Should The Government Increase The Minimum Wage Reduce Poverty?

To begin, there is an extensive debate over whether if the U.S were to raise minimum wage, could it really help the working poor of low income families. Nancy Cook, in her article from the National Journal, “Why a Minimum-Wage Hike Can’t Help the Poor”, she points out that two thirds of around 100 surveys from 2007 had a negative effect and that it does more for the middle class than the lower one. (p.14). So, therefore, from her

Jason Furman and Parrot Sharon explain why raising minimum wage will help families. The wage has to be elevated to just the point where a family can actually afford all the necessities they need in order to survive. The cost of living in houses for poor people makes it difficult for them to afford it and is difficult to stay on task with all the bills. Many minimum wage workers have families to support. The cost of raising children is very expensive. It is an average of $7,100 per year. Minimum wage workers can barely afford to pay child care for one child, let alone two. Increasing minimum wage will also make life easier to those who have food stamps and child care needs. Which can also help them get into college a lot faster so they can go out and pursue a better paying job.

When there are millions of Americans living at or below poverty lines, something has to be done. Billion dollar companies and businesses that employ workers, paying them low wages is hurting the economy. The reality is, unless the minimum wage is raised, the cycle will only continue. With higher minimum wages in place, the entire country does better and, therefore, should be raised. There needs to be laws put place to raise the minimum wage. Doing so would boost the economy with all of the money that Americans would put into it. With higher minimum wages, millions of Americans can get out of poverty, not having to rely on the government for assistance such as food stamps, public housing, child care, and health care needs. They can afford better housing options in which they want to live. Communities would see less crimes in neighborhoods creating a safer environment. Aside from that, Americans can afford a good education, health care, as well as healthier eating and exercising habits.

According to the American Enterprise Institute, it is stated by president Obama that increasing the minimum wage: “would alleviate poverty”. The president is certainly correct, this wouldn't help everyone. As the information given: only 11.3% of the people will get beneficiated by this raise. Why this? People who don’t work are the ones in poverty; and because firing some its workers, there will be more poverty than there was before. And if the case is that a company keeps their employees… the people

Raising the minimum wage is a very important public policy issue. Raising the minimum wage is a responsible policy that is supported by research and demanded by the American public. Each day, minimum wage workers across the country struggle to make ends meet and provide a decent life for their kids (Scott & Perez, 2016). Raising the minimum wage is a controversial issue, many believe that raising the minimum wage would only provide low wage workers more money to spend. However, the benefits can be endless for low wage workers. If minimum wage is increased across the United States it would afford the people effected more opportunities for financial freedom. Increasing the minimum wage would raise the standard of living for low wage workers, allow families to be removed from poverty, allow for government welfare spending to be reduced and lastly additional income being spent would positively affect the economy.

Right now,according to Victoria Smith,over 40 million people are living in poverty. This could be changed if they were able to get enough money from their jobs, but the minimum wage isn’t high enough right now. Even if only by a little, if minimum wage were raised, the amount of people living in poverty could be reduced by at least 5 million according to Mike Konczal . Originally, the minimum wage was at only .25 cents an hour. Due to causes such as inflation, this wage has been raised to meet the current standard. Although interest in raising the wage has gone away until recently. Minimum wage should be increased because it would increase job growth and economic activity,it would reduce government spending on welfare, and reduce poverty.

This has been a discussion for the ages. The 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.

"In fact, data from CPS suggests that the majority of poor families with heads of household of prime working age simply don’t work, so a minimum wage has no impact on these families." (Durden). The correlation between minimum wage and low-income families is weak. There are alternatives that could be more economically efficient for low-income families. It would be a delusion to think that raising the minimum wage would be the most economically efficient way to help low-income families.

In the United States alone, the amount of people in poverty is 14.5%. That equates to 45.3 million people in 2013. In a country like America, one of the world’s superpowers, it’s embarrassing to admit. But the main issue is to fix issues like these with the minimum wage and welfare. The minimum wage applies to workers who got a job whether because they were in school or because they had not gone to college and had no other option. Most of the country lives off as minimum wage workers as only 1% of the world’s population has a college degree. Minimum wage needs to be adjusted to modern inflation. But the minimum wage allegedly does not affect poverty at all says a large demographic and does not need to be adjusted. The minimum wage makes up a lot of the country and should be adjusted or modified to today’s standard of living.

It is a popular opinion that increasing the minimum wage would reduce income inequality by the process that an increase would have a ripple effect, raising the incomes of people who make slightly above the minimum wage, and then slightly above that and so on and so on, thus changing the distribution of wealth within society. As a result, a minimum wage increase would help reduce gender and race inequality, since a greater representation of women and minorities work in the low-income labor force. Minimum wage advocates maintain that the current minimum wage is not high enough to enable people to afford housing and everyday essentials. They believe raising the minimum wage would combat poverty and lead to a healthier population. Improving the level of poverty in the United States would increase school attendance, and decrease crime and high school dropout rates. Finally, defenders of the minimum wage argue that the minimum wage helps to reduce the federal deficit. Raising the minimum wage would reduce the federal budget deficit by increasing tax revenue and lowering government spending on public aid programs. Payroll and income tax revenues would rise as a result of an increase in the minimum wage, and the federal deficit

Raising minimum wage 10% would reduce the amount of poverty by 2.4% ( Konzal, Mike. ) The raise of minimum wage may be able to pull 4.6 million people out of poverty. Although there are 45 million people in poverty, pulling 4.6 million out is a good start. With raising minimum wage there are possibilities of it boosting workers incomes by 10% which is an increase of $1,700. A raise like this is a big boost to people's quality of life and living conditions. Having high paying jobs for workers would pull about 900,000 americans out of poverty and raise the income of 16.5 million workers all around the US. While raising minimum wage has some positive outcomes there is more possibility for negative outcome. Positive effects like poverty rates possibly dropping are great but not enough money can be made. Workers income will be raised because of the wage raise but it is not good enough. If firms pay more they are going to look for less workers because of the raise or resort to other ways of work. A raise in minimum wage has opportunities to pull people out of poverty and raise incomes of people but it is not 't enough. ( Khimm, Suzy. )

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.

Contrary to these beliefs, I believe that raising the minimum wage will not only benefit the company and employee immensely, but overall increase the productivity of workers. The raising of the minimum wage will help these low income families support their families, which decreases the poverty level too.

The poverty levels in America are a major problem. The cost of things like rent and education have risen dramatically in the recent years, making it difficult not only to live, but also to become a skilled worker with a lot to offer companies. Unfortunately, minimum wage has not kept up with rapidly rising prices. People working on minimum wage cannot support themselves, much less a family. Many think that the problem can be easily solved with a raise in federal minimum wage, but those people fail to understand the many trade-offs that would accompany. Not only would a minimum wage raise to 15$ have a major effect on employers costs and the cost of goods, but it would also cause a major rise in unemployment(Gitis and Holtz-Eakin). A raise in minimum wage would not only fail to move the lower class out of poverty, but would have adverse effects on the majority of them.

As stated by Ramirez, et al., “...there is no statistical significance between minimum wage and poverty rate.” From an international standpoint, Gindling also repeats this in terms of developing countries using similar reasoning. Poverty, however, while still a major issue within the United States, may be easier to fight here due to the laws keeping most people non-exempt from the minimum wage. Additionally, poverty is not the main target of a minimum wage increase; rather, a minimum wage increase allows for upward mobility among those who are struggling now, which over generations can resolve poverty.