Higher Minimum Wage Analysis

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.

Many Americans agree that Congress should raise the federal minimum wage, but do individuals truly know the effects of increasing the minimum wage to $15? Some people only look at the comprehensive view of seeking a higher salary, but the increase can cause many negative, as well as positive, effects. Several economists from across the country have done extensive research over the topic of the minimum wage increase, and many differing opinions have formed. The effects can vary from person to person depending on location and implementations that a business takes. Congress last raised the minimum wage to $7.25 in 2009; consequently, a rise to $15 would implement over a 100% increase in the minimum wage. A percentage this high has never

One source from the Opposing Viewpoints Database called, “Raising Minimum Wage Increases Unemployment” argues against the minimum wage by suggesting it will decrease financial security and cause higher unemployment rates. The author provides unemployment statistics from the 1990s onward as evidence to argue against the minimum wage. The article says, “In 1990, Congress enacted another minimum wage increase.” “The month before the increase took effect, unemployment was 5.2%.” “With the increase, unemployment began to steadily increase and unemployment eventually peaked at 7.8%” (Jaarda). The article emphasizes to readers that increases in minimum wages and following increases in unemployment are not just coincidences by continuingly pointing at similar statistics throughout history.

Rex Huppke, a writer for the Chicago tribune,writes about how raising the minimum wage may not be as positive as the society and economy as Americans are lead to believe. After interviewing many specialist and professors concerning this subject, he concludes that despite what other newspapers are saying raising the minimum wage could damage the economy. As an effect of what the media are saying this article was written to inform the public of the real cost of raising the minimum wage.

Though many people, including myself, believe that the minimum wage should be increased, 1 in 5 Americans support the decision to leave federal minimum wage at $7.25. Those who support the current minimum wage argue that, instead of creating more opportunity for jobs, raising minimum wage will cause layoffs to skyrocket, thus increasing unemployment. For example, when weighing the pros and cons of raising minimum wage, Chad Halvorson, CEO and founder of When I Work, states, “If an employer has a tight compensation budget and the minimum wage is raised, it means they can no longer compensate the same number of employees at a higher rate and must make layoffs to remain within budget” (Chad Halvorson).

Quinn and Castle explains why the government should raise the minimum wage and why it’s just common sense. They emphasis that it’s time for Congress to move ahead with this issue, one broadly supported by Americans before the article begins. The authors even show how as of today, as many as three quarters of Americans support an increase in minimum wage, with data polls disclosing majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans in favor of the much need increases in the minimum wage. The authors also explain that by raising the minimum wage how it would save taxpayers billions of

“I finally got a raise!” Todd exclaimed “They raised the minimum wage!” “Actually Todd, raising the minimum wage ruins the economy,” said Christine popping his bubble of excitement. Christine is right, raising the minimum wage will damage the economy and leave businesses closed and people jobless. Prices will sky rocket and leave families struggling to buy now overpriced groceries. Leaving the people it is meant to help in worse conditions. Although raising the minimum wage sounds great, with a plethora of research it rips the economy into pieces.

A common misconception about base pay jobs is that they are primarily for teenagers and inexperienced workers, while numerous teenagers do work these positions, it appears as though that trend is slowly coming to an end. As time continues to go on more and more adults find themselves working at a minimum wage job. One thought associated with the possible increase of wages is that those in entry level jobs will lack the motivation to move up on the ladder. Generally, those workers only work there in order to make a living, so if they were given a better opportunity they would most likely take it. It is not often that a person is inclined to flip burgers for their entire life. This major conflict has resulted in heated debates and varying opinions, resulting in the question; should minimum wage be increased? The answer to that question is yes, with things such as inflation, the cost of living has greatly increased, it directly affects a lot of people such as college students, and it could help the economy more, rather than hurt it.

In the article “Why the Minimum Wage ‘Fight for $15’ May Be the Wrong Battle,” by Mark Gollom he discusses the minimum wage increase from a New York standpoint. He says that it was hailed by labor activists because they saw it as a victory for thousands of low-income employees. He states that the fight for $15 isn’t something new that just recently became an issue, it’s actually been an issues that people have been fighting for since 2012. Gollom explains in his article that economists differ on whether or not raising the minimum wage is the right way to help out lower-income families.

“As efforts to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour have stalled repeatedly, several states and cities – from Los Angeles to New York state to Washington, D.C. – are acting on their own to raise minimum pay rates” (4). Fast-food workers being the primary targets, anti-poverty groups and organized labor are aiming for as much as $15/ hr. as the new minimum wage for workers. Statistics show that the vast majority of republicans, democrats, and independents are in favor of raising the minimum wage, but when the opportunity came up in 2014 it “failed to move past congress” (4). Since the last rise in the minimum wage, the U.S. “Since it was last raised in 2009, to the current $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum has lost about 8.1%

Regardless of what your net worth is and how much money you make each year there it is an irrefutable fact that there is a huge gap between the wealthy and the poor in the United States.

Per the Wage and hour Division, in April 1990 minimum wage was $3.80. Prior to that the first minimum was a mere $0.25 in October 1938. As the cost of living and families increased so didn’t the wages to support these expenses. Jumping forward to the next minimum wage increase was in July 2007 to $5.85. Ultimately in a mere decade we only went up $.70/hour. Yet, here we are in 2017 (again another 10 years later) and we want to increase it by $1.75 this year, then another $1.00 the next year (bringing the total to $10.00), and then by 2020 (three years away) to a grand total of $12.00 per hour (“Minimum Wage Increase, Question 4.(2016))”! We are a ‘get rich with minimal work’ society. I will admit that I am a woman that wants minimal work and

I have read the letter on $10 minimum wage, and would have to disagree with your statement. We have jobs that pay $7.25 an hour to teach kids how to work, not support a family. These jobs offer people little money when there out of a job, but while they work with little money, they need to be looking for a better job. You don’t want to be working at McDonalds your whole life, right? That’s why there are jobs like accounting, teachers, repair shops, etc. These jobs are going to support a family and they usually pay better than a fast food restaurant paying $7.25 an hour.

Since the enactment of the Fair Labor Standard Act in 1938, the minimum wage rate has been cause for much discussion. In more recent years, the public has made a push to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. During his State of the Union address, President Obama, shared his views when he stated “… And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.” Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has made it well known that he wants to raise Pennsylvania minimum wage to $10.15(Ye Hee Lee, 2015). Early this year, Gov. Wolf signed an

The federal minimum wage was created during the Great Depression to increase finances and secure workers’ rights, but the current rate of $7.25 per hour is too low, because it is not based on productivity, which should be the case. Currently, employees get paid less money than what they could make years ago. The federal minimum wage, in 1968, adjusted in 2014 for inflation, was $10.75 (Lester). In other words, the federal minimum wage, in 1968, was $3.50 higher than the current minimum wage. Five year ago, workers had more income than today, allowing employees to afford more needs. Additionally, in 2012, The Huffington Post published an article, by Caroline Fairchild, associate business editor, that