Minimum Wage Crisis

The minimum wage debate has been a hot topic over the past year, especially with the Presidential Election. This is a divisive topic that people rarely agree upon. There are essentially two sides you can take when it comes to this argument. Either people are for minimum wage or are against raising, or even having, a minimum wage. Proponents of the minimum wage are typically politicians who are lobbying for the vote of the people who feel that a minimum wage is critical to their wellbeing, and those who sympathize with people who earn “minimum wage”. Minimum wage is destroying America’s free market economy and someone needs to take action and find a better solution to this problem. Without anyone acting on this problem now, it can potentially be worse in the long run. Raising the minimum wage in the United States will do more harm than good to society because of the long-term effects.

The case against raising the minimum wage is very simple: a higher wage will make it more difficult and expensive to companies to hire workers. What will be the consequences on the economy? Well, companies won’t be able to pay all of its workers which will lead to more unemployment. At the end, people who keep their job will have a higher profit, however those who lose their job will suffer.

Raising minimum wage has been an ongoing issue for many years. Similar to every debatable issue, pros and cons are inevitable. In the United States, minimum wage started when the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) was passed and minimum wage started at 25 cents per hour. The purpose of setting a minimum wage is to set a maximum workweek and to eliminate child labor. It is defined to be the least amount of money employers are obligated to pay their employees by law. As the years passed, the minimum wage began to increase to accommodate the growing economy. Although the wage has increased from a mere 25 cents per hour to $7.25 over the course of 75 years, living expenses are much higher causing many people to be poverty stricken (Debate.org). President Obama proposes raising the minimum wage, so that it would help minimize the income gap in America. However, most business organizations and the Republicans oppose to the idea, saying that it could potentially lead to more economic problems. While both sides have valid points, which one provides a more compelling argument? In the United States, the minimum wage should be raised in every state; therefore workers can have a more comfortable standard of living, lower the poverty line, and minimize the income gap.

The issue of the minimum wage has recently come to the forefront of the debate on social policy. There is much disagreement over the wisdom of an increase in the minimum wage in the current fragile economic recovery. Some argue that a dramatic increase is what is needed in order to lift the standard of living for those in the bottom of the economic pyramid. Economists reason that the basic principle of supply and demand mandates than an increase in the wage would result in the loss of available jobs. Small businesses maintain that it would spell their doom.

The minimum wage debate brings about a range of reactions from different people. There are those who believe that there shouldn’t even be a minimum wage and that wages should be determined by the markets. On the other hand, we have those who vigorously argue for increasing the wage minimum citing inflation, the poverty line and worker productivity. Regardless, we do have a federal minimum wage rate in the United States at $7.25 per hour, with some states having a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum. President Obama, in his first state of the union address of his second term proposed “Tonight, let’s declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour” (The White House 2013). A year later, he has revised that number to $10.10 per hour after signing an executive order that has already raised the minimum wage for federal workers to that number. (The White House 2014). With more and more states raising their own minimum wage, a minimum wage increase seems almost imminent with Democrats and Republicans getting closer to a deal. (Bolton 2014). But we are more interested in the efficiency of a minimum wage implemented at the federal level. The main question that surrounds this debate is whether this price floor in labor markets is efficient given that the stated goal of the minimum wage is to make sure full-time workers earn a living wage and are above the poverty line.

The topic on whether the minimum wage should be increased our untouched has been a hot topic in the media and political scene lately. Both the republicans and democrats have spent some big bucks lobbying their insights on the matter. There has been a lot of subjective and objective arguments that are reasonable on both the pros and cons of increasing our national minimum wage. To add to the drama associated with this topic, President Obama endorsed a bill proposing a nearly 40% rise from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. The President has been campaigning around the country ever since his State of the Union address, pushing congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Many say this is too high due to the costs of enacting such an increase, and many say this is a little low due to the increased cost of living. After looking into both sides of this debate, I realize that overall it would be better for the well-being of our nation to increase the minimum wage due to the short term and long term costs that an increase of the minimum wage could lead to. In terms of helping out the lower class and poor citizens of the United States, increasing the minimum wage level is not the answer.

Raising minimum wage has been a debate for quite some time now. President Roosevelt started minimum wage in 1938. When minimum wage was first set, Roosevelt had set minimum wage at $0.25 an hour. Since then, minimum wages had gradually increased to $7.25 an hour and has not been risen since July 2009. According to an article on ProCon.org, “congress has increased federal minimum wage 22 times.” When making such a decision, pros and cons should be weighed. People should also remember that minimum wage may be different from state to state. For Example, Michigan is where I’m from and minimum wage has increased to $8.90, as of January 1, 2017. Other examples include; California at $10.50, Arizona at $10.00, and Massachusetts at $11.00. Because everyone has different feelings about whether to raise minimum wage, weighing the Pros and Cons is very important for congress in making the right decision. For the citizens of the United States and for their future. I believe that the Pros outweigh the Cons.

I believe that minimum wage is a drawback for certain people. For the workers, it is simply an upgrade to their life. They get a larger pay, and might be able to draw back on hours. Say they used to get $7.00 an hour minimum wage and now they get $10.00 an hour. So if they worked 10 hours before the minimum wage was raised, they would get only $70.00, but once it was raised, they would get $100. So each week if they worked 10 hours a day, before the minimum wage was raised they would receive $490. But after the minimum wage they would recieve $700. To strech that even further, each year before the minimum wage was raised, they would receive 25,480 dollars. But when it was raised, they earned 36,400 dollars a year. But for the employers, it

Who knew that minimum wage could save the world and the people in it? The last time minimum wage was raised on July 24, 2009, and that when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, How have we been living on $7.25 this long? We haven't been living on it we were trying to survive and a lot of people can’t survive on a minimum wage that low. Raising minimum wage to an amount that could actually let people live comfortably would help the economy and a lot of people who struggle in this economy. This is not all that can help but raising the minimum wage can be the start of a lot of problems that deal with job growth, reducing child neglect, and poverty.

Barbara Mantel “Minimum Wage” According to Barbara Mantel she point out that nearly 47 million Americans, or 15 percent live in poverty according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Many opponents argue that raising the minimum wage will help many low-wage workers from middle class household who are employed part time many supports say many of those household who are struggling financially and would be group as poor if it was not for the government assistances. Further, many workers who are making minimum wage are employed in the food-services industry than any other according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, many advocated imply that raising the federal minimum wage would help the low-come families by decreasing poverty rate and increase

Minimum wage is the lowest possible wage permitted by law to receive for working everyday jobs. In America, the average minimum wage is roughly ranging from $7.25-$9.00 depending on where a person may live. Through three arguments I have received I have accumulated much knowledge pertaining to minimum wage in America. All three arguments suggest what they believe should be done in regards to whether minimum wage should be raised or stay the same. After watching “Thirty Days in Minimum Wage” by Morgan Spurlock, reading “Economists Argue About Minimum Wages” from The Economist, and reading a minimum wage piece from a news article. I have gained enough facts to realize that I believe that minimum wage should be raised in America.

Over the past few years the debate over the raise of the federal minimum wage of the current $7.25 has been argued by both sides, whether it should be raised or not. With both side, the affirmative and negative making strong arguments for their side. We will take a look at how each side frames their issues as how well their counterpart can refute those claims. The affirmative would like to propose the raise of the federal minimum wage to $12.00 by the year 2020; this is the standard that most states are going with. For example, California being one of the most recent to change their federal minimum wage to $12.00 by the year 2020. The negative would like to stay with the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, in other words defend the status quo. We will look at all the major arguments the affirmative and negative side have and in the end go with the best option for the majority. Aristotle’s three fundamental concepts will help determine what decision should be made after each side of the public state their case. Aristotle’s three fundamental concepts are truth and probable truth, Ethos (Credibility), Pathos (Emotional Appeal), Logos (Logic), and his final concept, it’s all about the audience. So what exactly is the minimum wage and what is its purpose? Minimum wage is the minimum an employer has to pay an unskilled worker based on the regulations set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was originally established in 1938 according to the United States

Almost 3.3 out of 76 million workers in the US receive minimum wage (Source: BLS reports). Activists for raising the minimum wage claim that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is the reason they are living in poverty, and that the wage must be raised for a better standard of living. Many people who take on minimum wage jobs are young and work in companies that don’t carry much prestige; however, they still take pride in their work and demand higher pay (BLS reports). On the other side of the issue, there are claims that raising the minimum wage will actually have more drawbacks than benefits such as hurting the economy (Opposing Viewpoints). The

In my opinion minimum wage should not be raised. With the proposal to being to spend a billion dollars to help het less than a million people under the poverty line out, and it only realistically helping people who are in the middle class and above. As of right now our leaders want to accept a plan that is not going to work the way the say it is. So even if it does take 900,000 over the poverty line this will only make a slight dent in our high poverty, less than one percent. This is going to be an extremely ineffective way to decrease the gap between the middle class and the people who are under the poverty line. By raising the minimum wage you increase the wages of low wage workers who are living of it, but the consequences from it could be even more devastating. It will cause companies to lay off workers, prices of products will rise, and companies will be less likely to hire. Don’t forget the fact again that the majority of the families who are going to benefit from this the most are already above and out of poverty. Instead of spending 100,000,000,000 dollars a year on something that will have a huge negative effect on this country we should start putting more resources on the ever growing and lingering national debt. This is going to turn out to be a failed attempt to help bring low wage workers to a better living

For a while now many have been demanding minimum wage be brought up to 15 dollars. Strikes and protests for it are nothing new. Who wouldn 't want to get paid more? This idea seems promising, but it may turn into a deadly trap ready to paralyze our economy. Minimum wage should not be raised to 15 dollars for at least several years because it will ruin our economy. It would be very costly, unfair and counterproductive if that were to happen.