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How To Increase Minimum Wage

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The Need for a Raise in Minimum Wage When you are placing an order at a restaurant, I bet it doesn’t occur to you who is the person that is preparing your meal. Typically, the people working in that environment are teenagers and adults who are supporting their families. And if we go further into thought, you may find yourself wondering on how people can make a living at the current minimum pay. Like some teenagers, I found myself in that person’s shoes behind the register working for minimum wage. And from my experiences I began to realize how difficult it is to live off a small amount of pay and support a family or even have a solid future. A thought begins to form and it poses a question on how can a person be considered poor if they are …show more content…

This would furthermore strengthen the claim of workers being more efficient at their place of employment. Another way to see this, would be that the employee is earning their wage by being more productive which is stemmed from the raise. Surveys show that an employee who feels good about themselves and respected produces a better quality of work. I can relate to this when I was working in the Eagle Ford Shale. I started off at 9.00 dollars an hour, which was ok at the time since I was working for minimum wage at my previous job. After a couple of months, I was given my first raise and it brought me up to 10.50 an hour. I can remember feeling great about myself, like I was a recognized and respected employee. Therefore it led me to continue to strive and improve in any areas I could, whether it was learning the management skills, or just cleaning yard. And from that personal experience, I can provide proof that people who get paid more will become more productive and more valuable to their employers. Now some opponents may argue that this only applies to certain cases where the person is actually willing to improve. And I would have to agree with them to an extent because even though a majority of individuals are looking to improve themselves, the remaining are living off government assistance that taxpayers provide. Another benefit from better employees, means the company spends less on training which saves them money. As it is included in the Time’s article “Don’t like Minimum Wage Increase? Be Mad at the Top Earners”, Christina Romer, a University of California, Berkley, economics professor, economist and also a former chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economics found that:“…both companies and employees benefit from job stability and experience when wages match skill sets and start at a livable level.

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