Should Minimum Wage Be Increased? Essay

The fast-food workers are expressed as a pond in a bigger game. They have to deal with their low pay in order to ensure low prices by these franchises. Jencunas concerns go on to represent the beginning of a bigger chain effect. Briefly, he states that, “The average fast food store would go from profitable to unprofitable overnight. Some would close immediately, leaving their workers worse off than they were when working for $7.50 an hour, while others would raise prices and try and remain in business, hurting consumers” (“Don't Deserve Any More, or Less”). Evaluating his reasoning we see that if fast-food workers ask for a higher minimum wage, they will in return influence the profit margin and actually increase unemployment rate in this industry. The researchers go on to inform us that if their minimum wage increases the industry won’t be able to afford the change in their profit margin and result in bankruptcy. However, Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which supports the fast-food strike states a different claim:

The reality is that salaries have not been increasing fast enough to keep up with inflation. In the article “PRO/CON: Living Wage for Fast-food Workers?” it states that “It would be $17 per hour today instead of a meager $7.25” proving that salary is not increasing as fast as inflation. In “Mcdonald’s Raising its Minimum Wage, but Some Say it’s Not Enough” it is said “Mcdonald’s projected by the end of 2016, the average wage rate for employees at its company-owned locations would exceed $10 an hour.” Even with this slight increase wage theft that is being performed by many fast food companies makes it difficult to support a

In the article “No, Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Is Not Hurting Workers,” Michelle Chen claims that raising the nation’s minimum wage will improve millions of employees and their families and the only adverse effects are just temporary. Seattle enacted a law with the intention of increasing the minimum wage over a period of time to $15 per hour, which is just now, thanks to the efforts of “Fight for 15,” becoming beneficial to the restaurant industry. It has been found that employers are abiding by the new law and employees are profiting from the change, at least in the restaurant business. Chen claims that Research finds that the new minimum wage is benefiting restaurant employees that previously earned less than $15, and furthermore clarifies

A fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage will affect over three hundred thousand workers and cost over two hundred twenty eight million dollars over the next five years(Deng 1). San Francisco raised the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. That being said The Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institution, Adam Ozimek and Stephen Bronars of Edgewood Economics reported that since the increase many restaurants and hotels have laid off workers (Puzder 1). This comes as no surprise since in 2014 the Congressional Budget Office found that increasing the minimum wage to ten dollars and ten cents an hour would result in 500,000 job losses ( Puzder 1). As of right now 6.5 million Americans are working part time because they’re unable to find full-time jobs and opportunities ( Puzder 1). Raising minimum wage is only going to hurt those that are currently part time, unemployed and the upcoming generation of young adults just now about to enter the working

According to a study done by Perdue University, “…paying fast-food restaurant employees $15 an hour could lead to higher prices. Prices at those businesses could increase by an estimated 4.3%, according to the report” (Wihbey, Effects of raising the minimum wage: Research and critical lessons”). With a higher minimum wage, businesses must then pay their employees more, and to pay these additional expenses; they are coerced to charge more for their products, which impacts everybody, making it more difficult for people to provide for their families. The Cato Institute stated, “According to a review of more than 20 minimum wage studies observing price effects found that a 10 percent increase in the US minimum wage raises food prices by up to 4 percent” (Wilson, “Four Reasons Not to Raise the Minimum Wage”). If the federal minimum wage increases from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, it is being increased by slightly more than 206%, which, according to this study, could lead to almost an 84% growth in food prices. According to another study on the effects of an increase in the federal minimum wage on consumer prices in the Reason magazine, “Raising the minimum wage to $15 could increase the cost of food by 43%” (47: 10). After a significant increase in the federal minimum wage, the employees who did not lose their jobs would then be receiving

The effect of minimum wage increases on job growth is at the core of this debate, many wondered if Cardin’s claim was accurate. As many will see, the data is inconclusive, and there isn’t an expert consensus -- even among leading economists. Because Cardin was talking about congressional action, there will be more focus on federal minimum wage increases and nationwide job growth. After many companies dug around it was found that there was no real evidence proving and increase of jobs due to the increase in the federal minimum wage. They decided to go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For each year Congress raised the minimum wage since 1978, they looked at how much employment went up or decreased one year after a new change went into effect. The first federal minimum wage was put into effect in 1938, but it was not consistent across all industries until 1978. Below is a chart showing the years that Congress raised the minimum wage, employment the month that the change went into effect, and employment one year later, as well as the number of months that saw job

While I think that the minimum wage should be raised to $15.00 an hour, Mark Perry, a scholar at AEI and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan 's Flint campus, argues “Seattle’s new minimum wage law takes effect April 1 but is already leading to restaurant closings and job losses” (Perry). Perry wants us to know that the Seattle’s new minimum wage law is “a government-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for many workers,” and increasing the minimum wage will surely leads to small business closing and job losses (Perry). However, what he said is erroneous, and a recent report written by Michael Hiltzik, an American columnist and reporter, won a beat reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and won a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in 2004, also validated this statement.

Supporters of an increase in minimum wage, the McDonalds employees that demand $15 per hour, argue that they need a “living pay”. Furthermore, they state that it will bring workers out of poverty and will have little negative effects. There is evidence to support this claim. One of them being that when the minimum wage increased from $6.25 to $7.25, there was no immediate negative effect.

Supporters of an increase in minimum wage, the McDonalds employees that demand $15 per hour, argue that they need a “living pay”. They state that it will bring workers out of poverty and will have little negative effects. There is evidence to support this claim. One of them being that when the minimum wage increased from $6.25 to $7.25, there was no immediate negative affect.

In the United States alone there are around 3 million people who work in fast food restaurants. They get paid minimum wage. This year in the city of chicago the minimum wage went up to $10 and taxes went up from 9.25% to 10.25% making it one of the most expensive cities in the country. There was a debate rather they should of raised the minimum wage or not because they feared the taxes would increase as well. While the minimum wage is around $7-$10 across the country a new demand to raise the minimum wage to $15 is being talked about. Fast food workers across the country in major cities like New York and LA are protesting to get $15 an hour. Many are upset despite the fact that all they do is push buttons and flip burgers. Fast food employees do not deserve a $15 wage because there are other jobs that require more skills that don’t even get paid $12 an hour.

First, we will look at the claim that a raise of the base pay for employees will cause an increase in unemployment and job loss. For the side that support an increase in minimum wages hold that the loss of jobs would be negligible. When looking at the fast food industry in Minimum Wages and Employment: a Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Dr. David Card and Dr. Alan Krueger found that when one state, New Jersey, raised their wages by $0.80, the job growth mirrored Pennsylvania which did not raise wages (p.792). These findings would support a conclusion that the minimum wage increase

The cost of living in the United States has gone on a rapid increase over the past few decades, and with it also being at an all time high we must avoid any increase in in consumer price goods in America. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago claimed that if minimum wage were increased fast food chain and other firms alike would pass on almost 100% of the increased labor costs onto customers(ProCon, Con 4). This means that the prices of all the items on the menu would increase. There would no longer be the well known and loved “Dollar Menu” because the items would no longer be a dollar. A Purdue study also predicted that a minimum wage increase from $15-$22 for fast food employees would result in result in a price increase of 4.3% and 25% respectively and a size reduction between 15 - 20% (ProCon, Con 4). So if minimum wage is increased to $15-$22, a burger from a fast food restaurant could cost up to 25% more and be up to 20% smaller, with this being the result, even the largest income companies can not keep up with the labor increase resulting in them inflating. The effects have already taken their toll in Oakland, California. NBC News recently found out that when the minimum wage was increased by 36%, the price of coffee rose by 10-20% (ProCon, Con 4). Although minimum wage in 1968 was $1.60 which is equivalent to $11.16 today(ProCon, Pro 4), the reason it is worth $11.16 today is because we as a

he industry could be ready for another jolt as a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour nears in the District and as other campaigns to boost wages gain traction around the country. About 30 percent of the restaurant industry’s costs come from salaries, so burger-flipping robots — or at least super-fast ovens that expedite the process — become that much more cost-competitive if the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is doubled.

Opponents to minimum wage raise claim that the minimum wage costs jobs by pricing low-wage workers out of the labor market. However, when we review academic studies that examine the effects of minimum wage increases on

The article that we are critiquing is aimed to assess the blow of increased minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.05 per hour in 1992 on the employees working in fast-food restaurants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The author has shown two comparisons in this study. The first comparison is the employment growth rates at the fast food stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, before and after the minimum wage raise. The second comparison is the change in employment rate from fast food stores (in both states) that pay higher wages initially to the lower wage stores. Krueger Card concluded that there was no indication or signs that the minimum wage increase, decreased employment