Minimum wage is the lowest amount of hourly or monthly salary that employers may legally pay to employees. Before minimum wage was enforced, employers would take the advantage of young and minority workers by underpaying them but now employees are protected by the law to receive a certain lowest amount for their jobs. The topic of how a minimum wage impacts the economy is one of the widely studied and most controversial topics in labor economics. There has been a significant amount of discussion regarding how minimum wage can impact employment and economic growth in short run and long run.
In current economy, there are two social arguments on the minimum wage. Supply side argues that higher minimum wage is a burden for a small business and may lead to job loss among low skilled workers. Demand side argues that minimum wage will impact employment over time, through changes in growth rather than an immediate drop in employment levels. They believe that the higher minimum wage will cause more spending by the minimum wage workers which will also reduce poverty. By bringing both sides of this argument together, the minimum wage objective will be discussed and analyzed whether it is beneficial or not to our current
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When the supply of labor is equal to the demand for labor, the labor market is in equilibrium at the intersection between the supply and demand curves. A rise in the money wage will decrease short-run aggregate supply and shift SRAS curve leftward while LRAS curve stay the same. The shift of SRAS curve will result in increase in labor supply while decrease the quantity of jobs. According to the macroeconomic model and basic supply and demand suggests that higher minimum wage will increase the unemployment rate, however many studies have found that increase in the minimum wage have had no measurable or negative effect on the employment and labor economy in the long
Ira Knight, who is an author of article “Let’s Make the Minimum Wage a Living Wage”, expresses an opinion that increasing the minimum wage would help all struggling workers and at the same time improve U.S economy. On the other side, Janice Steele in her article “Keep the Minimum Wage Where It Is” argues that raising the minimum wage would have bad effects on workers, consumers and small businesses. Ira Knight’s article seems to be the stronger of the two positions because her arguments are based on several recent studies, and last but not least, she had a personal experience with the minimum wage job.
Minimum wage is the lowermost amount of compensation that any proprietor is officially allowed to pay to the worker. Supporters of minimum wage postulate that it will raise the standard of living for workers, decreases poverty, enhancement morale, and force corporations/business to be more effectual. In contradiction of minimum wage, those hypothesize it intensifies unemployment (predominantly inexperienced or amateurish workers), would be destructive to businesses because exceptionally high minimum wage would entail industries to increase the charges for their products/ services to acclimatize the additional expenditures of reimbursing higher wage, and enhances poverty.
For over a decade, many Americans have struggled with the low wage issued from employers, despite working very long hours of work. According to a study done in Oregon State University, a federal minimum wage was first set in 1938, starting at 25 cents an hour. Due to inflation that has occurred many times throughout the century, the call for raising minimum wage is to be immediately answered. However, the minimum wage falls when congress does not raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. Because of this many cities and states have departed from the minimum wage. In this essay, to be discussed is the reason why imposing a minimum wage above the equilibrium wage will reduce employment and contribute to an increase in the unemployment rate.
The current U.S. Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25 per hour. In just two years from 2013, the demanded from advocates for raising minimum wage rose from $9 to $15. However, raising the minimum wage is more complex than simply raising the number of federal standard of pay for employees. Relative control groups and other market activities play a part in the outcome of the minimum wage. For example, one instance of market activity was observers said that raising the minimum wage did not hurt individuals; however, wages were raised during an economic downturn so the impact of minimum wage was masked by other activities. Federal Minimum Wage is pressing topic and it is important to consider the pros and cons to raising it, to ask what people and how people are affected, and to look further into the microeconomic theoretical framework of wages surrounding the topic.
An issue that has been debating throughout centuries is whether or not America should increase the minimum wage. This is an issue that has been arising to be relevant to people all over the nation. Researches have provided logical facts and statistics on how increasing the minimum wage would be the solution to America’s debt. Increasing the minimum wage has also been successful in several countries including Germany. Studies have shown that decreasing the minimum wage is unlikely to solve any economic woes. While when we increase the minimum wage it benefits the economy, employment as well as skillful people.
Minimum wage means the lowest amount that is allowed to be paid to an employed worker per hour. The federal minimum wage, meaning the minimum wage throughout the United States is $7.25, however, many states have chosen to raise theirs. The minimum wage must be raised because it will help lift people out of poverty and it will reduce the amount of spending on government programs. Raising minimum wage will help people get out of poverty. According to Census.gov, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.
Also referred to as living wage, minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate allowed by federal law to be paid to an employee by an employer that is usually determined by inflations and other economic factors. Usually, it is an economic program stipulating an employee’s benefits of working per hour valued against a hardship policy instigated by the employer. In the United States, the minimum wage first came to light during the Depression era which has propelled from levels of 25cents to $7.25 per hour since 1993 (David, 2013). Irrespective if this steep increase, matters inflation in the
There are several arguments that exist both for and against minimum wage. Minimum wage is the lowest wage that a person can get paid for their work. This is usually seen in labor unions.
The minimum wage is intended to protect workers and fight poverty. In the United States, the federal government sets the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour although many states set higher minimums. There is currently a movement to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. This movement is called the “Living Wage Movement” (Living Wage Resource Center, 2016) or the “Fight for $15” (Fortunato, 2016) and purports to address the problem of poverty in America.
Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim that if the minimum wage was raised, then many economic and social problems would be alleviated. This contention is at odds both with economic principles and years of creditable research. The effect of raising or even having a minimum wage has been studied extensively and the majority of studies have proven that raising a minimum wage does not have the desired effect. Both micro and macroeconomic forces affect the results of raising the minimum wage. The secondary effects of raising the minimum wage are bad both for
Minimum wage jobs are everywhere, and that makes them relatively easy to find. Many Americans work minimum wage jobs; however, these jobs are being overworked by the wrong people. A minimum wage job in the United States has never been, and never will be, meant to provide for a family. Adults who work a minimum wage job and try to raise a family on that income are almost always living in poverty in the United States, but what is poverty? According to Jewel in “Street Life Is No Life for Children”, “Poverty [is] the lack of affordable housing, access to education, and many other resources” (Jewel 428). In recent years, there has been talk in the United States about raising
Minimum wage is the lowest or minimum compensation for workers by their employers. As such, it has a noticeable impact on the economy through various channels including standard of living, business efficiency, wage and income inequality, etc. Although minimum wage has many positive effects such as increasing the standard of living as well as reducing inequality, there are also many drawbacks to having a minimum wage such as inflation and unemployment. This paper will attempt to determine the influence of having a regulated minimum wage has on the economy.
There have been discussions about whether to raise the minimum wage to either $9.00, $10.10, or $15.00 per hour. The minimum wage increase is supposed to be the first step to solving the income inequality problem in America and a step towards economic growth in America, by helping to stimulate the economy. Research into the effects of the wage increase shows, to me, that a higher minimum wage does not cause a drastic change in unemployment. It does increase productivity, and will address the growing problem of rising income inequality. I have included both the positive and negative sides to increasing the minimum wage, within this paper.
Now after raising the minimum wage to $7.25 six years ago, there has been a great deal of inflation between then and now that has pushed the issue of raising it once again. This particular issue has led to a serious debate that has divided economists into a 50/50 on going disagreement. Since there are already so many problems with the current minimum wage and even more problems that can occur if it was to be increased economist have taken many different aspects into consideration. About half of the economist studying this issue believe that while increasing the minimum wage can be beneficial, the current $7.25 minimum wage should not be increased due to the reasons
The introduction of minimum wage, or an increase in the minimum wage burdens the employer with increased costs, so the employer will seek to levy this burden onto the labor force to compensate for these additional costs. Veldhuis supports this by contending that minimum wage causes employers to “respond by reducing the number of workers they employ and/or the number of hours their employees work”. (1) This reaction is explained by theories of producer behavior. Economic theory states that firms are profit maximizers. Therefore, to maximize profits, the firm must minimize costs. A firm minimizes costs when the slope of the Marginal Rate of Technical Substitution is equal to the rate at which capital can be traded for labor in the market (-w/r). This is expressed by the equation = . As illustrated in