Minimal Taxation And Efficiency Wage

The statistics, which Ira Knight cites are clear and show that increasing the minimum wage would help millions of people. U.S Bureau of Labor

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

Even though having a minimum wage helps in many ways and keeps a minimum to what people can work for, it also can do some harm. The minimum wage law does cost the economy thousands of jobs. The essential principle of economics is supply and demand and the minimum wage aspect goes hand in hand with it. In the sense of labor, this means the amount of workers increases and wages increase, and the demand for employees by employers’ decreases as the wage increases. For instance, if an office cleaning job was publicized for hiring. If the wage was $90 per hour, many people would be interested in taking the job. However, if the income was $2 per hour, there most likely wouldn't be anyone to want the job. On the contrary, if the government obligated the owner to pay at least $9 per

The issue of raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour is a heavily debated topic. Both sources against or in favor of the minimum wage refer to a “growing gap” between low-income workers and high-income earners. Sources against the minimum wage believe raising it will increase this gap, whereas those in favor of the minimum wage believe it will decrease this gap. The arguments in favor of the minimum wage rely mostly on ethical beliefs, such as “pay should reflect hard work,” to advance the need for a higher minimum wage. Whereas, the arguments against the minimum wage use quantitative data like unemployment rates and economic analysis involving supply and demand to undermine the policy behind the minimum wage. Ultimately, the

Figure 7.6 shows how the minimum wage creates a price floor. The difference between the wage rate and the amount of workers needed is unemployment. Figure 7.7 shows the potential loss of labor demanded by businesses. This could become a positive statement to say that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. "Recent research reveals that, despite skeptics’ claims, raising the minimum wage does not cause job loss." (Cooper and Hall). An

In the United States alone, the amount of people in poverty is 14.5%. That equates to 45.3 million people in 2013. In a country like America, one of the world’s superpowers, it’s embarrassing to admit. But the main issue is to fix issues like these with the minimum wage and welfare. The minimum wage applies to workers who got a job whether because they were in school or because they had not gone to college and had no other option. Most of the country lives off as minimum wage workers as only 1% of the world’s population has a college degree. Minimum wage needs to be adjusted to modern inflation. But the minimum wage allegedly does not affect poverty at all says a large demographic and does not need to be adjusted. The minimum wage makes up a lot of the country and should be adjusted or modified to today’s standard of living.

Raising the minimum wage would stimulate the economy. In San Francisco the minimum wage has been raised to $12.25 per hour which has helped the economy, “Paying higher wages has reduced turnover and allowed businesses to provide higher-quality service with employees who are much more willing to work harder and do the job better” (Scheiber 4). Paying higher wages in San Francisco has led to people working minimum wage jobs to be more satisfied in their workplace, and the result is them to wanting to remain employed at the same job and work harder to keep their jobs. The decrease in turnover rate of businesses in San Francisco has helped the economy and other states are noticing the difference in San Francisco work ethic. More states are raising their minimum wage and businesses’ such as Qdoba are

In “Why raising the minimum wage is good economics,” Komlos mentions that 1.3 million Americans currently earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and average around $12,000 a year working full time after deductions and taxes (pg 2). Continuing, Komlos proclaims, “If adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage of 1968 would be $10.90 today” (pg 2). With that mentioned, the federal minimum wage should be at least $3.65 more to cover the increase in inflation. Referring to profits, Komlos states, “Adjusted for inflation, profits increased by a factor of 4.7 since 1968 while the minimum wage decreased by a third” (pg 4). Since profits increased since 1968 and minimum wage decreased, this widens the income gap between the rich and the poor. In “The argument against raising the minimum wage,” Huppke asserts that if the minimum wage increases to $10.10 an hour, “A loss of jobs, as predicted by a recent Congressional Budget Office report, which forecast that total U.S. employment could be reduced by 500,000 jobs” (pg 2). In addition to reduced employment, companies will have to balance their increased labor cost by raising consumer prices (Huppke, pg 2). According to Huppke, “The possibility that a higher wage would attract more experienced workers and keep them in lower-wage jobs longer, blocking young people or people with limited work experience from entry-level jobs,”

Many economists are for minimum wage because it allows unskilled workers to get a job.

In public discussion, the minimum wage is a frequent topic debated by policymakers; in the recent presidential campaign, candidate Bernie Sanders even made a $15.00 an hour minimum wage part of his platform. According to Adam Smith’s theory of economics, the invisible hand of market forces, or bargaining between employers and employees, should lead to a fair wage (Ryan 3). However, a significant amount of evidence points shows that market forces are not enough for some to sustain the cost of living. The minimum wage is shown to improve overall standard of living, mitigate economic inequality, and has few negative externalities, despite the arguments of those against the minimum wage such as job loss, loss of profit, and trust in market forces. The minimum wage is necessary, and the most efficient wage policy keeps a person out of poverty, adjusts for cost of living, and is as location-specific as possible.

Inevitably many studies openly criticise this whole supply and demand theory. Card and Krueger (1995, cited in George Sayers Bain, 1998) were amongst the first economists to argue and diminish suggestions that the minimum wage would lead to job loss. They were in fact in complete contrast to this view as evidence collected, with regards to the fast food industry of various states in the USA, implied that in those states where minimum wages were enforced triggered employment growth whilst those states not enforced by the law to use the minimum wage didn’t indicate any growth.

In the article listed above the author discusses both the pros and cons or increasing the price floor when it comes to minimum wage such as by increasing the wage will cost jobs by pricing low-wage workers out of the labor market. Oppositions of the policy have often raised the potential unemployment effects, but this analysis shows that minimum wage increases do not price low-wage workers out of the labor market although many others may disagree with the analysis. The employment effects, while unfavorable in some models, never reach anywhere near the level where the benefits to low-wage workers would be outweighed by their costs in terms of job losses. Lastly, the minimum wage is to maintain a floor underneath the low-wage labor market. This role of the minimum is important because low-wage workers have historically had the least bargaining power in the U.S. workforce and it is an important component of that policy

In a paper titled “Four Reasons Not to Increase the Minimum Wage,” the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, offers four empirically backed consequences of increasing the minimum wage; these consequences include: the loss of jobs, low skilled workers being disproportionally affected and priced out of the job market, a minimal effect on reducing poverty, and higher prices for goods. The paper compiles a number of studies to support these

The maximized earnings of the lowest paid workers are the instantaneous advantage of a minimum wage increase however, the irrefutable effect could far exceed the extra income. Notably, raising the minimum wage does not cause job loss, despite the claim of many skeptics. Notwithstanding, a minimum wage increase would strengthen jobs like unemployment benefits, as well as tax breaks for lower, and middle-income workers. Plus, raising the minimum wage puts money in the pocket of working families thereby increasing their spending power (Cooper and Hall, 2012).

The minimum wage is a form of government intervention that leads to inefficient outcomes because it distorts the allocation of resources. An increase in minimum wage discourages companies from seeking employees, therefore increasing the rate of unemployment. The outcome would be a surplus of labour available as workers are attracted by the high pay rates, while demand for labour diminishes. The diagram below shows the effect of a price floor on the