Raising Minimum Wage

With the presidential elections right around the corner policy on minimum wage has come up for debate once again. William Hoar from The New American argues in his article “Misguided minimum wage mandate” that raising the minimum wage will only result in loss of jobs. According to the editorial board at USA Today, “ inflation adjusted income of the top 1 percent has grown by 58 percent and the remaining 99 percent has only grown by 6.4 percent”. They then state that a raise to 15 dollars an hour only comes out to an annual income of 30,000 a year. It is true that the majority of the minimum wage workforce is from ages 18 to 25 but considering the fact that that age group are the people attending college and paying off student loans, then it should be expected that they are unhappy with such a low salary. At the minimum wage of 7.25 that comes out to 1200 dollars per month for the cost of living. Therefore raising the minimum wage will not only increase morale, it will also reduce rates of poverty.

“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.

There is a lot of controversy over whether the minimum wage should be increased to 15$ an hour in all states. Proponents say that current wages in America are not livable because inflation is way higher than the current minimum wage; Minimum wage was 1.60 in 1968, which is equal to 11.60 today. Opponents say that many cannot afford this, will have to close down, make cuts, raise prices and lay off people because they will need to pay them more. Most economists believe that that high of an increase would hurt job growth. I believe that Increasing the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour nationwide will do more harm than good. Raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour nationwide is too big of a jump and would just cause businesses to cut off workers, force small businesses to close and increase inflation.

Increasing the minimum wage causes middle class Americans have less money in their pockets to spend. Representatives of both businesses and charities have almost unanimously stated that they will be forced to reduce their hours and staff size to conform to the wage increase (Englander). The risk of getting laid off or getting your hours cut because of a wage increase is ludicrous, considering said increase is meant to benefit those same people. San Francisco has recently increased their minimum wage to $15 an hour, and is starting to struggle to support it. The number of households in the area earning less than $25,000 a year is steadily growing,

Minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employee can be paid from their employer. The federal minimum wage is set at seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour in the state of Mississippi. Some states have chosen to raise their minimum wage higher than federal requires. San Francisco, CA, has the highest minimum wage fixed at ten dollars and fifty-five cents. Even though, some states have a higher minimum wage than others. The Fair Labor Standards Act entails every employee to be paid the same amount. If minimum wage was to be raised, it would have advantages and disadvantages.

Working is supposed to help people get out of poverty, not live in it. People deserve to get rewarded for their hard work and should be paid to live a better life. But with the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, it is hard for workers to even pay for their necessities. Minimum wage should be raised to help workers feed themselves and to take care of their families with their wages. It will also help boost the economy, finish inequality and the poverty from this society.

When it comes to cash options everyone has their hands out and people are asking for more. Money situations can make life easier and less stressful, especially when minimum wage is concerned. Many jobs argue whether minimum wage should be raised or lowered. The minimum wage should be raised because people want to make more money, others believe that some people make too much money, and some individuals feel it should be raised according to job qualifications.

Increasing the minimum wage to $15 would increase jobs and raise economic activity. The economic policy stated that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 would inject $22.1 billion in the economy, so raising it to fifteen would do major. The Economic Policy institute also stated that raising to $10.10 wouLD bring 85,000 jobs into the US. Fixing the minimum wage could also be fixing the lack of job employment as well.

Raising it to $10.10 an hour isn’t enough to lift all workers and family out of poverty. If we raise minimum wage to $15 an hour,people will be earning more money, and the more people earn, the more that they spend. If people buy more, then businesses earn more and the more our economy benefits from it too. ” Having a healthy economy can keep our country stable, and that is what we want.” (http://thelawdictionary.org/article/the-pros-cons-of-raising-minimum-wage/)

On November 9th, the voters of Maine chose to boost the states minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage intends to increase the living standard of low-level and low-skilled workers, specifically in service-sector jobs. However, sometimes it hurts the people it intends to help. Many economists have debated what the minimum wage should be that would benefit both the economy and society. Starting with John Maynard Keynes, economists have argued about the minimum wage for decades. Traditional economists argued that the labor market is in balance at equilibrium, however, Keynes argued that settling at equilibrium would not improve the labor market situation or properly stimulate aggregate demand.

If there is an increase in minimum wage, it will slowly pull people out of poverty. Poverty level for a single person is just under $12,000 per year, but for a household with two kids, it’s over $23,000 per year. At the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a person’s annual salary would be about $15,000 per year. Also, since cost of living varies in different places in the country, the same minimum wage often does not even cover living expenses. Increasing the minimum wage to $9 per hour will lift 300,000 people from poverty. If increased to $10.10 an hour it will lift 900,000 people out of poverty and reduce the number of non-elderly living in poverty. Since young people are most likely to be working minimum wage jobs, they often face other issues associated with making minimum

The economic effects of raising the minimum wage can be damaging, but I believe the benefits of it outweigh the negatives. Those who tend to live on the minimum wage - fast food workers, retail employees, ext. - tend to spend most to all of their income. By raising their wage, they are able to 1. spend more and 2. possibly invest more. This would have a ripple effect throughout the entire economy - leading to raises for everyone. It is

When I read high schoolers and people who work at jobs that pay minimum wage say that raising minimum wage will solve everyone's problems, it honestly makes me think that they don't understand anything about the economy. When you raise the minimum wage, the price of essentials and necessities also increase. An example of this would be the 1970's, The price of everything was at a very low cost. Such as, Milk which was only $1.65 which today would be far better than the costly price of $3.67. Although you may be convinced that the 1970's seems an easier time to live in, you are actually quite inaccurate. While the prices of everything was low so was minimum wage at a meager one dollar an hour. The price all around of everything increases because

The average hourly pay in The United States is $25.73 (Table B-3). That is more than triple the minimum wage. If the minimum wage is increased, it would eliminate people’s incentives to improve. On top of that, inflation would occur, and poverty would virtually stay the same. In addition, raising the minimum wage would bring on hardship for small businesses. Of course, one may argue that the minimum should cover the cost of living, but people should have to work for their money. The minimum wage should not be raised in the United States.

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