set for the working class of their country. In the Unites States, there is a federal minimum wage of seven dollars and twenty five cents per hour worked. Almost every state has another set minimum wage, which typically is a little higher than the federal minimum wage, but it cannot be lower than seven dollars and twenty five cents. Countries set minimum wage laws, to ensure there is a basic quality of life amongst its citizens. As the minimum wage goes up in certain states, the quality of life also improves. The problem with a higher minimum wage, is now people are getting paid higher for entry level jobs which are meant for teenagers and people new to the workforce. If the minimum wage keeps increasing across the country, teenagers and young adults will have a much more difficult time finding jobs.

The minimum wage is intended to protect workers and fight poverty. In the United States, the federal government sets the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour although many states set higher minimums. There is currently a movement to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. This movement is called the “Living Wage Movement” (Living Wage Resource Center, 2016) or the “Fight for $15” (Fortunato, 2016) and purports to address the problem of poverty in America.

And while these effects are more on the scale of large corporations, small businesses may yet also feel the effects of the minimum wage. With even fewer resources to rely on, a small business would have a harder time progressing and growing; a small business has only a small selection of workers who may be indispensable, so downsizing may be out of the picture, forcing them to cut back expenses, thus stunting their growth and leaving room for large corporations to take over the local industries. This, of course, presents another problem in today’s society concerning capitalism and a free market economy – when a small business grows weak financially; larger corporations have an opportunity to sweep in and seize hold of the local market for specific goods and services, drawing money out of that town and into the pockets of greedy companies. For example, a local burger joint or mom & pop store could be crippled by a turn of the economy, causing them to raise prices and cut back on expenses. However, the local McDonalds or Walmart would only be affected by a relatively smaller margin, spearheading these corporations into the

Opponents believe that increases to the minimum wage will place a burden on employers, especially small

Those who are content with raising a family on minimum wage will fail themselves and their family by not making themselves better. Additionally, those employers who report millions and billions in annual profits and continue to pay their workers minimum wage are being greedy, and greater pressure put on the employers to pay a better wage. As the minimum wage rate edges, closer to union pay and state and federal pay scales, it will force the entire country into a labor dispute. Those with a college education or a trade will not continue to work alongside someone with no qualifications and earn the same pay. American companies paying minimum wage in high poverty nations would be overpaying the local nations as they have no experience and the work force pool size to be scarce. Those entering into the workforce deserve minimum wage and this would allow employers to train and employ more workers to fill positions requiring experience. Lastly, those choosing to not better themselves through education, and live on minimum wage is creating a bigger burden for everyone

People in society must work in order to make a living, whether they have a highly skilled job, such as nursing or even lower skilled job such as working at fast food restaurant, they all must work to sustain themselves and their family. Many people who work in these low skilled jobs, get paid much less than the higher skilled jobs, however there are laws to protect these unskilled works, such as minimum wage. Minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage that an employer can pay its employees, preventing employees being exploited by their employers. Changing the minimum wage has positive and negative effects for both the workers, and businesses which makes raising minimum wage controversial.

There are 156. 4 million people in the US workforce, however 5.2% of those are unemployed. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour; however, each state has its own laws regarding minimum wage and the amount can be higher or lower than the federal minimum, but the employee receives the higher of the two (2015). A higher minimum wage means that employers are less apt to hire someone. Some experts explain this by saying that if an employer values the job at a lower wage per hour than the minimum wage set by the government, then the employer is less likely to hire someone to fill that role. The employer only wants to hire someone when that person will be able to generate some sort of value for the company and positively affect the bottom line. Another problem with a high minimum wage is that potential employees are less likely to want to work if they are able to receive unemployment benefits from the government that will almost equal that which they would receive from working a minimum wage job (Gillikin).

I believe that minimum wage is a drawback for certain people. For the workers, it is simply an upgrade to their life. They get a larger pay, and might be able to draw back on hours. Say they used to get $7.00 an hour minimum wage and now they get $10.00 an hour. So if they worked 10 hours before the minimum wage was raised, they would get only $70.00, but once it was raised, they would get $100. So each week if they worked 10 hours a day, before the minimum wage was raised they would receive $490. But after the minimum wage they would recieve $700. To strech that even further, each year before the minimum wage was raised, they would receive 25,480 dollars. But when it was raised, they earned 36,400 dollars a year. But for the employers, it

Around the country many states are debating whether or not to raise the minimum wage. However, before this can be debated it is important to look at the purpose of a minimum wage. To define minimum wage is easy it is simply the lowest an employer can pay an employee to work, but this isn't the purpose of a minimum wage. Minimum wage is set as an entry position. Minimum wage is supposed to be for young workers entering the workforce. Theoretically, young workers entering the workforce have little to no experience or skills so, therefore, they take minimum wage jobs so they can gain experience and develop skills. Once the young workers have worked at the bottom of the chain and gained experience the worker can begin

Minimum wage has many advantages from a microeconomic and macroeconomic standpoint. A key advantage is the idea that minimum wage allows workers to earn enough money to live on. Thus, it ultimately leads to a reduction in poverty. Another key advantage is that minimum wage can actually create jobs and grow the economy. This would happen by having more money flow through the economy, because then household spending will increase (ProCon.Org). Minimum wage also allows workers to support their families. Without a minimum wage, many families will not make as much money, therefore, it will be very difficult for the workers to support their families. Minimum wage also ultimately reduces taxes, because instead of indiviuals being unemployed and on public assistance, the person is working. This relieves the load of taxes on the state by not having people on different public assistances, such as food stamps and welfare (ProCon.Org). Another pro of minimum wage is that it is another incentive for high school workers to get in the door early of unemployment and gain experience. This can help them in get a job in the future(Root). The issue of minimum wage has an abundance of pros.

In 2014, about three million people made minimum wage or less. Those people made up about 3.9% of all hourly paid workers (“Characteristics”). This is already an extremely small amount of people when compared to the rest of the population. Going further, 55% of those hourly paid workers making minimum wage or less were 25 years old or younger, and 63% of people making minimum wage or less were not the main source of income for their household (Dorfman). This means that the majority of minimum wage workers are “young, entry-level employees working for experience or a person earning extra money for their family” (Russell). If a majority of this already small group do not even need the money to sustain themselves, why should minimum wage be raised for them?

Is it better for the economy to have a minimum wage or does it ruin the economy? Minimum wage is part of how the economy works. It deals with how much you may get paid or what might a customer give you in tips. Minimum wage has laws, helps with small businesses, and helps restore the wage for tipped workers.

According to supporters, keeping or raising the minimum wage would benefit the economy. When people receive increased wages they are likely to spend it (Learning). The more money that people spend nation wide the better the economy. These people want the minimum wage to be changed to $9 per hour. Raising the minimum wage by 1.75 per hour would bring an employee's annual salary to $18,720 ("Minimum Wage"). That would increase the annual salary by almost $4000. The United States spends Billions paying to help low-income workers. We have all these low-wage workers who are receiving $7.50, $8, or $9 an hour, and because they earn such small wages, the government subsidizes them with billions or tens of billions of dollars of social-welfare spending that comes from the taxpayer.," explains Ron Unz a strong political figure in California (Ornstein). Nationwide savings would be enormous with increased wage. Especially over the last few years groups of people have been protesting for higher wages. Cities and states have been considering or acting upon the raise ("Minimum Wage"). Protests have proven effective in a few communities nationwide. The main goal of the supporters is to raise the minimum wage to at least $9 per

“Most poor people earn more than minimum wage when they are working; their problem is not low wages. The problem comes when they are not working” (S. Joseph). Today’s level of pay for the minimum wage is not the problem, and raising it is not the solution. Furthermore, the only thing raising the minimum wage would do is to increase inflation. Inflation will raise all of the prices around us. Prices of gas, milk, and other necessities will increase to a level of which the minimum wage cannot withstand; again, we will be forced to raise it. With that being said, the only two probable solutions are to raise the work hours of the employees, or lower the cost of living; however, this will only be a temporary solution, workers must strive for

The wage rates are determined by Wage Councils constituted in accordance with Labour Institutions Act 2007. The wage councils consist of representation from worker, employee and independent experts. These members of this council are appointed for a period of three years and are entrusted with investigating pay and working conditions in any sector and to make recommendations to the Minister on these matters. Wages are determined for agriculture as well as general sector workers by the Agricultural and General Wage Councils constituted under the Labour Institutions Act. Based on the findings of the councils appointed, the minister will then set minimum wage rates. Similar to South Africa, minimum wages vary by occupational sectors, skill levels and geographical areas. The wage councils will take various factors into account when determining what the minimum wage should be. These factors are the needs of the workers, general wage levels of the country as well as the ability of businesses to carry