Minimum Wage Should Be Legal

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.

Franklin Roosevelt introduced minimum wage as a part of Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The purpose of minimum wage were to prevent poverty and to stimulate the economy by increasing consumer’s purchasing power. However, in 2015, 78.2 million workers were paid hourly, representing 58.5% of all workers in the United States. Among those people, 870,000 workers earned the minimum wage, $7.25 per hour and 1.7 million workers earned below the minimum. In total, 3.3% of workers earned exactly or below the minimum wage. For years, there have been heated debates about whether the government should raise the minimum wage. In 2016, California, New York, and Washington D.C. agreed to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Some people think raising the minimum wage will decrease poverty and improve the workers living. Instead, raising the minimum wage will make the job market more competitive and it will increase the poverty level. When minimum wage was raised to $10 per hour, it benefited 16 to 24 million people while half a million workers lost their job. Rather than improving, Faces of $15 will damage the U.S economy and deeply hurt living condition of Americans.

The issue at large is whether or not to increase the minimum wage in the United States to fifteen dollars. Many organizations are affiliated with minimum wage, including many corporations that implement extremely, very basic, entry level positions where minimum wage is a suitable payment; such as Wal-Mart and McDonalds. The minimum wage varies across the spectrum from state to state. In January 1, 2015 the highest paid minimum wage by state is in Washington with $9.47 an hour and the lowest is Wyoming, along with twenty-four other states, at $7.25 an hour (RaiseTheMinimumWage). The increase in minimum wage from years preceding is mainly due to inflation. If an increase to the minimum wage is called for, it must be

Minimum wage has always been a controversial issue. Many politicians use the argument of minimum wage for their own political propaganda. Some may argue minimum wage should be raised, while others believe it will have detrimental effects on our economy if it is raised. Surprising to most people, minimum wage earners make up only a small percent of American workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, minimum wage workers make up about 2.8% of all workers in America. “The majority of minimum wage workers are between the ages of 16 and 24. These are high school and college students” (Sherk 2). But high school and college students are not the entire percentage of minimum wage earners. When minimum

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.

After the protest in New York City, the issue of raising the minimum wage has come up once again. Seattle is spearheading this cause with a proposal of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. This will help minimum wage workers a great deal by increasing their income. However, there are concern that this move could hurt certain businesses, which can lead to higher unemployment and contraction of the economy. The ethical issue surfaced as this will benefit some at the expense of other.

Written by Michelle Chen “No, Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Is Not Hurting Workers” discusses Seattle’s raise in minimum wage, and how the raise is not only benefiting employees but businesses are booming as usual. Currently Seattle is testing the $15 wage experiment and is showing that when wages go up "workers make more money". Seattle made the first wave in the "Fight for 15" campaign beginning their minimum wage raises in 2015. Seattle's gradual wage raises currently depend “on various factors," and have just recently began to hit their goal of $15 an hour. If the raises continue as planned Seattle's average minimum wage will reach $15 by 2021. While the process of having the average minimum wage raise is slow it will eventually reach its

Raising minimum wage has been a battle for many decades and it has always been a battle to raise it. Many families that work for a minimum wage job often have trouble making ends meet because making $8.75 just isn’t enough in this today’s economy. Some jobs are paying $2.13 an hour but this is mostly at restaurants that are family owned but if they don’t make enough on tips they must get paid $7.25 per hour they worked. Although minimum wage has changed dramatically since 1938 when it was $0.25 cents (Kurtz&Yellin) American families simply cannot live on minimum wage. Raising minimum wage should be raised to help families that need it the most.

Minimum wage is a highly controversial topic in the U.S. everyone would like to be paid a little bit more but do people even stop for a second and think about the consequences of raising pay. Economic failure, poverty increase, housing price increase, layoff increase, and hour decrease. There are also many more terrible things that are country can't handle if we were to raise the minimum wage.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a law that states what the lowest amount a business can pay a contracted employee. Currently the law states that the federal minimum wage is $7.25 but there are many states that have their own minimum wage laws. There has been an ongoing protest over minimum wage for a long time and it has been changing consistently ever since 1938 with the latest change in 2009 when it went from $6.55 to $7.25. Many people think it should keep going up but many other people think it is going to hurt our economy if it goes up. There are many things that raising the minimum wage can affect in the economy and there are many steps that go into raising it. I think that the minimum wage should be raised to

Under new legislations, both New York and California are willing to increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. Although this will be a slow process, as an increase immediately will put an economic risk on business, especially for small business, this increase in minimum wage will be beneficiary and advantageous for individuals with low pay and with those who have families.

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?)

Minimum wage is an ongoing debate in the United States. There are some people who think that it should be raised to a higher rate and others who think that it should not. There are many different pros and cons with raising minimum wage. Minimum wage is at a balanced rate that should not be raised due to lack of skill, low education, and economic problems.

While I think that the minimum wage should be raised to $15.00 an hour, Mark Perry, a scholar at AEI and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan 's Flint campus, argues “Seattle’s new minimum wage law takes effect April 1 but is already leading to restaurant closings and job losses” (Perry). Perry wants us to know that the Seattle’s new minimum wage law is “a government-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for many workers,” and increasing the minimum wage will surely leads to small business closing and job losses (Perry). However, what he said is erroneous, and a recent report written by Michael Hiltzik, an American columnist and reporter, won a beat reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and won a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in 2004, also validated this statement.

I think everyone should be rewarded based on the skill and the job performed, competitive salaries are an incentive for people to work better and go the extra mile. Everyone having the same pay would mean the reduction of quality on services, and the US economy is based on service businesses. I don't think this is viable option for our economy. We have minimum wage laws which insure that everyone is getting paid an amount that gives then access to cover their needs based on the prices of the basic basket.