Should The Minimum Wage Be Increased In The United States?

The main reason raising the minimum wage radically would kill the economy is the pressure it would place on small businesses. According to TheWashingtonPost.com article, Small Businesses are the backbone of the economy. They also cited that many studies from the U.S. Small Business Administration show small firms employ just

Next, another problem the rise of minimum wage poses is the rise of inflation. If employers are required to pay their employees more, then they need to do something to compensate for the extra money they are losing. With this in mind, employers would have to increase the prices of goods. But sometimes raising prices is not an option for employers. “If a business cannot simply pass along its new labor costs, it must somehow absorb them—by eliminating workers rendered unproductive by the new minimum wage, by replacing labor with more-productive machines, or by cutting production” (Intorduction 2). This brings back the issue of minimum wage causing a dramatic increase in unemployment. Sherk believes it is the wrong time to increase minimum wage, due to the fact that America is currently in a recession. The right time to think about raising minimum wage would be when the unemployment rate drops drastically. Sherk states “In 2007, Congress voted to increase the minimum wage, raising it in three $0.70 increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The final installment represents a 10 percent increase in the cost of hiring minimum wage employees” (Sherk 1). Seemly inflation and minimum wage increases influence each other.

The controversy over minimum wage has been ongoing. However, as explained in a Time article by Chris Lu on the subject, now is the prime time to raise the federal minimum wage. “Three out of four Americans support an increase; the economy is healthy; and many employers are already raising wages.” It’s reasonable to be worried about the consequences that raising the minimum wage might have in a time of crisis or unrest, but this quote mentions a healthy economy that would be able to handle the shifts in wages if things went south temporarily. Another argument made by opposers of raising the minimum is that businesses will be unable to survive. On the contrary, a good business will find it beneficial. “‘It’s a simple, but critical, concept: take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.’ For &pizza, higher wages reduce employee turnover, increase productivity and improve customer service.” Rather than hurting the economy, raising the minimum wage will help workers, business owners and the economy itself. A higher wage for all is

The federal minimum wage law was signed in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt in order to keep people out of poverty and increase consumer purchasing power. This has done the opposite by hurting businesses and reducing employment, while minimum wages go up, so will the costs of living. Most of the people working for minimum wage are 16 between 24 years old, 37% of workers are going to school working part time. Enrollment tuition has increased over the years, and raising the minimum wage could mean further increasing expenses. But, for people who aren 't pursuing an education and begin working right out of school, the federal minimum wage $7.25 looks like it can be hard to live on. Raising the minimum wage would most likely increase with the cost of living, making cost of living or tuition even more expensive, making it harder to pay for groceries or bills. Just because someone starts out at a minimum wage job, doesn 't mean they can 't progress through the company and earn a better wage over the years. Minimum wages are more for entry level paying jobs that don 't require any certain set of skills to be able to do what they ask. Maintaining the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 will help stop rise of inflation.

As a result of the Great Depression, in 1938, the federal minimum wage was put into effect as a part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The government established the federal minimum wage to ensure that employers were not underpaying their employees, and many states also have set other varying minimum wages as well based on the cost of living in those particular areas. According to the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “The federal minimum wage ranged from a low of $3.09 in 1948 to a high of $8.67 an hour in 1968” (Pye, “No we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage”). Also, according to the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “The historical average minimum wage was $6.60” (Pye, “No we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage”). Many supporters of raising the minimum wage want to increase our current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, which is more than double the average, more than twice the current, and almost twice as much as the all-time high minimum wage. James Sherk, Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics, concluded the following from his research: “Congress typically raises the minimum wage only

Would raising minimum wage benefit our society? Changing minimum wage could potentially hurt the economy. It would be nice to have an increase in pay; However it would only lead to inflation (The act of inflating or the state of being inflated Webster dictionary) with the economy.

Many argue that raising the minimum wage makes hiring workers more expensive, eliminates jobs at the bottom, slows growth and ultimately raises unemployment. Economic studies show that raising the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation creates little additional harm, but what the president is

Raising minimum wage would lead to an increase in demand and a lowering of supply. The price of goods would increase, along with the services. The shortage of jobs would increase the poverty rate and crime rate.

The United States’ minimum wage has been a concerning issue amongst the low wage earners because of the amount they earn is not enough for them to live on their own. Therefore causing the citizens who earn minimum wage to have an impossible time finding a place to stay and expenses for daily survival. Increasing the minimum wage will solve the issues that the minimum wage earners make, thus increasing the chances of survival for the entire population. Inflation is one of the reasons why minimum wage is a big issue, the minimum wage has not been keeping up with inflation at all causing things that would regularly be cheap to be more costly than it used to be. There are people who are against the raise of the minimum wage and may say that there will be an increase between of unemployment rate between the younger people because of the fact

Minimum wage has a big impact on the economy and has the potential to harm it. Raising minimum wage to the right amount is a key to keeping the economy safe. If minimum wage is increased to $10.10, it will increase economic activity and create more jobs. Raising minimum wage too high will harm businesses and the economy. In an article by Lauren Dixon, she wrote that “If a new minimum wage is set low and close to labor costs, there would be minimal harm to business; if set too high,

Minimum wage is the lowest wage paid or permitted to be paid (1). Americans have been debating raising minimum wage for years. The people that want the raise in pay believe that it will help workers who are not as qualified and need a salary they can support themselves on. The people who do not want the raise realize the damaging effects it will have on this country. These jobs do not require a great amount of skill so having a low pay is understandable. Minimum wage jobs were not created for people to support themselves and a family with. Raising minimum wage would hurt Americans more than help them because in the end prices of goods will increase and people will lose their jobs.

How would a minimum wage increase effect employment and family income, businesses, and the economy are just a few of the main arguments. Typically any increase in wage also increases income right? Raising the wage in the perception of small business is not usually a good move for the economy. Poverty is an important factor when it comes the economy and minimum wage could be the solution to that.

Minimum wage is the lowest amount a business is allowed to pay its employers by law. In the past several years, many state legislators have been trying to increase this amount. Currently, in the state of Pennsylvania the minimum wage is $7.25 but in some states, such as California, it is up to $10 already (Whiteman.) This topic is of high interest to myself and others because a change in the minimum wage can have drastic affects on the economy. Many people want the government to pass new laws for a higher minimum wage; some want the wage up to fifteen dollars an hour. Increasing the minimum wage at such a large amount will have a major impact on the economy. This side argues that an increased minimum wage is just what the United States needs.

The minimum wage should be increased because there are many people who do not have jobs and who need to support themselves. There are millions of adult workers as well who could not go to college or could not afford it and now they have to work. Many workers could have deferred a year and could have several jobs to support for college or family. Therefore, increasing the minimum wage would help millions of people. Raising the minimum wage would decrease dropout rates since most teens drop out because they do not have enough money and would rather work than go to school. It would also increase attendance because now that the workers get paid more, they would want to go to work.

You may wonder how the economy is affected negatively through minimum wage, so I’ll start there. The health of the economy is based upon an array of factors. Many people misconstrue this fact and think the economy is just based on the amount of money that the government have at their disposal and to be frank I can see why they do as such. The fact of the matter is that the economy and its health is based mostly on Gross Domestic Product or better known as GDP. The GDP alone does not indicate how well our economy is swaying, but change in it do. The goal for our economy and is to grow, have great price stability, and most importantly for this topic: have a high employment rate. Employment rate stand out most in this instance because of the power that minimum wage law has over it. One point that can easily be made that the higher the wage, the more people are going to want to get up and get up and work. The problem with that logic is that the demand for jobs will be high, but the supply for jobs will run out well before everyone is employed if the minimum wages was incredibly