Pros And Cons Of Raising The Minimum Wage

“A 15 percent increase in the minimum wage nationwide would destroy about 290,000 to 590,000 young people's jobs, and about 400,000 to 800,000 jobs overall” (Henderson, David R). Due to the Fair labor Standards act, the federal minimum wage, or the lowest you can pay an employee for work, currently stands at $7.25 an hour. Although a number of Americans think that raising the minimum wage would benefit our country, it would actually bring a number of problems to our economy, such as a rise in job loss and high school dropout.

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.

One of the most talked about subjects in the U.S economy is the topic of minimum wage. With president Obama’s increase in the minimum wage to 10.10$ per hour people, both economists and politicians alike, have been debating whether raising the bar is a smart idea. At a time when the country the country’s inflation continues to rise at a steady pace and Americans are constantly working to feed their families, some economists know that a raise in the minimum wage would help elevate some of the difficulty. The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was in July of 2009, where rose from 6.55$ to 7.25$. However, there are plenty of reasons as to why the wage should be raised. Some may not think it, but raising the

There are many employees who find themselves working full-time for what the government has so generously termed the “minimum wage”. In Missouri, the minimum wage has been set at a rather appalling $7.65 per hour while in other states there are wages starting as high as $10. Though arguably the economy is not as sluggish and terrible as it once was, $7.65 per hour will not help those who have children, no college degree and debts to pay. It is not only Missouri that has minimum wage laws, but every other state in America has minimum wage laws in place. Both California and Seattle recently established a plan that would see their minimum wages rise to $15 by 2021. The question for all the other forty-eight states remains, should the minimum wage be raised?

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.

Rex Huppke, a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, deftly discusses the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage in the last of a two-week series in “In the Minimum Wage Debate, Both Sides Make Valid Points”. Although I am for raising the minimum wage, Huppke’s presentation of the opposite argument does make one think beyond the gut reading that everyone deserves more money. Huppke’s argument that a large number of minimum wage earners are student of the elderly leads me to believe that a tier of wages would take care of the issue. For example, anyone working less than 35 hours a week would be paid at a certain rate; with full time getting an increase. I am not concerned by the argument that a higher minimum wage leads to lay-offs or price increases when most products sold in America are manufactured by cheap foreign labor. There is already a huge profit margin that could sustain such an increase. Rather than give discounts on goods and services, thus preventing employees from exercising the right to shop, stay or eat wherever the employee chooses, these employers trap workers into giving back the very money they have “slaved” for.

The minimum wage was established in the United States by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 at 25 cents per hour. These laws are broadly supported by the public. Congress enacted these rules to combat “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and the general well-being of the workers” (Sharp, 2013 p. 71). The purpose and intent of

"According to a 2014 Congressional Budget Office report, increasing the minimum wage to $9 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty, and an increase to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.” Currently the federal minimum wage is $7.25. The government should raise the minimum wage to $9.25 per hour. We need to raise the minimum wage to the point where the lowest paid worker can afford their basic needs. Raising the minimum wage would strengthen the workforce and the economy.

Nationwide government officials often wonder how this country is going to overcome unemployment, and the common misconception is through the provision of low wage jobs. By providing people with some source of income, congress believes millions will no longer depend on government aid. In actuality, however, providing minimum wage work is not going to solve such a drastic problem now, in the future, or at all for that matter. Minimum wage ($5.15), while serving at the socially acceptable pay standard, does not even compare with the nationwide ?living wage? of $10.18 (Ramisch). It is becoming increasingly more difficult to survive on such tragic wages, yet there is often little debate because it is money, and every little bit matters when it comes to paying bills.

The topic of increasing in the federal minimum wage has been hotly debated in Congress and between politicians and activists since the most recent increase to $7.25 in 2009. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 proposed a $10.10 federal minimum wage increase but failed in Congress, while a more recent proposition, the 2016 Raise The Wage Act, hopes to put wages at $12 per hour by the year 2020 (14). Propositions like these seek to allow lower-income working families to earn a living wage but they have faced resistance by conservatives. Stagnation of wages has caused various cities and states to spearhead minimum wage increases at a local level, with twenty-nine states now having wages higher than the federal minimum (13). Raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour would correct for years of deteriorating wage values and would pull hard-working families out of poverty while lessoning income inequality and boosting the economy from the bottom up with minimal costs to businesses.

Although we can see from the last time the minimum wage was raisied it had a positive effect on the economy as David Cooper points out in his article Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Save Safety Net Programs Billions and Help Ensure Businesses Are Doing Their Fair Share, where it states that “More than five years have passed since the federal minimum wage was raised to its current level

Imagine standing over a scorching grill for hours, taking care of the elderly, both lifting and transporting heavy loads, basically doing back breaking work; only to be making less than $8 and hour. That is the reality for millions of people in the work force who are earning minimum wage. Whether or not minimum wage should be raised has been a question many people have been discussing for years and has become quite controversial. Those opposed to increased minimum wages would argue that a minimum wage salary is already sufficient enough, or in some cases even “too high”. In spite of the opposing sides, it is almost certain that a rise in minimum wage will either positively or negatively affect several aspects of the country. For one, an increase in minimum wage could result in an economic shift. Furthermore, the current poverty level within the country, with the help of a higher minimum wage, would either decrease or as a result. Thirdly, a change in poverty levels caused by a higher minimum wage would ultimately change the amount of government spending and those who receive it. Minimum wage being raised would definitely be impactful not only the people receiving those minimum waged salaries, but also the economy, their families, and even the government funding.

Minimum wage in the United States has become an extremely controversial topic in today’s society. The cost of living continues to grow each year but why does the minimum wage stay the same? This is a question that many people are forced to ask themselves each day. Many people who hold low income jobs and can barley afford to survive must rely on government assistants. By raising the minimum wage to an amount that would allow citizens to afford living standards our nations economy would benefit greatly in many ways. The increased wages would in return be put back into the economy through spending and government aid would decrease. The increase wages would also allow for more paid taxes that would in return benefit the economy as a whole. Many of us have held a minimum wage job or know someone directly who has, we are aware of the struggle in receiving minimum wage checks but why has nothing been done to remove this struggle from the nation? Many bills including one signed by President Obama have been denied by congress and the issue continues to grow. Now is the time to increase the minimum wage and help the economy get back to a better state.

The most prevalent and steadfast myth surrounding the raising of the federal minimum wage is that it will doom the economy. This might seem logical at first, but just think about it for a second. Why do minimum wage employees need more cash? The answer is simple: To spend it, to buy the things that they and their families need to survive. “Most minimum wage workers need this income to make ends meet and spend it quickly, boosting the economy. Research indicates that for every $1 added to the minimum wage, low-wage worker households spent an additional $2,800 the following year” (Fair). Furthermore, EPI estimates that if the federal minimum wage were raised to $10.10 an hour, it would result in over

The “federal minimum wage has remained the same at $7.25 an hour since 2009” (“DeSilver, Drew”). To many people, it seems like eight years is way too long to wait for the minimum wage to go up. This is the longest time for the minimum wage to increase since 1981 to 1990 where it took nine years for the wage to increase by .40 cents going from $3.35 to $3.80 (“Wage and Hour Division (WHD)”). Other than that, minimum wage increases usually took anywhere between 1 to 5 years. But to be fair, it has changed a lot since the original .25 cents back in 1938 when the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was created. The minimum wage has increased “22 separate times over the course of the last 78 years” (“UC Davis Center for Poverty Research”). Also, the “wage now covers approximately 130 million workers or 84 percent of the labor force” unlike when it was first created and only covered “20 percent of the labor force” (“UC Davis Center for Poverty Research”). The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 or FLSA not only created the minimum wage but also created other federal protections like “overtime pay for the time worked