Persuasive Essay On Minimum Wage

Before people push a minimum wage increase, they need to be totally aware of all of the positive and negative results and consequences that might occur as a result. The issue concerning what to do about the minimum wage has served as an ongoing controversy amongst several people. The federal minimum wage should not be raised for several reasons including the harmful effect on small businesses, the increase of poverty, and the augmentation of competition for jobs.

The topic of raising minimum wage seems to attract a multitude of controversy. On one side, experts agree that raising a family on one minimum wage salary is almost impossible for someone who puts in fairly large work hours. Nonetheless, business owners agree that increasing these salaries will result in significantly less jobs, as well as force them to increase the prices on their consumer products. Federally, minimum wage workers earn $7.25 an hour, totaling up to $15,080 annually, with approximately six hours of working time per day. However, the price varies with state, with places like Massachusetts and Washington paying $11 to workers hourly.

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.

I decided to write about how I felt regarding the federal government's involvement in controlling the minimum wage and that I felt they are disconnected in their understanding of the impacts on communities when they raise the minimum wage. I work for a manufacturing company in the U.S. and I understand wholeheartedly what the impact of salary increases due to our bottom line. In very competitive markets the difference between success and failure can be separated by the difference of only a few dollars per part, and while in other countries, their manufacturing bottom line is subsidized by their governments we are forced to generate profits the old-fashioned way through supply and demand. This is why I decided to take a stance in my persuasive essay and challenge the status quo of the Department of Labor and Wages. No longer should the federal government dictate a national minimum wage but should allow each state to establish their own minimum wage based on the economic condition of their counties and their state, as a whole.

First off, minimum wage is increasing and is increasing rapidly. Minimum wage began at twenty-five cents and continued to grow to ten dollars and fifty cents. When people look at this they can see that

Minimum wage is a problem, but most don’t want to raise it. Raising minimum wage will be a big problem now and including the future. Raising minimum wage is a problem depending on a social hierarchy. For many years the U.S had had many protesters and this is a problem according to state officials. Family's around the world are surviving on as little as 4.25 an hour in this case people have to survive off of food stamps and family members. Job owners can choose to higher the pay due to a raise in the company or a downgrade will determine whether they will make below minimum wage. Minimum wage should be increased from 7.25 to 9.00 an hour because of the over qualified, educated, and experienced Americans who are now relying on minimum wage jobs as a result of the struggling economy. Also, increasing minimum wage could help stimulate the economy. But, in order to get the economy back on track the spending power must be in the hands of the Americans who in fact, spend. With today's tough job market most job seekers are willing to acquire positions they are considered over qualified for, even if it means taking a pay cuts. Therefore, an increase in minimum wage will ensure that low wage over qualified workers have the means for vital necessities like housing, food, transportation and health care. Last year more than 200,000 Americans with college degrees were working minimum wage jobs due to our struggling economy. Furthermore, an increase in minimum wage would help stimulate the economy by

One of the most acrimoniously debated problems in American society today is the debate over the minimum wage. The minimum wage, established in 1938 by President Roosevelt, was made to be a safety net for people who provided unskilled labor, but also needed to provide for themselves. Up until that point, people had no guarantee that they would be paid. The minimum wage was quite literally one of the only lines of defense unskilled workers had in harsh times, such as near the end of the Great Depression. In today’s society, the minimum wage is still a means by which unskilled workers can provide for themselves, but many people have lost track of what it originally meant. The minimum wage is no longer specifically meant for people in dire need, having to take the first job they find. People now perceive it to be something into which they can settle, even in today’s society, where opportunities for hard workers to be promoted are frequent and encouraged. Despite the chances people have to seek out promotions, most $15 minimum wage proponents believe that they are entitled to having the minimum wage increased because they believe it would put them at a “livable wage” and that businesses owe them higher pay because of the cash flows they generate. As a federally mandated expense to businesses, it is critical for people to consider the possible negative outcomes of trying to forcibly make businesses, whether large or small, pay an increased minimum wage as drastic as $15. Not only will it negatively affect the U.S. economy, but it will also put minimum wage workers at the same level of disadvantage, if not more.

Minimum wage has always been a controversial issue among policy makers and economists in the United States. Recently, the topic has become an increasingly hot debate whether it should be raised to help the minimum wage earners in America to make ends meet. The Seattle City Council has voted to gradually raise the minimum wage to a nation’s highest at $15 per hour starting from January 1, 2015(www.usatoday.com). While the state Washington already has the highest minimum wage among other states at $9.32/hour, and the average inflation rate in the United States in the last five years was 11%(www.bls.gov), it is very hard to comprehend why such move was taken by the Seattle City Council to raise the minimum wage by more than 60%. I believe that

It is truly a saddening sight to see men on the street in this day and age in cities everywhere both big and small begging for spare change with a cup and sign saying "Unemployed will work for food," and it is even sadder when the person is a woman with her children by her side. As of now, there are approximately 325 million people in America and of them, 1.7 million live off of minimum wage. 4.9% of those people are unemployed and .5% of them homeless. The number of jobs available are constantly shrinking, faster and faster and minimum wage is being less and less effective as a means for survival. To answer this problem, I propose a modest and efficient proposition. My proposition would be to abolish the minimum wage and reallocating pay elsewhere, or in simple terms remove minimum wage. There are many reasons to do so but the main reasons to remove the minimum wage are that it slows job growth and opportunities for jobs, it is not helping to curb poverty but worsen it, and it is hurting low-wage workers.

Minimum wage is now at a steady $7.25 per hour and shows no sign of increasing anytime soon. There are states right now at the time that are trying to raise the minimum wage, and see how this will effect the economy of the area.

Minimum wage is different across the United States and varies depending on the cost of living for that particular state. There are currently 5 southern states who have not adopted a state minimum wage. Those states are: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Presently, there are 29 states have minimum wage rates above the federal minimum wage. I currently live in Germany but my home of record is Arizona. The minimum wage in Arizona is $8.05. Arizona is one of America’s fastest growing states. With a booming economy and a diverse population, Arizona’s cost of living is somewhat low compared to the rest of the United States.

3.3% of Americans aged sixteen years or older earn at or below the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. With an estimated 45 million citizens living in poverty, I will attempt to prove why we must increase the minimum wage to at least $10.10 an hour. In this paper, I will discuss the history and definitions of poverty and minimum wage as well as the pros and cons of implementing a higher minimum wage. I will also examine the economic and social effects of the minimum wage and how it pertains to our day to day lives. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established The Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA as a part of The New Deal. With this, a federal minimum wage of $0.25 was introduced. The act also provided overtime pay, a maximum workweek of forty-four hours, recordkeeping requirements, and a restriction on child labor. Before its passage, one in four children were working sixty hours a week for a median salary of $4.00 per week. Over 700,000 workers were affected by the Fair Labor Standards Act and Roosevelt called it the most important legislation since the Social Security Act of 1935. (Grossman) Since its introduction, the minimum wage has been increased twenty-two times by twelve different presidents. (Bose) The act was specifically intended for those working in manufacturing. Only about 20% of the population was covered by the minimum wage law. Other industries were exempt from the law due to concerns that it would restrict employment. The FSLA faced judicial opposition from the very beginning and has never been without controversy. The National Association of Manufacturers or NAM, denounced the new laws as “a step in the direction of communism, bolshevism, fascism, and Nazism.” (Cole) Many politicians and merchants vehemently opposed the Act and considered it an attack on traditional American values. Roosevelt addressed this apprehension in a fireside chat where he is quoted as saying, “Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000.00 a day, who has been turning his employees over to the Government relief rolls in order to preserve his company’s undistributed reserves, tell you […] that a wage of $11.00 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry.” (Tritch)

A living wage is a thing of the past when it comes to our federal minimum wage. Nowadays, people tend to be living to work instead of working to live. Our minimum wage standards are simply not enough to keep up with our inflating cost of living. With every passing year our rent, utilities, insurance requirements and food all increase in price, yet the minimum wage has only increased minimally. The federal minimum wage should be increased to help boost our economy and improve the life of all Americans. There are many critics who would disagree, however. They need to be shown how important a role the common worker plays in the community and how hard it is to survive alone yet with a family on our federal minimum wage standards.

The US minimum wage should not be raised to $18.00 an hour for adults by 2020. Raising our minimum wage is just as good as destroying our economy and all the work our government has done to lower unemployment rates. Jamie Richardson, MBA, VP of the fast-food chain White Castle, stated that the company would be forced to close almost half of its restaurants and let go thousands of workers if the federal minimum wage was raised to $15. Peter D. Schiff, an investment broker and investor, stated in his most recent book, The Real Crash, that “minimum wage eliminates from the job market any job that an employer thinks is worth less than minimum wage.” Schiff also mentions that “if the minimum wage prevents them from getting those jobs, they

Close to 2.2 million workers struggle in their everyday lives to survive on minimum wage. This may seem a minority when compared to the daring number representing the US population of 323.1 million. The problem lies within the depths of society and tests our sense of right and wrong. As a collective society, is it right to prosper as an individual before lending a hand to those in need, or is it more ethical to grow as a society? Statistics have shown that properly allocating the country's finances to increase low incomes will reduce poverty, helping people afford their basic needs and ultimately reduce the overall government spending.