Persuasive Essay On Raising Minimum Wage

More than 43 million Americans currently live in poverty although they hold full time minimum wage jobs (“Should We Raise”). For many, the minimum wage job is no longer held by the high school teenager and has become the main source of income. Those living off of the current minimum wage are not able to meet their basic needs such as clothing, food, and shelter. Since its installation in 1968, the minimum wage has increased in proportion to the rate of inflation, but has failed to do so in recent years. Also, studies show that raising the minimum wage has had a positive effect on the economy’s growth and productivity. Therefore, increasing the minimum wage will lift tens of millions out of poverty, keep up with the rate of inflation, and improve economic growth and productivity.

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.

Imagine a single mother who has has the task of taking care of multiple children, all on a minimum wage budget. This mother’s mind is overwhelmed with worries. Will she be able to pay next month's rent? WIll she be able to put food on the table for all of her children. The single mother lives each and every day with this anxiety, and even with government assistance: Is it enough to live comfortably?

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.

The people of America are all for raising minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour but what the people do not know is that raising minimum wage is not going to help the people in poverty. Raising minimum wage is only going to hurt the people in the middle and lower class by making the cost of living go up, leaving the people with education based jobs making around the same income, and creating a bigger career mess.

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.

Almost everybody can remember their first job. Whether it was being a cashier at a grocery store or a fry cook at a fast food restaurant, it is likely that they will all mention the satisfaction of getting their first paycheck, even if it was just minimum wage. Today, minimum wage buys about 20% less than it did in 1981, sparking many debates about whether minimum wage should be raised (“Raise”). Though both sides have compelling arguments, the facts show that raising minimum wage would not be beneficial to the country in the long run.

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.

The American society has made huge developments since the Civil War era. Advances in technology, transportation, and home quality have had a wonderful effect on the economy, but at a hefty price. While the standards of living have rose dramatically, it has become harder to produce enough income to acquire them. In the 1930s, a minimum wage act was established to help the victims of the Great Depression out of poverty which is still running today, but now it is hard to live of minimum wage while trying to support a good health or a family. There has been a high demand for the increase of minimum wage, but politicians fear the effects of this drastic change. Writer Rex Huppke and “The Economists” have wrote detailed articles concerning politicians’ ideas on minimum wage and how they plan to address this issue. The narrators address these controversy in their articles, but their writing is varied on the facts, opinions, and main idea of increasing minimum wage.

I am a resident in Madera, California. I am writing with my distresses about raising minimum wage. I understand there is a lot of controversy over the subject, but I would like to make a couple of statements of my own of why I don’t think it is in the best interest of the citizens of the United States. One of the questions I ponder with “Is raising the minimum wage good for the American people”? I understand some people will disagree with me but we also need to know how it will impact the business. Without Businesses we have no work, without work we have no money to sustain ourselves we are all connected.

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 is the most effective way to increase income for low-wage workers. Setting the minimum wage at $10.10 would allow low-wage workers to “receive higher pay that would increase their family’s income, and some of those families would see their income rise above the federal poverty threshold”. A report from the CBO expects that “increases in the minimum wage probably reduce employment for some low-wage workers.” This is a possible downside to increasing wages, but there are benefits far outweigh the costs. This is proven in the CBO projects that increasing the wages will bring “about 900,000 people, on net, above the poverty threshold”. A movement of people out of poverty in the

Everyone loves making money- that’s how we survive our world. Without it, none of us are going very far, and we all know it. In today’s time, it is hard to actually get out there in the workforce and be successful when your income limits what you can do. You might not be able to afford to go to college, or to move to where you have always wanted to live. According to “Calculating the Poverty Line,” Raising minimum wage will benefit above forty-one million people in the United States. That is about thirty percent of the whole United States. Thirty percent does not seem like a large number by itself, for the United States is a very large country. According to “Population,” there are well over three hundred thirty- three million people currently residing in the United States. This fact may make you wean away from wanting minimum wage to be raised, because it seems barely significant- that it will make almost no difference at all. However, when it is a factor in the lives of people, something that might improve their lives immensely and help the economy as a whole, it is actually very significant. States like Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, and Maine are starting to realize this as well, as they have raised their minimum wage up to twelve dollars an hour. I firmly believe that minimum wage should be raised to fifteen dollars an hour across all states. Raising minimum wage is necessary due to the facts that it would give low income workers the chance to dig their way out of poverty, it would majorly help to reverse decades of the large gap between the rich and poor’s income, plus now-a-days minimum wage is far less than what it used to be in the past.

For people that want to live off a job that pays minimum wage than you'd love the very foolish law that california has been passed to raise minimum wage to 15 dollars by 2022. Which will cause inflation and “fast food restaurants will just become gateway jobs to start better professions” most workers will be replaced by machines. And for people that are on a salary they don't benefit from this because they have a set wages.