Minimum Wage Research Papers

Voting yes for initiative 1433 will increase the minimum wage statewide to $13.50 within 4 years. The minimum wage will increase about .50¢ a year starting from $11 in the year 2017 going up to $13.50 in 2020. A minimum wage is the lowest amount of money your employer is allowed to pay their employees; currently, Washington’s minimum wage is $9.47. When it comes to the topic of the minimum wage increase, Seattle is commonly mentioned because they recently increased their wage to $15. Most of us can agree that it has caused a lot of benefits for the city of Seattle. Whereas some are convinced that the increase was a terrible idea and, many residents will lose their jobs/houses due to the increase in pay, business will shut down and the economy will fall apart. I believe their information is incorrect and initiative 1433 will be positive for Washington’s economy. In this paper, I will prove that Seattle delivered phenomenal results and i-1433 is a good idea if a city can do this, a state can too.

The current minimum wage is $7.25, which equals two gallons of milk, one fast food meal or two gallons of gas. Can you imagine yourself working 12-hours a day and only having enough money to pay for rent and put food on the table for your family? With working all those long hours, you can barely afford to pay your utility bills and after that you don’t have enough money or time for luxuries like clothing or vacation. You have no savings as matter of fact, you are in a huge debt and you are living paycheck to paycheck. This is the story of millions of American worker, who are employed on minimum wage. The shocking part about this story is that million of Americans would be saved from this poverty life, if the American government raises the minimum wage. This would not only help the workers, but also the economy because raising the minimum wage would put extra money in the pocket of minimum wage worker and extra spending would help restore consumer spending.

The interest groups in this policy are minimum wage workers, businesses, politicians and the public in Seattle. The minimum wage workers would get a huge raise, from about $9 to $15, which would yield them more income and better standard of living. Politicians who pushed for this policy would gain popularity because of the political environment of Seattle. Businesses stand to take a lost in profit due to rise cost of business due to the higher minimum wage. Raising prices can is certainly one way to combat the rising cost for businesses. However, this will affect the public, who will have to pay if price is raised. Businesses might lay people off and less willing to hire new ones. This will hurt current workers and potential workers, because businesses must adjust to the new policy.

The minimum tipped wage should be raised. There are many reasons that an incease is due. The tipped minimum wage has been the same since 1991. And yet, the cost of living continues to rise. It has risen by 75% in the past 27 years due to inflation.

In present times in The United States the average person working a decent full time job is only earning $15,080 with the minimum wage of $7.25. That money is in your pocket if you work those 40 hours each week for a year which sounds like a decent amount of money, but now imagine all the expenses you do throughout the year as well. The money earned is not sufficient enough to care for families. If the minimum wage it is raised families will be able to live in decent homes, survive everyday obstacles.. The minimum wage needs to be raised to an amount where families are able to only work one job and not two or three.

1). Prior to the adoption of the law, many of minimum wage workers have marched in protest to demonstrate that the wages does not constitute the value of their work. Due to health care costs and inflation in the city, workers believed that nine dollars an hour was insufficient, although the national average is $7.25. This is not an isolated occurrence, while Washington State is seizing this initiative; New York and California are heavily considering the increase in minimum wage meanwhile conducting statistical analysis if it is going to work in the Pacific Northwest. It began in April 1, 2015 when Seattle's council approved the first phase, which was increasing minimum wage to eleven dollars an hour. Eventually it would be a phase approach, where the city would slowly adjust and raise its wages until the goal of fifteen-dollars an hour was achieved. It was not until this year that Seattle approved a mandated wage of eleven to fifteen dollars an hour, which is above fifty percent above the national average! Of course the initial outcome was celebration amongst the protestors, however, now they are facing consequences in which they have ignored and now small independent business owners, workers, our youths and our tax dollars are paying the ultimate price, being let go or

Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and new president as the republican candidate, stated at the Milwaukee debate that “wages are too high” in this country. Lucky enough to be born into a millionaire family, how could he know what it feels like to keep one’s head above water as the 1.3 million people working at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour do? Even if one can work full-time, after state and federal taxes and Social Security and Medicare deductions, one is lucky to retain $225 a week or $12,000 a year, which is precisely the threshold of poverty for a single person. Welcome to the world of the working poor. No chance of paying rent and taking care of dependent children on that kind of salary. As a matter of fact, you’d be barely

In order to reduce income inequality, increase people's economic security, and help get people off food stamps, the government should increase the federal minimum wage. The average CEO makes 774 times the amount of a full-time minimum wage worker according to Cathrine Dill from forbes magazine. If minimum wage increased to $10.10, that number would decrease to 559. Although it’s not much, it still reduces the income inequality between the rich and poor people in America. Also, increasing the minimum wage will increase people's economic stability. Alternet.org states, “It is no longer the case that the people making the minimum wage are largely teenagers. In fact, now more than half of workers earning under $10.10 an hour are forced to support

The minimum wage must be raised because the cost of living has gone up considerably. Education is necessary if someone wants to work, and the cost of education has gone up dramatically in the last twenty years. Companies should be paying workers what they need, and that is considerably more than what the minimum wage is now. If the minimum wage were to increase, it would raise the wages of lot workers and increase benefits to workers with disadvantages.

The minimum wage has constituted a hotbed issue in America ever since its beginning in 1938 via the Fair Labor Standards Act (Acs et al, 2914). Notably, in the past few years, fast food workers, service industry employees and American workers feeling the pinch of inflation have clamored for an increase in the minimum wage. The concept of a $15 minimum wage is a symbol for creating less disparity for minimum wage workers. However, while the concept is pure of heart and idealistic, it would be dangerous for the U.S. economy. This can already be seen in places like Seattle, Washington, Emeryville, California. Consumers would suffer as businesses would be forced to raise prices in order to make up the difference from the added human resources expenditures

According to California’s Department of Industrial Relations, all employees in the state of California must be paid the minimum wage with the exception of a few occupation that we’ll cover later in the paper. Starting July 1, 2014 the states minimum waged increased from $8 per hour into $9.00 per hour and there are even proposals to increase it to $10 per hour as early as 2016. States like California whose minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage must abide by the stricter law. The exemption to the minimum wage law in California applies to occupations such as outside salespersons, apprentices and if you have a family business and your spouse or children work in the business employers are not required the pay minimum wage.

As many arguments pose a raise in the federal minimum wage equilibrium, there are a lot of workers, officials, and citizens who disagree. If the minimum wage requirements were to rise, many are not aware of the consequences that would occur. A higher federal minimum wage would result in job losses, there would be little effect on the reduction of poverty, and a result of higher prices for consumers would arise.

I agree with you, I think that if we are going to raise the minimum wage for workers education we also need to make a raise for those that have an education. I see where you are coming from, it wouln't be fair if a person without education was making $15 an hour and a person with a degree would be making the same. However, I understand why we would need to raise the minimum wage for those without an education because they have the jobs that no one wants. I don't necessary think it's their fault that they can't find better jobs because some of them couldn't afford an education. I see both side to this situation.

If there is an increase in minimum wage, it will slowly pull people out of poverty. Poverty level for a single person is just under $12,000 per year, but for a household with two kids, it’s over $23,000 per year. At the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a person’s annual salary would be about $15,000 per year. Also, since cost of living varies in different places in the country, the same minimum wage often does not even cover living expenses. Increasing the minimum wage to $9 per hour will lift 300,000 people from poverty. If increased to $10.10 an hour it will lift 900,000 people out of poverty and reduce the number of non-elderly living in poverty. Since young people are most likely to be working minimum wage jobs, they often face other issues associated with making minimum

An increase of the federal minimum wage would improve the lives of millions of Americans. It is a step towards lifting these people out of poverty. The federal minimum wage is supposed to enable Americans to earn a living wage, but it has not been raised in 8 years, and many people who make wages at or close to this wage are not able to survive on this pay alone. They rely on subsidies from the government and the community to provide some of the necessities they cannot provide for their families. An increase of the federal minimum wage is going to make these families more self-sustaining (CBO, February 2014).