Increase Minimum Wage

There is a lot of controversy over whether the minimum wage should be increased to 15$ an hour in all states. Proponents say that current wages in America are not livable because inflation is way higher than the current minimum wage; Minimum wage was 1.60 in 1968, which is equal to 11.60 today. Opponents say that many cannot afford this, will have to close down, make cuts, raise prices and lay off people because they will need to pay them more. Most economists believe that that high of an increase would hurt job growth. I believe that Increasing the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour nationwide will do more harm than good. Raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour nationwide is too big of a jump and would just cause businesses to cut off workers, force small businesses to close and increase inflation.

The debate over raising the minimum wage has been a hot topic ever since President Obama introduced the bill at the 2014 State of The Union Address. He intends to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, an increase of over 40%. While the President claims this idea to be beneficial to the economy, studies show otherwise.

Minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employee can be paid from their employer. The federal minimum wage is set at seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour in the state of Mississippi. Some states have chosen to raise their minimum wage higher than federal requires. San Francisco, CA, has the highest minimum wage fixed at ten dollars and fifty-five cents. Even though, some states have a higher minimum wage than others. The Fair Labor Standards Act entails every employee to be paid the same amount. If minimum wage was to be raised, it would have advantages and disadvantages.

When it comes to cash options everyone has their hands out and people are asking for more. Money situations can make life easier and less stressful, especially when minimum wage is concerned. Many jobs argue whether minimum wage should be raised or lowered. The minimum wage should be raised because people want to make more money, others believe that some people make too much money, and some individuals feel it should be raised according to job qualifications.

A very controversial yet interesting issue today in the United States is minimum wage if it should be increased or not. While some want to raise minimum wage to the living wage, minimum wage should not be raised because it increases low skilled worker unemployment, increases the Cost of goods/services,and Cuts back on work hours.

During the 2008 Global Recession, the employment rate for young adults and low skilled workers disproportionately, and once the recession had eased the employment gap based on education worsened significantly. In 2016 Presidential election raising the minimum wage became a key policy issue for the Democratic Party to help give those workers who were hit the hardest during the recession a much needed income boost. During the 2016 Democratic National Convention the Democrats agreed to add a $15 minimum wage into the party’s platform, taking a pivotal step sought by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and labor Unions. When it comes to raising the minimum wage and what it would do to U.S. employment, prices and productivity. Economists are willing

On November 9th, the voters of Maine chose to boost the states minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage intends to increase the living standard of low-level and low-skilled workers, specifically in service-sector jobs. However, sometimes it hurts the people it intends to help. Many economists have debated what the minimum wage should be that would benefit both the economy and society. Starting with John Maynard Keynes, economists have argued about the minimum wage for decades. Traditional economists argued that the labor market is in balance at equilibrium, however, Keynes argued that settling at equilibrium would not improve the labor market situation or properly stimulate aggregate demand.

Minimum wage has long been a topic that has brought on many heated debates. It has been said over and over again that minimum wage should be raised. These people say that raising minimum wage only does good for people. However, I, along with many other people, believe this is wrong, and we should instead be making moves to keep minimum wage where it is. Raising minimum wage may provide some positive effects, but those positives only go on to be overwhelmed by the negative effects caused by it. Wages should not be raised because if done so, employment would drop and companies would need to spend and earn more money.

In the US, President Barack Obama urges Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25. Although some Republicans oppose to this action, overwhelming majority of Americans see that is a good idea (The Guardian, 2014). Regarding to the issue of minimum wage, there have been lots of debates for a long time. Some economists such as Milton Friedman deeply believe that minimum wage kills jobs, but some like Alan Krueger and David Card think, to some extend, it actually increased employment (The Economist, 2012). To detailedly understand the topic of the minimum wage, both sides debate of the economists on the issue should be concerned.

Some that oppose raising the federal minimum wage would insist that individuals in specific fields lack experience and skill for such a large wage and that many businesses would have to lay off employees that would result in producing with minimum labor because these businesses cannot afford wage increases. I believe raising the minimum wage would expand overall economic activity generating more jobs and more monetary flow by increasing both supply and demand. If minimum wage was increased, the economizing problem would be slightly reduced and more money back into the market increasing demand and needing more human labor resources to produce a larger supply to fulfill the demand.

The employment effect of the minimum wage is one of the most studied topics in all economics. Today, the debate over raising the minimum wage has been a hot topic after President Obama explained in his 2014 State of the Union address that he intends to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, an increase of over 40 percent. While the President and his supporters claim that this increase would greatly benefit the economy and result in growing the businesses. Unlike some suggest that creating more jobs for people who need them rather than raising earnings for people who already have them is a better solution for reducing the national poverty rate. Minimum wages are on the agenda in many parts of the world (Luce 2). For example, countries like Australia and Mexico have minimum wage legislation, so they have Fair Work Commission that sets an hourly minimum wage by industry every year. In United States, the minimum wage now is $7.25 an hour, but cities and counties in California, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, and Washington set their own wage that helped grow the businesses markets. Therefore, the three main reasons why increasing the minimum wage will help the businesses are; have more opportunity for new jobs, reduce expense for social programs, and decrease turnover rate.

higher minimum wage means people are less likely to leave their jobs which means a low turnover rate. A low turnover rate means less expenses. When companies have a high turnover rate it means the company is constantly losing workers and having to hire new ones. Loss of employees means a slowdown in productivity and a limited pool for promotion to management positions. Companies that have a decreased turnover rate spend less money on training new employees and have skilled workers who have worked with the company for years. Companies with a high turnover rate spend money on new employees and training, and are paying their workers minimum wage. Companies with a high turnover rate spend more money on hiring new employees and this is passed onto

Raising the pay of one’s workers is proven to increase productivity in the workplace: Worker productivity increased 104% while the minimum wage rose 101% between 1947 and 1973 (Henderson). Common sense also plays a role here. If you were being paid a penny an hour when you really deserve a quarter an hour, would you work your hardest? Would you begin your work enthusiastically at full-throttle? No, you wouldn’t, and the second you saw a better opportunity at another place of employment, you would jump to it. Why should you feel loyal towards a job or company which does not pay you enough to live? The federal minimum wage should be raised in order to ensure the effort and loyalty of workers.

Another argument for raising the minimum wage is that almost half of the states in the nation already have minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal minimum wage. This includes states with fairly large populations, like California and New York. Because the states that would be affected by raising the minimum wage generally have lower populations than those who would not be affected, the percentage of people who would gain is smaller, and the number of company’s who would suffer would also be smaller. If raising the minimum wage would affect at little less than half of the states, and mostly only states with lower comparative populations, then why not raise it?

If you think about it, there are a few states that took part in increasing the minimum wage for their residents; but why it couldn’t be like that for all 50 states in America? Even though boosting the minimum wage is a huge debate, raising it would boost the economy, close the gender gap, and many college students would benefit from the raise.