Raising The Minimum Wage

Minimum wages laws fluctuate throughout all fifty (50) states. The federal government has minimum wage set at $7.25. Although the government has the law in place, states and cities must right to increase the minimum wage, but they are not allowed to decrease the value below the federal law. According to Caplinger, there are about twenty- one (21) states that have a minimum wage higher than the national level. These states that have higher minimum wage tend to have a higher population. For example, California, as a state, has decided to increase their minimum wage law due to the standard of living. This law to raise minimum wage to ¬¬¬$10.50 in California is in progress to take effect in January 2018(Kravosky). Some cities within states, can create their own minimum wage. Cities create these minimum wages based on the population size, cost of living, and size of the city. For example, Atlanta, Georgia has a minimum wage of $15 an hour but the state of Georgia has minimum wage set

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.

Colorado ($8.00) according to usatoday.com. These states are raising the minimum wage in a similar way as Minnesota in the way of raising it over the next couple years. These states are already in the top 25 for highest unemployment rates according to http://en.wikipedia.org/. Raising minimum wage is going to negatively affect this because states will have to fire more people to try and compensate for the pay increase.

In conclusion, debate over raising the minimum wage has been a hot topic. Raising minimum wage would reduce poverty, be better for lower paid workers, and to reduce expense for social programs. So, I believe we need to raise minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 because it will greatly benefit this

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.

The most recent update to the federal minimum wage was in 2009, when it was raised to $7.25 an hour. Note that 29 states have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate.

Should minimum wage be increased? Passage one strongly supports and gives details on why minimum wage should be raised. Many workers are asking for a national minimum wage increase to $15 per hour, while others say that a higher minimum wage will stifle business and ultimately hurt the economy. So, should the minimum wage be increased or not? The federal minimum wage was introduced in 1938 during the Great Depression under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was initially set at $0.25 per hour and has been increased by Congress 22 times, most recently in 2009 when it went from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour. 29 states plus the District of Columbia (DC) have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage. 2,561,000 workers earn the federal minimum wage or below.

Under new legislations, both New York and California are willing to increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. Although this will be a slow process, as an increase immediately will put an economic risk on business, especially for small business, this increase in minimum wage will be beneficiary and advantageous for individuals with low pay and with those who have families.

The United States government should not bring up minimum up to $15 per hour. For example, in the article “ A New Dawn For the Minimum Wage” Don Lee states “when Oaklands minimum wage jumped from $9 an hour to $12.25 in March, residents noticed many stores tacked on a dime or a quarter to an assortment of items.” This is explaining that prices have gone up ever since minimum wage went up. Therefore, if minimum wage was to up everything will be more expensive and everything would be difficult to buy.

Since then there have been an increasing number of states that increased minimum wage in their states. According to the National Conference of State Legislators in 2014 29 states and D.C have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage. In 2016 New York will raise the minimum wage in New York City to $15 per hour by the end of 2018 and in California it increases the minimum wage to $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2022, for employers with 26 or more employees and for employers with 25 or fewer employees the minimum wage will reach $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2023. Many states are moving toward increasing the minimum age and the President is also one of

The article “California Reaches Deal on $15 Minimum Wage” by Paul Davidson is about California’s minimum wage should be raised up to $15 an hour and it is in deal. Governor Jerry Brown and state legislators are propelling to raise California's minimum wage up to $15 in an hour by 2020. According to Fight for $15, about 6.5 million people in California, or 43% of the state's workforce, will earn less than $15. A dozen cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and many other municipalities in California, have already raised their minimum wage to $15. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a $ 15 fee for New York City from 2019 to 2021. Labor advocates agreed with the pact. However, I disagree with this concern, and I think that

Raising the minimum wage can result in job losses due to lower profits for businesses. It can also potentially decrease employee hours by changing them from full time to part time. Additionally, it may reduce the full time benefits that they receive. If this were to happen, then the employees affected will actually be earning less than they did before the increase. For example, from the Article Maximum Divide on Minimum Wage (Mejeur, 2014), they state, “Labor costs are the largest share of the budget Mandatory hourly wages mean that businesses will be forced to cut jobs or reduce hours to maintain their bottom line”. This shows that when businesses are forced to spend more money, they lose profits that could have helped create more jobs and company expansion. If they are tied back due to be forced to increase wages without economic justification, then companies in America will not be improving, but rather just surviving. Since the overall goal for most businesses is to improve profits and enlarge their businesses, it is safe to assume that, in order for companies to survive, that the minimum wage needs to stay the same unless there is viable economic justification to do so. Artificially being forced to increase the minimum wage due to a government sanction or mandate is ill advised. If an increase in wage needs to be implemented, then the government needs to create policies that aid economic expansion for companies to be able to afford it. These policies could

Let’s go back to September of 1997, where minimum wage was only $5.15. Now a day you can’t even buy a container of milk with that. In 2007, Minimum wage increased to $5.85, then in 2008 it increased to $6.55. But as of July 24, 2009, minimum wage increased to $7.25 an hour and still has not changed. (Krakovsky, 2017)

As of 2017 the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour (“Federal”). Based on the region of the country, $7.25 may be enough, but for some regions this is not a fair hourly wage. It is impossible for the federal government to make a fair minimum wage. On top of that, a national increase would eliminate many jobs for the American people. Also, a national increase would cause employers to invest in machinery to complete the labor rather than humans. States should be in charge of setting their own minimum wage.

Did you know that 29 states and Washington, DC has minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25? Washington, DC has the highest minimum wage rate of $11.50 per hour whereas, Georgia and Wyoming have the lowest minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. Rate of unemployment and low-income workers are increasing these days. People turn to public assistance for help because they can’t afford. Economic policy institute said low-income workers receive $45 billion in government assistance each year(Cooper), if the minimum wage were raised millions of Americans would not have to rely on public assistance programs. Minimum wage should be increased because it has numerous benefits such as increasing the employment rate, reducing poverty, increase school attendance, reduce high school drop-outs rate, government welfare spending, federal deficit, race and gender inequality, crimes and increase in healthier population.