Minimum Wage Report

To begin, there is an extensive debate over whether if the U.S were to raise minimum wage, could it really help the working poor of low income families. Nancy Cook, in her article from the National Journal, “Why a Minimum-Wage Hike Can’t Help the Poor”, she points out that two thirds of around 100 surveys from 2007 had a negative effect and that it does more for the middle class than the lower one. (p.14). So, therefore, from her

Jason Furman and Parrot Sharon explain why raising minimum wage will help families. The wage has to be elevated to just the point where a family can actually afford all the necessities they need in order to survive. The cost of living in houses for poor people makes it difficult for them to afford it and is difficult to stay on task with all the bills. Many minimum wage workers have families to support. The cost of raising children is very expensive. It is an average of $7,100 per year. Minimum wage workers can barely afford to pay child care for one child, let alone two. Increasing minimum wage will also make life easier to those who have food stamps and child care needs. Which can also help them get into college a lot faster so they can go out and pursue a better paying job.

The controversy over minimum wage has been ongoing. However, as explained in a Time article by Chris Lu on the subject, now is the prime time to raise the federal minimum wage. “Three out of four Americans support an increase; the economy is healthy; and many employers are already raising wages.” It’s reasonable to be worried about the consequences that raising the minimum wage might have in a time of crisis or unrest, but this quote mentions a healthy economy that would be able to handle the shifts in wages if things went south temporarily. Another argument made by opposers of raising the minimum is that businesses will be unable to survive. On the contrary, a good business will find it beneficial. “‘It’s a simple, but critical, concept: take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.’ For &pizza, higher wages reduce employee turnover, increase productivity and improve customer service.” Rather than hurting the economy, raising the minimum wage will help workers, business owners and the economy itself. A higher wage for all is

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.

By raising the minimum wage millions of workers would see an improvement of their lives because they will finally have more money to be able to spend on themselves. In article one it talks through and states how “11 million workers above minimum wage will see and increase through “spillover”.” This shows that by increasing the minimum wage, workers that are already at that level would see a bonus within their pay. Another quote from article one is “the new minimum wage would affect families, disproportionally women who work 20 hours.” This shows that families, would be the first to feel the effect and also help families whose parents have to work overtime. In general, raising the minimum wage is very beneficial for families and female workers who work at or around 20 hours a week.

It’s hard to talk about minimum wage without somebody saying that raising it will ruin the economy, but this is a myth, raising the minimum wage would benefit millions of American workers. according to a

These effects can be seen as a boost to the economy because those 28 million workers would make use of their extra money, and put it back into the ever flowing economy. This action by the workers would lead to an overall estimated 35 billion dollar increase (Cap Action). Raising the minimum wage would also help lessen the disparity of income that often occurs. I think many people can agree that some jobs pay way too much, as opposed to other jobs. By raising the minimum wage just a little, the workers can feel more needed and potentially increase productivity (Cap Action). People also believe that by ensuring a fair wage distribution, affluent people would have less trouble relating to poorer folk, and vice versa. Raising the minimum wage would reduce unemployment, which is a problem some 4% of Americans today suffer from (Pew Research). This statement is backed up by the fact that previous states that raised minimum wage have generally seen an increase in offered jobs (Cap Action). Raising the minimum wage would also minimally affect other prices of things, which would not lead to problems in the overall scheme of things (Cap Action). It is stated that the price of a CD would be raised by just one cent to compensate for a minimum wage increase. An increase would also let 3.5 million workers who use food stamps to be able to purchase their own food, which would not only help them, but also help the

Raising the minimum wage by 10 percent would cause a 1 to 2 percent reduction of teens and low skilled workers to be out of a job. Because teens and young adults make up the majority of minimum wage workers, they would be the ones most impacted. If the minimum wage were to be raised, teens and young adults, who could be considered less skilled workers, would have to compete with higher skilled and most likely older workers. Employers would want to have skilled workers working for the higher wage. Younger and less skilled workers usually are part-time, and since if the minimum wage were to be increased there would be 550,000 less part-time jobs which would reduce the number of teens and less skilled workers who are part-time by 310,000. Also, employers would not want to or be able to hire as many people because they would not want to pay all of them more. Some people say that increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 would put about 500,000 people out of a job and it would become hard for young, less skilled workers to find jobs because it would be too expensive. Having to pay for many employees would force businesses to raise their prices, which would reduce the demand for their products causing a decrease in demand for the employees who create the product. Raising the minimum wage could increase some people’s pay if they are able to keep or find a job, which is not very

Yes many Americans will earn more money, but “the cost of many needed supplies and services will also increase.” states an article from The Law Dictionary. (http://thelawdictionary.org/article/the-pros-cons-of-raising-minimum-wage/ )Having an increase in wage can all cause laziness due to the fact that it’s going to be easier for people to get their basic needs. They won’t feel like working hard for what they deserve. In addition, people who work for minimum wage aren’t the poorest and don't live in poor households. On the other hand, people who already live in very poor households, will have to pay the increased prices of many things, due to the raise of minimum wage. Thus making the less fortunate worse

“As efforts to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour have stalled repeatedly, several states and cities – from Los Angeles to New York state to Washington, D.C. – are acting on their own to raise minimum pay rates” (4). Fast-food workers being the primary targets, anti-poverty groups and organized labor are aiming for as much as $15/ hr. as the new minimum wage for workers. Statistics show that the vast majority of republicans, democrats, and independents are in favor of raising the minimum wage, but when the opportunity came up in 2014 it “failed to move past congress” (4). Since the last rise in the minimum wage, the U.S. “Since it was last raised in 2009, to the current $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum has lost about 8.1%

When it comes to minimum wage there are multiple ways to explain it. One way is to see minimum wage as a tradeoff. Yes, people will have more money in their pocket, if they keep their jobs. Yet at the same time prices may rise because of employers being forced to pay more. Which of these two options is the less damaging to the economy? There is no perfect solution for the economy and minimum wage. There will always be something that hurts the economy while trying to save it. In a perfect world workers, employers, and the economy would all benefit equally.

Minimum wage affects everyone. The current minimum wage is at $7.25 and President Obama announced that he wished to see a change in the minimum wage, he wants to raise the hourly wage to $10.10. A rise in the income of those who are employed will also raise the cost of hiring unskilled labor and can potentially reduce the number of people hired by businesses. Also, if minimum wage is raised then the price of the products that the companies are making might increase which will continue the cycle of minimum wage not being enough to survive on. The increase of minimum wage will result in negative effects that will have a significant impact on national economy.

Economists who argue for the benefits for a minimum wage state that increasing the minimum wage would have two principal effects on low wage workers. The first effect is the majority of minimum wage earners would receive higher pay that would increase their family’s income. The second effect is some of those minimum wage earners families would see their income rise above the federal poverty threshold. Some economists argue that by raising the minimum wage it will reduce the amount of people dependent on welfare programs such as food stamps by over three point one million. They also argue that one in five children would have a parent that would benefit from raising the minimum wage. Additionally two million people would be lifted out of poverty.

The minimum wage is one of the problems that has hit the middle class and the low income of the United States with irreparable damage. The first problem these families face is the lack of income to provide basic living facilities that include housing, spending, and other human needs such as health insurance, and so on. The second problem for these low-income families is the non-payment of the cost of continuing education for themselves or their children because they can only spend on food and feed their families and there is no way to save money for family development and continuing education. So the future of these families is unknown. The third problem that these families have in average is that if they lose their jobs, because of their

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