Does Low Wages Affect Children

To begin, there is an extensive debate over whether if the U.S were to raise minimum wage, could it really help the working poor of low income families. Nancy Cook, in her article from the National Journal, “Why a Minimum-Wage Hike Can’t Help the Poor”, she points out that two thirds of around 100 surveys from 2007 had a negative effect and that it does more for the middle class than the lower one. (p.14). So, therefore, from her

Jason Furman and Parrot Sharon explain why raising minimum wage will help families. The wage has to be elevated to just the point where a family can actually afford all the necessities they need in order to survive. The cost of living in houses for poor people makes it difficult for them to afford it and is difficult to stay on task with all the bills. Many minimum wage workers have families to support. The cost of raising children is very expensive. It is an average of $7,100 per year. Minimum wage workers can barely afford to pay child care for one child, let alone two. Increasing minimum wage will also make life easier to those who have food stamps and child care needs. Which can also help them get into college a lot faster so they can go out and pursue a better paying job.

When there are millions of Americans living at or below poverty lines, something has to be done. Billion dollar companies and businesses that employ workers, paying them low wages is hurting the economy. The reality is, unless the minimum wage is raised, the cycle will only continue. With higher minimum wages in place, the entire country does better and, therefore, should be raised. There needs to be laws put place to raise the minimum wage. Doing so would boost the economy with all of the money that Americans would put into it. With higher minimum wages, millions of Americans can get out of poverty, not having to rely on the government for assistance such as food stamps, public housing, child care, and health care needs. They can afford better housing options in which they want to live. Communities would see less crimes in neighborhoods creating a safer environment. Aside from that, Americans can afford a good education, health care, as well as healthier eating and exercising habits.

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.

Also depending on where you live and how fast you grow, you will need to buy a variation of clothes for the winter and summer. With a family of four, it is almost incapable of happening. An average article of clothing cost anywhere between $15-30 for one piece. That is more than 2 hours of work. Imagine that, plus only getting an average of $290 a week. That will not last very long, which is very irritating to some people because they don’t want to let their family down, but raising minimum wage will help that tremendously. Another example that could take place is in an emergency like needing to stay late for work, and needing someone to babysit your kids. Many people cannot afford to do that with such little pay and have no choice but to leave work on time. With that happening and many not staying, that could cause them to lose their job, resulting in more poverty. To continue, minimum wage was created to stimulate the economy in 1938 (Sonn, Temple 1). Once minimum wage became a policy in the United States, it was successful in stimulating the economy when it was created because the federal minimum (if adjusted for inflation) was higher than today. Over the past 40 years, the power of minimum wage has fallen sharply. Minimum wage now, is about ⅔ percent of its previous power. The annual salary of a full-time American worker employed at $7.25 per hour is $15,080, which is less

"In fact, data from CPS suggests that the majority of poor families with heads of household of prime working age simply don’t work, so a minimum wage has no impact on these families." (Durden). The correlation between minimum wage and low-income families is weak. There are alternatives that could be more economically efficient for low-income families. It would be a delusion to think that raising the minimum wage would be the most economically efficient way to help low-income families.

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

Raising the minimum wage would hurt the less fortunate families. It spreads income unevenly. Some people would receive more pay and others would lose their jobs making families and the economy suffer. If someone have a minimum wage job that pays $5.15 it is better than no job at $6.00 (Henderson). If someone has a job that does not pay well be thankful for it, it still provides for the

Raising minimum wage 10% would reduce the amount of poverty by 2.4% ( Konzal, Mike. ) The raise of minimum wage may be able to pull 4.6 million people out of poverty. Although there are 45 million people in poverty, pulling 4.6 million out is a good start. With raising minimum wage there are possibilities of it boosting workers incomes by 10% which is an increase of $1,700. A raise like this is a big boost to people's quality of life and living conditions. Having high paying jobs for workers would pull about 900,000 americans out of poverty and raise the income of 16.5 million workers all around the US. While raising minimum wage has some positive outcomes there is more possibility for negative outcome. Positive effects like poverty rates possibly dropping are great but not enough money can be made. Workers income will be raised because of the wage raise but it is not good enough. If firms pay more they are going to look for less workers because of the raise or resort to other ways of work. A raise in minimum wage has opportunities to pull people out of poverty and raise incomes of people but it is not 't enough. ( Khimm, Suzy. )

It is known that the children are unable to determine their life circumstances, their families, and care solely for themselves without supervision. With this being said, children have little to no jurisdiction in determining the situations that they are confronted with. Most of the time when we ponder child poverty we think of low-income families or lack of food in the household, but it extends beyond that to “an environment that is damaging to their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development” (“Children Under Threat,” 2005). Unfortunately, the prevalence of youth poverty in the United States may seem uncommon to those who are personally unaffected by the crisis; however, statistics show that 15 million children (21% of all children) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold (Child Poverty, 2017). Moreover, when considering the demographics of impoverished children the following are true: a child in the U.S. has a 1 in 5 chance of being poor and the younger they are the poorer they are likely to be, and a child of color is more than twice as likely to be poor than a White child (Child Poverty, 2017). Research proves that poverty is the single greatest threat to a child’s well-being as it decreases the likelihood of a child graduating from high school, and it increases the chances of them becoming involved with the criminal justice system (Ending Child Poverty Now, 2017).

Numerous numbers of individuals and families will be relieved following a minimum wage increase. Around 25 million people will see the benefits firsthand (“Why Raise the Minimum Wage?”). Five million workers, after getting a raise, will no longer be in poverty, along with fourteen million working women, six million working mothers, and three million single working parents (“Why Raise Minimum Wage?”). With the well-deserved raise, all of these people can better support their family, pay off those growing bills, get food on the table, and worry less about the future. Looking at the numbers, it is evident that many people who have minimum wage jobs are living with tough situations at home whether that be poverty, living in a single income family, or both. As a result, many children are left with hungry bellies, not knowing when they will get their next hot meal because their hard working parents do not have enough capital to sustain the family. Not only will raising the minimum wage benefit millions of people that desperately need money, studies show that the effects would be evenly distributed among states still following the federal minimum wage. This is because the minimum wage sees no color and sees no gender. The federal minimum wage does not change depending on where you live; it doesn’t matter if you live in a red or blue state, or a rural area compared

A common solution to moving low wage workers’ away from poverty is raising the minimum wage to increase family income. They would receive higher pay that would increase their household’s income and would experience their family income to incline above the federal poverty threshold. Also workers who receive a higher wage because of the increase of a minimum wage would face receiving less benefits and paying a more expense tax. Raising the minimum wage could possibly result in a small number of low wage workers to be without a job and experience a decrease or decline in income because of a higher minimum wage. Additionally, effects of a higher minimum wage rely on the number of workers that consist in a low wage workers family; if those workers became unemployed (perhaps for how long?) and if there are other adjustments in family income. For example, the decline in a family’s

The poor are also affected by the higher minimum wage. When the minimum wage is increased many low-skilled workers will lose their jobs causing them to become unemployed. Because the minimum wage is raised the price on products will go up causing another hardship on the poor. The businesses will find a way to pay the higher wages to workers so they will have to raise the price of their products and services. “A 1997 National Bureau of Economic Research study estimated that the federal minimum-wage hike of 1996 and 1997 actually increased the number of poor families by 4.5 percent”

Low minimum wages affects everyday families and lives, more than the average person would think. A small minimum wage could have an very small effect on someone’s life, such as not being able to afford a new pair of boots or that new phone, contradictory to this low wages could also have a very serious effect on someone’s life . Meaning that a parent or single individual could not support their family because a lack of income, it could also mean the difference of living under a safe roof, or living in the streets. In 2016 alone, 40.6 million people in the United States

The poverty levels in America are a major problem. The cost of things like rent and education have risen dramatically in the recent years, making it difficult not only to live, but also to become a skilled worker with a lot to offer companies. Unfortunately, minimum wage has not kept up with rapidly rising prices. People working on minimum wage cannot support themselves, much less a family. Many think that the problem can be easily solved with a raise in federal minimum wage, but those people fail to understand the many trade-offs that would accompany. Not only would a minimum wage raise to 15$ have a major effect on employers costs and the cost of goods, but it would also cause a major rise in unemployment(Gitis and Holtz-Eakin). A raise in minimum wage would not only fail to move the lower class out of poverty, but would have adverse effects on the majority of them.