Should The Minimum Wage Be Raised? Essay

A bill increasing the current minimum wage is greatly needed, and our government officials should demand a raise due to the increase in the cost of living, as it’s no longer realistic. We need higher paying wages for all, middle and lower class income levels. Without some sort of help and support from our government the economy will only get worse. Students will not be able to afford the cost of school and living. Single family households will not be able to support their selves.

Do you feel that the minimum wage is often too low in North Carolina for not only teenagers, but for adults providing for families as well. Do you think that the minimum wage should be raised a few dollars to allow citizens working on minimum wage to pay for college, save for insurance, buy food, and pay for rent? The average citizen must work hours on end to provide enough money to live sustainably. Thousands of kids live in poverty, and barely have enough food to stay nourished. These are the reasons on why we should raise the minimum wage.

Should the minimum wage be raised? This question is the question being asked by millions across the United States. Most people will say yes, however, an economist will most likely say no. This is a very important subject and what the people of the United States should be compelled to notice as well as take action on the minimum wage. In the United States, 3 million people make less than the federal minimum wage. Furthermore, with over 60 million people living in the lower middle class the minimum wage is not high enough. That's why the minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour because CEO's support it as well as it presents a living wage.

There are many employees who find themselves working full-time for what the government has so generously termed the “minimum wage”. In Missouri, the minimum wage has been set at a rather appalling $7.65 per hour while in other states there are wages starting as high as $10. Though arguably the economy is not as sluggish and terrible as it once was, $7.65 per hour will not help those who have children, no college degree and debts to pay. It is not only Missouri that has minimum wage laws, but every other state in America has minimum wage laws in place. Both California and Seattle recently established a plan that would see their minimum wages rise to $15 by 2021. The question for all the other forty-eight states remains, should the minimum wage be raised?

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.

Investing in employees is the single most important investment that a company can make. A lot of Americans are now in deep poverty, or have a huge amount of debt to catch up too. With the thought of that, in the United States today, millions of Americans are living on the federal minimum wage of $7.25. For this case, it is necessary that there is a need for an increase in the federal minimum wage because it would be much more beneficial to both the economy of the United States and to individual workers because more Americans need spending power, higher minimum wage will help close the wide gap between the wealthy and the poor, and the working poor need to protect themselves in case something goes wrong.

As our federal government debates the idea to raise the minimum wage, there are several interesting questions that occur. Most importantly, should we raise the minimum wage? I believe it is a bad idea to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour up to $10.10 or more in a short period of time. I will explain why raising minimum wage radically would kill jobs and hurt our economy.

First, Business prices will raise which can affect consumers because now they’re wallets will be affected. On top of that, the population that purchases products from that company will go down which will save the company money. That’s a bad thing because the reason they fired the employees is because they did not have enough money. So they just got rid of employees that they may need now.

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.

“Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. … And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”

When the cost of labor is increased artificially by legislation instead of through market forces, companies will attempt to reduce their cost. When you pay someone more to work, the assumption is that they will have more disposable income and increased consumption will contribute to the economy as a whole. By increasing the cost of labor without an increase in productivity, market forces will cause a business to look for alternatives either through reduction in work force or by relocating jobs (offshoring). While those who are still employed will see an increase in pay, those lost their job will have no income and the government will lose the taxes associated with those jobs.

"No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty."

Minimum wages go all the way back to 1938, during the great depression, when the stock market crash and bank loan were failing. Families need income of some type, were they wanted to make it fair were individual could get pay the same without a college degree. I am going to start off with a little about minimum wages history and how this could help our Economic.

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 is not the answer. The various amount of unintended consequences that would come about as a result is reason enough not to support an increase. Those who support an increase contend that it will alleviate poverty. Suppose a spike in the minimum wage does reduce poverty for some workers. This development will be offset since an increase in the minimum wage will further price out inexperienced workers from the job market, resulting in an increase in unemployment and thus, poverty. This can properly be described as a catch-22 situation; no matter happens, someone will lose. When you take these negative affects into account, is an increase in the minimum wage worth it? As expounded further, no it is not.

Congress enacted the federal minimum wage in 1938, during the Great Depression. Congress had two goals; keeping workers away from poverty and boosting consumer spending for economic recovery. Today, there is a debate, whether we should increase the minimum wage again. Increasing the minimum wage is useful for several reasons. First, the current minimum wage has failed to keep up with inflation. Second, a higher income level reduces employee turnover and increases efficiency and ultimately, raising the minimum wage does not reduce employment. Even with high unemployment rates, the minimum wage is useful for the economy.