Minimum Wage Laws Do Not Meet The Basic Needs Of People

Living or subsistence wage is amount of income needed to maintain basic standard of living. Theoretically, this wage should bring people out of poverty if implemented. The real take home wage for most workers are far below this ‘utopic’ living wage. Absence of living wage for most workers has been recognized as a contributing factor to the difficult task of upward social mobility with resultant diminishing equality of opportunity and relative poverty for most workers in this country today. The concept of working poor is born out of this dystopic social stratification. The threat this and other social determinant factors posed to the realization of the lofty goal of ‘American Dream’ are the subject of this paper.

In 1938 congress instituted minimum wage with 25 cents an hour being the first wage. After 78 years seven dollars has been the increase of minimum wage, stated by the article listed on, Heritage.org . Every year the cost of living and surviving in this country increases. You would think after 78 years, minimum wage would not be at $7.25. Many college students work part-time jobs that pays minimum wage to have some extra cash in their pockets or pay a few minor bills. Having a part time job is perfectly fine in college, but imagine not being in college, working a minimum wage job. Lets be honest, the pay checks are no where near what you would like them to be or it isn 't enough to cover everything that you want or need. So, imagine not being in college, working a full time job, with rent, children, car note, insurance, and etc. Many adults work minimum wage jobs, barely making it to provide for themselves and their kids. Your probably thinking, "maybe those people should go back to school or look for a better job.” Yes, that is true but for most people, its too late. A better job requires a degree, most people have kids and cant afford to take a couple of hours off or get someone to watch their kids while they attend school, so a minimum wage job is the only option. So, to make a better life for the struggling parents and the needy college students, increasing the minimum wage is a must for various reasons which include decreasing poverty, increasing health, and relieving

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 controversy over what to establish as the official minimum wage in the United States has been debated and argued over for many years. Due to inflation, the gradual increase of pricings due to a saturation of printed currency, the minimum wage for workers has to be increased in order to compensate for the ever-fluctuating value of the U.S. Dollar. Many today are rising to the conclusion that a minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour is necessary. This motion is designed to keep those who have minimum wage income out of poverty and to increase the amount of money in the consumer’s pocket overall. However, this particular increase in minimum wage will lead to the inevitable downfall of the United States’ economy and be a catastrophe for the working class.

Raising minimum wages is a contestable issue because it is debated in wide and varied audiences. Minimum wage is near the top of economists’ interest; they are looking for the connection between low wages and poor job markets. Each country sets its own laws and regulations regarding wages. For this reason, it has significant importance to policy makers and workers in each of those respective countries. Social activists have also found interest in the topic due to the fact that those who earn a minimum wage tend to come from poor minority families. Furthermore, the average American should have the strongest interest in the conversation because most citizens have been paid a minimum wage at some point in their life. Due to this fact, the idea of a significant federal minimum wage increase in America is open for debate specifically to rejuvenate the job industry, improve living conditions for citizens, and strengthen the economy as a whole.

In the article “Minimum Wage Laws are Destroying Jobs - Just as Predicted” by Larry Elder, Elder discusses the negative impact raising minimum wage has on small businesses. Through the use of testimonies from companies affected by the raise in minimum wage and statistics from the wage increase in California, Elder appeals to both the emotions and logic of the reader. He references a small restaurant owner who knew he could not support this increase in wages, but was told by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti that it was not going to be an issue for him. By showing the negative outcomes of this decision such as unemployment, higher prices, and businesses closures, Elder appeals the reader's emotions. He wants us to understand the hardships and

There is not one state in the US where a minimum wage worker can afford a two-bedroom unit at fair market rent, working a standard 40-hour work week(There are a few states where this is not true. Also, the fair market rent is the average cost. It doesn 't reflect the super expensive and bottom rent places). The federal minimum wage would be $10.86 [per hour] if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years. Instead, it is $7.25 [per hour]. Every state in the US should have the minimum wage raised to $10.86 per hour(passive, rewrite). The cost of living has increased(s) dramatically every year(,) so why shouldn’t we raise the minimum wage.(?) The value of the minimum wage has fallen by almost 50 cents since it was last increased in 1991(Fact check; the Federal minimum wage was raised in 2007 to 6.35 an hour, up from it 's 1991 rate of $5.15 per hour, and again in 2009 to $7.25 per hour). Living expenses are increasing so fast that more people are falling into the category of “lower class”. Author Tom Dickinson writes, “A family of four trying to live on the earning of a minimum-wage worker-- $15,080 a year—falls more than $8,000 below the poverty line” (Dickinson 33). (Transitional sentence?)

The concept of minimum wage has been a huge issue among Americans and has really become a large discussion point among a lot of the political debates as well as the Internet recently. According to the United States Department of Labor, “The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Many states also have minimum wage laws. Some state laws provide greater employee protections; employers must comply with both”. Regardless of the constant debates that occur on whether or not minimum wage should be a livable wage or merely a segway job for teenagers, a majority of these workers are older than 25 years old. As reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2014, of the 77,207, 61,883 of them are 25 years of age are

Minimum wage is now at a steady $7.25 per hour and shows no sign of increasing anytime soon. There are states right now at the time that are trying to raise the minimum wage, and see how this will effect the economy of the area.

Rise in minimum wage has several impacts apart from unemployment. The minimum-wage workers would have to pay more taxes and receive fewer benefits if they are subjected to rise of minimum wage. The federal marginal rate for tax is 32 percent on an average for low earning members. This would amount to almost one third of the income of a worker. The tax rate is quite high for low paid workers. The rise of minimum wage would also reduce some of the advantages and leverages that the low-wage workers enjoyed previously. In United States, the increase of minimum wage for workers would have some disadvantages including paying payroll taxes and payments for Social Security and Medicare (Clark 445). The economists have therefore stated that the minimum wage should be an amount that could meet the basic needs of a worker and it should not be increased unnecessarily without proper inspection because it could have negative impact in the life of the workers. The marginal tax of 32 percent does not include the benefits of Medicaid coverage services. However, the benefits of minimum-waged labors would definitely reduce as a result of slight increase in the minimum-wage.

    Minimum Wage, also known as the savior of middle class, is defined as the lowest amount the employer legally can pay their workers per hour. The minimum wage law was set to introduce new goals in mind and such laws were created to reinsure that . For instance, the federal law that was originally proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders back in 2015, Pay Workers A Living Wage Act involves a five-part process that will increase the minimum wage each year. It will be indexed into the median hourly wage which will also eliminate the tipped minimum wage. It is difficult to decided whether this law has enough power to be passed, but it has gained enough traction to at least be considered by the congress and Senate. However, the minimum wage controversy has become a topic of discussion for several years now thus turning into a nationwide discussion.  I believe the enforcement of minimum wage would protect the livelihood of workers who are working lower end jobs and living in poverty stricken neighborhoods. Also, the demographic of the workers should not play a factor in those are currently working

In this globalization era, as various countries see growth in their economy, there has also been significant differences in the wages set to employees in different countries. The lowest wages set by the law that are fixed to a particular amount which is also defined to be the price floor below which workers shall not sell their labor, has its own effects. The minimum wage law came into force as a matter of social justice amongst the low-wage workers, also to reduce exploitation and see that workers can afford the standard basic living expenses and necessities, not to increase the unemployment rate, indeed to increase the employment rate.

This reading was slightly hard for me to relate to at first. Then the more I thought about it the more I realized how many encounters and interactions I’ve actually had with scenarios like these. In Young’s reading about the woman and her two kids who had to settle for a place to live that wasn’t ideal I was incredibly frustrated. It’s seriously sad to think that there are other people going through similar struggle like this. It’s not logical to make three months’ rent deposit and pay for the other startups that come with an apartment, especially when you have to kids and you’re a single mom. She’s obviously trying to do what’s right but because of her situation she is not able to. This is part of the reason I think poverty recycles itself, because we do not give a lot of the opportunities needed to get out of slumps like this. Minimum wage is not ideal and struggles to meet the cost of living, especially if you’re a single mom with two kids. After this first part, the reading got more into what we can do as a society, and I think my favorite idea that was talked about was how we do not have the choice of where we are born into. I did not choose to be a white female but it’s what I was born into. When Johnson got started with “Changing how we think will not be enough to solve the problem.” I disagreed quite a bit. Sure it is true for some groups but I find it hard to believe that it’s true for all. Johnson also stated that if everyone took responsibility and kept

The living wage movement is an economic reform movement that has become one of the most important public policy issues that has come up within the last 10 years. Although there is no single definition, it is often defined as an hourly salary that allows working families of four to have an income that is above the federal poverty line. This means that the livable wage laws often stipulate that hourly wages should be two to three times above the federal Mininum wage. However, unlike the Mininum wage, the living wage has so far only been enacted on the county and city level. Cities and counties enforce the living wage for companies that have contracts with their respective cities and counties, receive subsidies

In the United States, minimum wage has remained at a low number for several years. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest possible income that an employer can legally pay an employee. This ensures that all people are fairly paid and not defrauded by companies or businesses. Minimum wage is considered a price floor and the minimum wage laws determine the lowest price possible that any employer must pay for labor. In an economic model, the quantity of supplied is greater than the quantity demanded and the minimum wage is above equilibrium price and quantity. Minimum wage prevents labor supplied and labor demanded from moving