Hosted by Intelligence squared debates, two teams argued the motion of abolishing the minimum wage. Each team had two representatives, arguing “for” were James A. Dorn and Russell Roberts; Jared Bernstein and Karen Kornbluh argued “against”. The moderator was John Donvan, he led this debate in three rounds, opening statements, Q&A with the audience/ arguments, and closing statements. Before the debate began, Donvan took a poll from the audience to gauge their initial opinion. The pre-debate poll shows 21% of the audience is for, 58% is against, and 21% are undecided. Both sides agreed on a few points; for one , we need to improve our education system (K-12) in order to improve our human capital. If we invest in education, more people come …show more content…
Based on the economic way of thinking and the law of demand, abolishing minimum wage is the best way to move forward. James Doren and Russell Roberts made several compelling arguments, they lead us through a few thought experiments that strengthened their argument. Based on the law of demand, the quantity demanded increases when the price of goods decrease. In this case, the “price of goods” is the minimum wage rate. The law of demand is concrete evidence that minimum wage destroys opportunity for unskilled workers. We must keep in mind businesses are running in order to make a profit, they spend the most money on labor. Employers spend an average of $15,000 to hire a new employee, this stems from social security tax, medicare, state and federal unemployment tax, and more. Businesses, being marginal decision makers, want to hire employees who will add to the marginal benefit. At $7.25/hr, workers are expected to have a high school diploma and post-secondary education to qualify for entry level positions. Unskilled workers are disqualified from these positions, employers are not willing to spend $7.25/hr, ultimately $15,000+ on them; as the wage rate increases, less workers are considered for employment. Instead of hiring unskilled workers, employers will substitute them for technology. Without minimum wage, the demand for unskilled workers shoots up, opening opportunities for these
Rex Huppke, a writer for the Chicago tribune,writes about how raising the minimum wage may not be as positive to 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 is saying this article was written to inform the public of the real cost of raising minimum wage.
Marx 's conflict theory has a very distinct ideology, it is stated that it mainly focuses on the causes and effect of class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The Bourgeoisie represented the members of a higher society which held onto the majority of the wealth and means also known as the owners of the way of manufacture and the capitalistic. While the proletariat class was constructed by individuals who belong to the working class or the poor. While they would focus on the economical, societal, and governmental implications of the rise of the capitalist economy in Europe. With the rise of the capitalist economy, it was theorized that the bourgeoisie,
The article chosen for the paper is called The Argument Against Raising Minimum Wage, published on the Chicago tribune website. The audience attended for this article is for working class people who would be effect by the raise of the minus wage. This article is also useful to the people who have little experience in the work place or who do not have a
The United States government should not bring up minimum up to $15 per hour. For example, in the article “ A New Dawn For the Minimum Wage” Don Lee states “when Oaklands minimum wage jumped from $9 an hour to $12.25 in March, residents noticed many stores tacked on a dime or a quarter to an assortment of items.” This is explaining that prices have gone up ever since minimum wage went up. Therefore, if minimum wage was to up everything will be more expensive and everything would be difficult to buy.
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.
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.
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
I believe that raising the minimum wage would be an effective strategy to reduce the high poverty rates that have been problematic for many years. In 2015, about 172,620 Maine people received an income that was below the poverty line. I have seen how hard it can be to find a job that pays more than minimum wage in rural Maine areas, so finding a better paying job is not always an option.
In “Why raising the minimum wage is good economics,” Komlos explains his conclusion in one little paragraph. Komlos brings up one final statement arguing, “Lest I forget to mention, three-quarters of the population support raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour” (pg 5). This account has the potential to create a final statement making the reader reevaluate his or her thoughts and persuade him or her to agree with the majority of the population. However, this declaration does not contain any reference to a study or a poll, providing no support making the reader question the credibility of the assertion. In “The argument against raising minimum wage,” Huppke concludes with two paragraphs, presenting a solution in the first one and a final statement in the other. In the first concluding paragraph Huppke suggests, “The better approach, according to the minimum wage hike opponents, is to put money into education and job preparedness plans, which they say have proven success records” (pg 4). Huppke continues stating that programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit should expand, directly benefiting the working poor by contributing to low-income households (pg 4). Huppke’s final concluding paragraph brings up a valid point by questioning that a rise in the minimum wage will mainly go to individuals in poverty because the increase will also go to a big number of people who have
“A 15 percent increase in the minimum wage nationwide would destroy about 290,000 to 590,000 young people's jobs, and about 400,000 to 800,000 jobs overall” (Henderson, David R). Due to the Fair labor Standards act, the federal minimum wage, or the lowest you can pay an employee for work, currently stands at $7.25 an hour. Although a number of Americans think that raising the minimum wage would benefit our country, it would actually bring a number of problems to our economy, such as a rise in job loss and high school dropout.
The debate over minimum wage increases has been a major political issue for decades. Some believe that a higher minimum wage will put more money into the economy and pockets of the lower classes. However; opponents believe that a minimum wage increase would do more harm than good. The Washington Post has published several articles on the issue, one of which being: “$15 is the Wrong Goal for Wage Warriors”, which doesn’t have a specific author; because it is a collaborative piece from the editorial board itself. The Wall Street Journal has also published an opposing article: “The Evidence Is Piling up That Higher Minimum Wages Kill Jobs”, written by David Neumark. The Editorial Boards main point of view is that the federal minimum wage should sustainably be increased, while David Neumark believes that a higher minimum wage would harm those whom the increase is meant to help; the unskilled. The Editorial Board’s
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 most prevalent and steadfast myth surrounding the raising of the federal minimum wage is that it will doom the economy. This might seem logical at first, but just think about it for a second. Why do minimum wage employees need more cash? The answer is simple: To spend it, to buy the things that they and their families need to survive. “Most minimum wage workers need this income to make ends meet and spend it quickly, boosting the economy. Research indicates that for every $1 added to the minimum wage, low-wage worker households spent an additional $2,800 the following year” (Fair). Furthermore, EPI estimates that if the federal minimum wage were raised to $10.10 an hour, it would result in over
The argument for minimum wage has remained remake consistent over the years. Some people are against minimum wage and the other think minimum wage can help you in a certain way. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Unites States federal government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The law has been amended almost every year to expand coverage of the wage floor and to increase the wage itself. Many of the fifty states have enacted their own minimum wage laws, some of them set even higher than the federal level. Minimum wage jobs don’t only help adults at hard times it help teenagers and college students. I learned that the proponents for minimum wage believe the raw value of one’s labor to a business
The minimum wage has arguably become the most controversial topic regarding our economy today, as it influences one of the largest classes of people within the United States, the working class. Federally, the minimum wage has not been raised in eight years, so it has stayed at $7.25 per hour for all non-exempt workers (U.S. DoL). The opinions on this topic are typically split across a progressive-conservative line, with progressives being in favor of a raise from $7.25, and conservatives wanting to stay at the current rate. This can be seen when looking at the typical progressive stances from states and municipalities that raise the minimum wage for businesses operating within their jurisdiction, since the higher rate among all levels of