Raising The Minimum Wage

Raise the minimum wage: In the United States, studies show that women tend to make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers. In the field of education, men tends to go more to STEM than women and that also leads to high paying jobs for men. If we raise the minimum wage, this will help hardworking women to support their families. Approximately, women made up two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers in 2012. With the current federal minimum wage i.e. $7.25 per hour, someone working full time, only earn $15,080 a year round. People working full time with minimum wage is still below the poverty threshold for any family with children and single person is also not far above the poverty line. So, increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would help increase the wages for about 15 million women, which will help close the gender wage gap.

Political analyst and civil rights activist Benjamin Todd once said: “No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.” Today, I have chosen to speak on the controversial topic of whether or not the United States should raise the federal minimum wage.

Minimum wage jobs are known as the type of job to have as a teenager. Nowadays, minimum wage jobs are also common among single mothers and immigrants. Those struggling families need help from the government because their income is not enough to buy groceries and necessities for their families. Those people who work at the minimum wage salaries only get a little amount of money this is a problem for their families. The minimum wage has not kept up with the inflation in the economy. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 will help people in poverty to have a better income and lifestyle to those who need it.

There will be inflation or rising costs for basic necessities such as housing, food, utilities, transportation and child care. Because of inflation, the minimum wage forces most of the people into poverty. If a person works full-time and his minimum wage is only $14500, and if he has two children this income is more than $4000 below the poverty line. So, increasing the minimum wage would rise almost a million people above the poverty line. But if minimum wages increases, it would result in the loss of jobs because employers would lay off workers to offset the additional labor cost. But, raising the minimum wage has multiple benefits. As an increase to minimum wage moves families above the poverty threshold, their need for public assistance

Previously when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour, only 15% of the poverty-stricken population received any sort of benefit from the rise. According to the research done by CATO Institute, if the federal minimum equilibrium were to be increased from the current $7.25/hour to $9.50/hour, a maximum 11% of the population affected by poverty would receive any benefit from the demand of a higher minimum wage. “One recent academic study found that both state and federal minimum wage increases between 2003 and 2007 had no effect on state poverty rates” (Wilson, 9). Receiving $15.00/hour for flipping burger patties sounds like a job with major benefits, but in reality, it is doing

Raising the minimum wage price would skyrocket school attendance levels and decrease high school dropout rates. A 2014 study found that raising the California minimum wage to $13 an hour would cause the incomes of 7.5 million families to increase, meaning fewer families would live in poverty. This means that teens who live in poverty are two times more likely to miss three-plus days of school per month compared to those who do not miss school. So overall, because of the rise of the minimum wage, it caused families to come out of poverty. This also means that there would be a lower amount of children missing/skipping school. Studies also found that "recent experimental studies show that increasing income can improve school performance." This

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.

The minimum wage serves as a mechanism to mitigate poverty and income inequality in our economic system. It is a powerful tool in our society, ensuring that working individuals are receiving a fair wage for their labor. This law plays a huge role in American business and seeks to ensure that our capitalist economy is not benefitting from under compensating the workforce. There is a great deal of debate surrounding this topic in the political arena today, with polarizing opinions on both sides of the issue. Currently there is a movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars across the country. Supporters argue that it reduces poverty and inequality while raising the living standards of a significant portion of our society. Opponents on the other hand see the minimum wage as an attack on small businesses, increased unemployment, and overreach on the part of our government. It is important to realize that raising the minimum wage will result in more positive outcomes than negative but it must be done gradually. It would boost consumer

Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 is not a good idea. The unintended consequences that would come about as a result is reason enough to shy away from such a proposal. Those who support an increase contend that it will alleviate poverty. Suppose these advocates are right and a spike in the minimum wage does reduce poverty for some fortunate workers. This positive development will be offset because an increase in the minimum wage will further price out inexperienced workers from the job market, resulting in an increase in unemployment and, ironically enough, poverty. It is a classic catch-22 situation. When all the negative effects are taken into account, is an increase in the minimum wage a wise policy decision? As expounded further, no it is not.

One problem that comes with raising the minimum wage is people losing their jobs. What happens is companies have to pay their employees more and they don’t have enough to keep all their employees. “ This hike will increase the cost of labor. Therefore, some jobs will be priced out of existence and some workers will be out of jobs” (McBride). The companies will have to assess their workers skills more thoroughly, meaning they will keep the best of the best and fire the rest. Fast food places are one of the most common minimum wage payer. For the majority of fast food places they have the choices to raise their wages and raise their prices or close some of their restaurants. Consequently, the restaurants choose to fire their employees and instead get a automated kiosks, a touch screen, electronic device that allows one to order their meal. Other companies choose to close a certain number of offices to be “fair” to their employees, but in the end the workers who work in those offices lose their jobs and the company is losing even more revenue.One may argue that if the federal government keeps paying for this wage increase, then companies won’t have to lay off their workers. However, the federal government gets most of their revenue from Americans in tax form and if the federal government has to pay more so do the taxpayers. This increase will cause a larger ripple in the

The federal minimum wage has not kept up with inflation. More specifically, as inflation prices increase, the wages of minimum wage workers have stayed constant. If the minimum wage had kept paced with inflation, workers would have been earning $11.16 per hour in 2016 (“Should the Federal”). This is a significant difference compared to today’s standard minimum wage of $7.50. If minimum wage was approximately $11.16, workers would have more discretionary income, more money for paying bills, and more money for purchasing food. As a result of not keeping up with inflation, minimum wage workers have lost 8.1% of their purchasing power (“Should the Federal”). Inflation has caused the prices of goods to increase but the wages have not increased. Logically, this means people cannot buy as many goods. By raising the minimum wage, workers will be able to adapt to economy. For these reasons, the government must

Increasing the minimum wage will progress the economy in many ways such as, increased buying power, faster rates of job growth, and decreasing the need for taxpayer-funded assistance. When consumers have more on-hand cash to spend, they are able to spend money on retail goods and services. Greater demand and sales for these businesses is likely to cause the need for more workers over time. Studies done by Paul Sonn and Yannet Lathrop show that in a majority of instances an increase in the federal

The most affected segment of the economy by raising the minimum wage is small businesses. Small businesses will quickly dwindle away as a result of raising of the national minimum wage. As an example consider a small pizza shop. An increase in the minimum wage of 1 dollar an hour adds $16,000 to labor costs. Going to 15 dollars an hour adds $128,000 to labor costs, almost 3 times the take-home pay of the owners. This money could be money that is going to be taken straight out of the owner's pocket, affecting their family, business, and livelihood. Ask yourself how one of the 5 million small businesses with fewer than 10 workers would handle this, they can’t. More realistically the owners won’t absorb the increase, the increase will cause people to get laid off. If a pizza shop has 17 employees who all work two to three days a week. These businesses can easily decrease to ten or eleven people who have to work harder and more frequently. This will cause people to lose their jobs which

Raising the minimum wage is a big issue in the United States, especially if someone live in Colorado states. In Colorado, the living cost is going up rapidly but the minimum wage is not raising compare to the expenses. The Federal Minimum Wage is widely considered to be the backbone of American workers’ rights. Minimum wage was created and implemented to ensure that workers get paid fairly for the time that they work, and get paid enough to support themselves and their families. However, this, though once a reality, is no longer happening. Because of the inadequacy of the Federal Minimum Wage, and perhaps more importantly, the gross negligence of the Executive Branch of the United States government of said inadequacy, as was displayed by the Republican ¬controlled Congress blocking a bill in 2014 that would have raised the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10 per hour, workers are suffering and struggling to avoid poverty and personal economic disaster. The federal minimum wage is far too low, and needs to be raised. Though this issue of raising the Federal Minimum Wage is thought to be, and largely portrayed as a partisan issue supported mainly by Democrats, increasing the minimum wage is supported by 73% of constituents across both parties and by people who identify as an independent, according to the Pew Research Center. The need for an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage is highlighted by the fact that by 2014, 29 states, The

Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would cost the economy between 500,000 and 1 million jobs and an increase in $15.00 per hour would cost 6 million jobs. In 1938, Congress first enacted minimum wage that started as $0.25 per hour as a part of FDRś New Deal during the Great Depression. Today, 21 states have a minimum wage that is higher than the Federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage should not be raised because there will be drastic and negative effects on society.