Minimum Wage Poverty

Raise the minimum wage: In the United States, studies show that women tend to make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers. In the field of education, men tends to go more to STEM than women and that also leads to high paying jobs for men. If we raise the minimum wage, this will help hardworking women to support their families. Approximately, women made up two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers in 2012. With the current federal minimum wage i.e. $7.25 per hour, someone working full time, only earn $15,080 a year round. People working full time with minimum wage is still below the poverty threshold for any family with children and single person is also not far above the poverty line. So, increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would help increase the wages for about 15 million women, which will help close the gender wage gap.

Right now,according to Victoria Smith,over 40 million people are living in poverty. This could be changed if they were able to get enough money from their jobs, but the minimum wage isn’t high enough right now. Even if only by a little, if minimum wage were raised, the amount of people living in poverty could be reduced by at least 5 million according to Mike Konczal . Originally, the minimum wage was at only .25 cents an hour. Due to causes such as inflation, this wage has been raised to meet the current standard. Although interest in raising the wage has gone away until recently. Minimum wage should be increased because it would increase job growth and economic activity,it would reduce government spending on welfare, and reduce poverty.

Nowadays, there are a lot of people who have no choice but to work a job that only pays the minimum amount which is, $7.25 an hour. There are multiple problems with this because understanding that the total that individuals living off this have does not equal up to the cost of living. It is in fact far below it. It is manageable, but extremely difficult to live off this amount for only one person. Single parents are barely making ends meet with this, minimum wage is in desperate need to be changed and increased to something a lot more manageable.

Although America is known as the richest country in the world, 43 million of its citizens are in poverty. Unfortunately, some of them work full time, yet are still in poverty due to the low minimum wage (“Should We Raise”). In 1928, the first federal minimum wage of 25 cents per hour was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to prevent workers from being underpaid. Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 (Smith). The age old debate of whether or not to raise it is still going on in the US. The federal minimum wage should be increased to keep up with inflation, help support the poor, and stimulate the economy.

Raising the minimum wage is a very important public policy issue. Raising the minimum wage is a responsible policy that is supported by research and demanded by the American public. Each day, minimum wage workers across the country struggle to make ends meet and provide a decent life for their kids (Scott & Perez, 2016). Raising the minimum wage is a controversial issue, many believe that raising the minimum wage would only provide low wage workers more money to spend. However, the benefits can be endless for low wage workers. If minimum wage is increased across the United States it would afford the people effected more opportunities for financial freedom. Increasing the minimum wage would raise the standard of living for low wage workers, allow families to be removed from poverty, allow for government welfare spending to be reduced and lastly additional income being spent would positively affect the economy.

"According to a 2014 Congressional Budget Office report, increasing the minimum wage to $9 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty, and an increase to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.” Currently the federal minimum wage is $7.25. The government should raise the minimum wage to $9.25 per hour. We need to raise the minimum wage to the point where the lowest paid worker can afford their basic needs. Raising the minimum wage would strengthen the workforce and the economy.

minimum wages are struggling to live on a salary that is below the poverty threshold. In 2012, the U.S census posted that in a family of three; their income is 18,552, (U.S Census). In most case, one member of the family is working on a minimum wage salary which is below 18,552, (U.S. Dept. of Labor). It has been almost a five years since congress has raised the minimum wage (Huff Post). Throughout my argument, I will share my thoughts as wells as facts on why congress should agree to raise the minimum wage. We

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.

Encouraging low-income families to work was a good approach; but would it be as sufficient as raising the minimum wage because the proponents justified the lack of progress so far, it is because of the real value of the minimum wage which has fallen more than a third from its peak in the late 60’s. And they assure that later on, raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation would help to raise wages and reduce poverty.

In general, people always think increase minimum wage would help some of people in poverty. Of course, when the poor can earn more money, they will have more money to spent on the their daily expenditure. Is it necessary to increase just several dollars to help the poor? I don’t agree with this piece of so-called benefit policy or law.

Charles Darwin once wrote, “If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” One can easily agree with this statement, as it can be an analogy to the effect that a modern institution called the minimum wage, may have on those who live in poverty. For many years, this institution has remained a controversial topic, separating people into two political groups: those (mostly republicans) who claim raising minimum wages for workers has a negative impact on the American people, and those (mostly democrats) who argue that raising minimum wages for workers has not only a positive impact on the American people, but is a necessity. I personally believe the latter, and find it necessary that wages be raised. In order to decrease poverty amongst the American working class people, minimum wage must be increased, in accordance to the constant inflation found in the American cost of living.

Poverty is a significant topic that is being investigated, talked about and most importantly lived in by millions in America. Many American citizens, specifically the children are not only living in poverty, but they are living below the poverty line due to low minimum wage (Gidfar). A child living in poverty can face serious problems in the future. Reducing poverty should not be charity work. As citizens of the world it should be a social responsibility to find a way in which poverty can no longer be a living status, especially for a developed country like America. It is one of the top countries before Mexico with the highest rate of child poverty (Gidfar). In context, minimum wage has a large impact on poverty within a country, as the higher the minimum wage the more disposable income families have access to. The discussion of how the “elasticity of demand of unskilled workers” determines whether or not the minimum wage should be raised to reduce child poverty is essential when validating the relationship between the two variables (Rutkowski 7). While the analysis of William Even and David Macpherson’s study emphasizes the importance of taking employment in to account as a variable as an indication to prevent ‘job loss’ (2), through the clarification that although the United States view child poverty as being an “intractable problem"(WaldFogel 3), there is evidence to support that a raise in the disposable income of families can lead to reduction in child poverty (Dahl and

Today in our society, we prefer to consider social status as stratified rank of income amount.

Literature in the past shows that the effect of a higher minimum wage will increase poverty. Raising the minimum wage will significantly influence poverty, especially in countries that are undeveloped. As stated in (Gindling,2014), raising the minimum wage will benefit some people, but it will hurt others. The impact of the minimum wage increase relies on the wage distribution, and employment. Lastly, the literature points out that increasing minimum the wage plays a small role in alleviating poverty, thus, it cannot be the only way to lessen poverty. The literature attempts to understand the influence the minimum wage has on poverty for the formal sector and informal sector for ten states in the United States.

Critically examine the trend and size of poverty in Hong Kong society. Please assess the effectiveness of the present Social Security system and the Minimum wage in eradicating poverty in Hong Kong.