In June of 2017, Bill 148, the “Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act” was introduced by the Ontario provincial government. Designed to redistribute wealth from employers to labourers and improve working conditions, the bill appears well intentioned. However, the abruptness of its implementation and the magnitude of the proposed changes could see negative effects for the Ontario economy. Many of its redistributive benefits are overstated, and rely heavily on the assumption that businesses will absorb the costs of the proposed changes. This is unlikely to happen, and the increased costs will more likely be passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices, and fewer employment opportunities. While the focal point of Bill 148 is the nearly …show more content…
These “spillover” wage increases are not factored into the CANCEA projections for the economic impacts of the minimum wage increase, but will be an additional burden to Ontario businesses. If firms are unwilling to absorb the costs of Bill 148, and choose not to pass the costs onto consumers, they will need to restructure their labour force. This could lead to a decrease in employment opportunities, as well as an increased burden being placed upon those who remain. The CANCEA projects that as many as 185,000 jobs that would have existed in 2019, will not because of this bill. These include jobs that will be eliminated, in addition to jobs that would have been created if not for Bill 148. In addition to a rising consumer price index, property taxes stand to increase significantly because of Bill 148. Ontario’s municipalities employ many minimum wage labourers, and those of smaller size rely heavily on on-call workers such as firefighters. The municipalities’ costs for both groups would increase significantly because of the changes outlined in Bill 148. According to the City of Kingston’s 2017 budget, Salaries and Benefits constituted 32.8% of municipal expenses. Though not all wages and benefits would increase once Bill 148 is implemented, the city can expect a
Raising the minimum wage sounds like a beneficial idea, but there are also a few surprising reasons why it might not be such a good plan after all. A common assumption among Americans is that raising the minimum wage equals an increased income, but, according to Joseph J. Sabia and Richard V. Burhkauser that may not be the case. They discovered that, “examining only employment effects, however, may mask full labor demand effects. Firms may respond to minimum wage hikes by (i) reducing both employment and average hours worked by employed workers or (ii) increasing hours of retained workers to compensate for reduced employment” (Couch and Wittenburg 2001; Neumark and Wascher 2007) (595). What, exactly, would be the point in
Doug Hall, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network and David Cooper, Economic Analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, expressed how the increase in minimum wage affects certain genders, families, education backgrounds, ages, and the economy (Hall & Cooper, 2014). It is said that the increase mainly affects women with a compromising percentage of 54.5 (Hall & Cooper, 2014). It affects at least 20 year olds and mostly white workers. The increase in minimum wage also affects workers with a college degree or higher more than those with a high school diploma. It also affects low to moderate-income families and those who work full time. Hall and Cooper believe that the rise in minimum wage will not cause job losses, but create jobs. They also believe that the workers will spend their extra earnings and those who make close to but higher than the minimum wage will, “receive boost in earnings due to “spillover” effect, giving them more to spend on necessities” (Hall & Cooper, 2014). They believe this will help with economic growth.
The unemployment rate for March 2016 is at 7.3% compared to 6.6% in 2014. With the rising unemployment rate, people looking for jobs will have a much more difficult time. People will be looking longer for jobs and will not be receiving a salary to pay for costs of living. Right now, each month the unemployment rate climbs by 0.4%. This results in a loss of 35,700 jobs per month. Chapter six of Dinner Party explains the inflation costs. We can relate this to the inflating cost of living and the rising unemployment rate. Canada needs to change quick, as 35,700 jobs lost each month is not good for people trying to support
What we can gather from this is that a minimum wage increase may initially lower employment, but in the long run the
According to Daniel Tencer’s article “Too-Fast Minimum Wage Hike Will Cost Ontario 90,000 Jobs: TD Bank” (2017) on huffpost website, thousands of people might lose their jobs by 2020 as the result of today’s minimum wage hike. Some economists claim that it ‘can potentially generate more benefits to society than costs in terms of any resulting job loss’ (2017) while others concern about short period of time allotted on making these changes. As for minimum wage in the coming years, it will be $14 per hour in January 2018 and $15 in 2019. The author also stated that not only Ontario is planning to raise minimum wage, but also Alberta will increase it to $15 per hour. Furthermore, even though government says that there will be a ‘positive household
Beside the increase in cost to businesses and customers, other people can potentially be hurt by this policy. By increasing the wage, small businesses will suffer a higher cost that can lead to cutting jobs, stalling new hire or even shutting down. On the other hand, the economic plight of these minimum wage workers should also be considered. Therefore, the $15 plan would produce unpredictable consequences, while not doing anything would doom minimum wage workers to live in in poverty and to consume public resources.
First this paper will discuss the purpose of the bill, second this paper will highlight the potentiality of raised prices within the economy as well as the general effect among society, next this paper will explain how increased minimum wages will produce a decrease in human labor within the workforce, and finally this paper will prove why this bill is truly unnecessary for Americans.
Raising the minimum wage would establish 85,000 new jobs and would also increase amass household spending by $48 billion the following year (“Should the Federal”). There are no signals shown that a boost in the minimum wage would lower employment. Even though people argue that the authors found “Little or no evidence of negative association
A $15 raise in minimum wage may result in job loss. “A 2006 review of more than 100 minimum wage studies by David Neumark and William Wascher found
1876, he was famed for his "Killing of Yellow Hand". Also during this time, in
Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim that if the minimum wage was raised, then many economic and social problems would be alleviated. This contention is at odds both with economic principles and years of creditable research. The effect of raising or even having a minimum wage has been studied extensively and the majority of studies have proven that raising a minimum wage does not have the desired effect. Both micro and macroeconomic forces affect the results of raising the minimum wage. The secondary effects of raising the minimum wage are bad both for
In early March 2016 Governor Jerry Brown passed a new bill to increase the minimum wage in California from ten to fifteen dollars by the year 2022. The minimum wage will be increased by one dollar each year until 2022. This will give businesses enough time to meet state requirements to raise wages for employees. The bill was created to help people who are making less than minimum wage but it will disable California’s economy system and cause negative effects for people who are living on the current minimum wage system. The rise of the minimum wage will cause people to lose their jobs, get hours reduced, lose health benefits, and companies to go bankrupt. The increase of wage will cause inflation of prices on goods and services that companies provide. California’s state taxes will increase, causing people to pay more taxes and lose more money from their paychecks. It will also cause people to stay away from higher education because it will be easier to find a higher paying job without a degree. The raise of the minimum wage will cause negative implications, both immediate and in the future, and will also affect higher education.
A last-minute compromise between state legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown has cleared the way for a bill that would significantly increase the minimum wage in California over the next 2 1/2 years. Not surprisingly, the California Chamber of Commerce called it a "job killer." The chamber is probably right about that to a degree; some employers will eliminate jobs, reduce hours or expand their payrolls more slowly as a consequence of the higher entry-level wage. But the measure will bring much-needed relief to thousands of Californians struggling to get by on the minimum wage today, as well as help the businesses where they 'll spend their extra dollars. Because the gains clearly offset the costs, Brown should sign the bill into law.
The Efficient-Market Hypothesis (EMH) states that it is impossible to beat the market because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information.
Opponents to minimum wage raise claim that the minimum wage costs jobs by pricing low-wage workers out of the labor market. However, when we review academic studies that examine the effects of minimum wage increases on