Poverty And Minimum Wage ( Temp Title )

This lack of “support systems” is why the poor ultimately fail to advance. Throughout the last decade the federal government has issued billions of dollars into work supports, but due to unorganized tactics they have failed at eliminating poverty, “law makers have poured billions of dollars into ‘work supports’ such as child-care subsidies and employment tax credits. Yet no one in Washington seemed to think about assembling these services in a coherent package that would be accessible and convenient to struggling workers” (The American Prospect). The answer, according to Sharon Parrott, director of welfare reform and income support division at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “says it [policy] would have three components: convenient one stop service centers; streamlined application forms; and generous income ceilings so that a working parent doesn’t lose eligibility for, say, health insurance the minute he or she climbs above the poverty

Americans that are living pay check by pay are struggling to pay their bills every month, of these, most of them earn only minimum wage which is “$ 7 .25” Epstein, R, & Bedford, K. (2014) , p,3. Working full time, 40 hours a week and 52 week a year. The average Americans that are working minimum wage jobs are providing for families on a full time salary which is not enough to pay for the hose hold bills and proved for every day necessities; this forces them to find a second job. In 1996 the number of people holding two or more jobs averaged Barabara Ehrenreich (2011) “7.8 million or 6.2 percent in the workforce” (p.45). According to Michelle Conlin a senior writer and editor of the Working Life Department and Aaron Bemstein a senior writer on Workplace and social issues, 63% of United States families below the federal poverty line have one or more job. More than a “third are 18-25- year old” Conlin, M., & Bemstein, A. (2007), p, 2, who are trying to work their way up the ladder with little to no help. In today’s society more than “28 million people” Conlin, M., & Bemstein, A, (2007), p, 2, which is about a quarter of the workforce between the ages of “18 and 64, earn less than $9.04 an hour” Conlin, M., & Bemstein,A. (2007), p, 2. This is well below what most American’s would consider a decent stander of living. The increase in the cost of living means parents earning the national minimum wage struggle to support families. Raising the rent for apartment and houses are

It is not shocking to hear that tens of millions of Americans are living in poverty. Startling statistics about the poor are constantly being tossed around on television with images of run-down neighborhoods and malnourished children. The real surprise, however, is that millions of those in poverty are full-time, minimum wage earning workers. Many say one should feel morally obligated to help these people. President Barack Obama said it best in his February 2013 State of the Union address, “Let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full time should have to live

The world is filled with luxuries such as personal islands, gold-plated cars, or crystal pianos. What about everyday items like food, clothing, and shelter? Families in the United States can barely afford such items because of an American tragedy: the minimum wage. Though the sights and sounds of fluttering money is alluring, it is also elusive. The minimum wage is a tragic loss for the United States because it cannot even provide the bare minimum for employees working tirelessly for it. Opposition of raising it can be negated by statistics that show how the country can move into a brighter future. Data from economic research shows

In the United States alone, the amount of people in poverty is 14.5%. That equates to 45.3 million people in 2013. In a country like America, one of the world’s superpowers, it’s embarrassing to admit. But the main issue is to fix issues like these with the minimum wage and welfare. The minimum wage applies to workers who got a job whether because they were in school or because they had not gone to college and had no other option. Most of the country lives off as minimum wage workers as only 1% of the world’s population has a college degree. Minimum wage needs to be adjusted to modern inflation. But the minimum wage allegedly does not affect poverty at all says a large demographic and does not need to be adjusted. The minimum wage makes up a lot of the country and should be adjusted or modified to today’s standard of living.

42% of kids born in poverty will not get out. Today, more Americans are falling below the poverty line and are struggling trying to find a way to get out. The Inequality gap in America has increased for the past few decades. Resulting from Economic Inequality in America, 400 Americans share more than 50% of America’s total wealth. These 400 Americans are the Top 1%. While the Top 1% are living luxurious lives, the Bottom 99% is struggling to make ends meet. Inequality is nothing new to the United States. In fact, it is a serious problem for America’s Economy, Democracy and the Middle Class.

However, this system of measuring poverty is flawed because if a family makes a dollar more above the set limit, they do not qualify for financial help from the government (NCCP, 2008).The poverty threshold is an inadequate measure of whether people are considered poor or not. Current poverty measures are flawed because it assumes how much a family spends and does not accurately include family resources such as Earned Income Tax Credit (NCCP, 2008). The way that the government measures poverty is based on outdated information that was set in the 60s. Because it has not been sufficient to keep up with the standard of living, those who are living in “high cost cities like New York and those who live in rural areas of the country” (NCCP, 2008) are barely getting by.

In America today, millions of people suffer from a lack of basic needs due to a shortage of reasonably paying jobs. A growing percentage of Americans are falling below the poverty line, and, in recent years, the rapid growth of technology is destroying blue-collar jobs. For example, 55-year-old Glenn Johnson of Miami is making about $14,000 a year - or $7.93 an hour - working at Burger King and Walmart. Johnson is a single parent who toils day and night to provide for his family. He gets home at 1 or 2 a.m., but despite his hard work, he depends on food stamps. Johnson described his daily routine to the Huffington Post as “pure hell.” Unfortunately, this is a reality for more than 45 million Americans, roughly 15 percent of the American population,

It is an undeniable fact there exists a growing poverty epidemic within American society that needs to be addressed. According to a 2012 report by the Cato Institute the United States government spends nearly one-trillion dollars every year to combat severe financial need through a total of 126 separate welfare programs. While this value by itself seems significantly large, perhaps to an even excessive extent, in reality it had little effect on the American poverty level, never al allowing it to drop below 10.5%. Even with these massive government expenditures aimed at elevating quality of life, for many households an escape from their low-income bracket is still vastly unattainable. Current statistics show that more than 40% of individuals born into the bottom quintile will remain there, failing to escape into a life of financial stability. Despite immense funding, in its existing state of organization, the system of aid currently offered by the American government to lower income household fails to effectively alleviate the living conditions of the impoverished due to its negligence towards payday loans and the other intangible costs of poverty, its temporary and ineffective solutions to fight hunger, and most significantly, its insufficient reliance on an unreliable and inconsistent enforcement from state jurisdictions.

Florida’s minimum wage (for example) is insufficient for even a single adult living alone to live off of. 13% of married couples with children under 18 and 42% of single parents have to use food stamps for assistance. Not that having to rely on food stamps is a bad thing, it’s only that those who have to use food stamps are at a disadvantage in the workplace and could use a little bit of help to ensure they can take care of their families.Many people of the community have to rely on welfare and a minimum wage increase would help immensely. Many people of the states have to use welfare -or food stamps- to make sure they are stable financially, which can have an awful feeling on one’s personal self. (‘Living Wages’ Needed).

Poverty is a significant topic that is being investigated, talked about and most importantly lived in by millions in America. Many American citizens, specifically the children are not only living in poverty, but they are living below the poverty line due to low minimum wage (Gidfar). A child living in poverty can face serious problems in the future. Reducing poverty should not be charity work. As citizens of the world it should be a social responsibility to find a way in which poverty can no longer be a living status, especially for a developed country like America. It is one of the top countries before Mexico with the highest rate of child poverty (Gidfar). In context, minimum wage has a large impact on poverty within a country, as the higher the minimum wage the more disposable income families have access to. The discussion of how the “elasticity of demand of unskilled workers” determines whether or not the minimum wage should be raised to reduce child poverty is essential when validating the relationship between the two variables (Rutkowski 7). While the analysis of William Even and David Macpherson’s study emphasizes the importance of taking employment in to account as a variable as an indication to prevent ‘job loss’ (2), through the clarification that although the United States view child poverty as being an “intractable problem"(WaldFogel 3), there is evidence to support that a raise in the disposable income of families can lead to reduction in child poverty (Dahl and

Today in our society, we prefer to consider social status as stratified rank of income amount.

Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this

Poverty has been evident since The Great Depression in the 1930’s. Since then, there has been an attempt to lower poverty level, though only a 2.5% decrease has been seen since 1965. It is argued that we do not need another war on poverty since nothing has seemed to help, but this is an issue that affects everyone. As Mark Bittman stated in his article “Why We’re Fasting” “This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document.” Poverty can be improved if more emphasis is added to helping individuals or families out of poverty, instead of assisting them through their lives, by improving existing laws or implementing new laws centering around the idea of a fixed income.

According to an analysis by Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty, 45 percent of people who spent at least half of their childhood in poverty were poor at age 35, among those who spent less than half of their childhood in poverty, just 8 percent were poor at age 35. (Breslow ,2012) The United States is the wealthiest country, yet a great many Americans live below the poverty line and millions more battle each month. The poverty line is the estimated minimum level of income needed to secure the necessities of life. The federal poverty guideline for a family of four is $23,050, up from $20,650 before the start of the recession. Today’s poverty guidelines compare with a median household income in the U.S. of $50,054. (Breslow 2012) The kids in the new generation living in poverty is expanding day by day. Adolescents who are brought up poverty are often responsible for crimes committed (Taylor, 2006) The dominant part of these youngsters are from single-parent homes where in some cases guardians are not working or have turned out to be impaired and in this way can't work. Low-income children caught up in their parents’ economic struggles experience the impact through unmet needs, low-quality schools, and unstable circumstances. Children as a group are disproportionately poor: roughly one in five live in poverty compared with one in eight adults (US Census Bureau 2014). Children who are raised in foster care and leave as adults do not have strong