Summary: Increase In Pay For Low Wage Workers

In the book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich a nonfiction she confronts the problem that the lower class is struggling to get by on the minimum wage offered.She also discusses the difficulties that the lower classes face for example overbearing and strict bosses,having problems with transportation to get to work, barely making rent,nearly no breaks, and having working two jobs back to back in order to provide for their families. She goes undercover as a worker in order to see what it would be like and she found out that the menial labor often overcame her and she would dream of her old life.

In the United States, Americans are painfully aware that poverty is a massive upsurge. Americans are getting poor and poor by the minute and that’s a problem. In the book “Men We Reaped” Jesmyn Ward explains that society sees our life being worth nothing. If I had the choice to change poverty I would raise the minimum wage so more people would want to work and the money can at least accommodate for a 3 house family with one person working.

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.

There is also a major case of gentrification, where suburban Americans are moving to urban neighborhoods raising the process of living and resulting in the Americans living in those neighborhoods to have to move to the suburbs. Resulting in the suburbs now facing poverty and lacking the resources to aid the people who are moving there, like public transportation. There has been a frequent amount of progress to help the working poor, however, there has been no improvement because it is nowhere near what is actually needed. A major point which was made in the movie was that once you are working, you no longer qualify for assistance because you would now be making too much. Many of the working poor have incomes right at the poverty level and because of that they do not qualify. It is a major problem, because these individuals are just making enough to get by and not to actual “live comfortably”. Overall the film explains, because of Americans not believing in the seriousness of poverty or the ones affected by it there has been no major moves to improve it resulting in poverty rates only getting higher over the

Being at the bottom in the United States means to be the poorest and to have the lowest socioeconomic status, these people usually work minimum wage jobs or don’t work at all and live off of welfare. The culture of poverty thesis states that ‘Poverty is caused by shortcomings in the poor themselves (Oscar Lewis, Macionis, J. 2004)’. Many people feel this way, but some blame society, ‘Poverty is caused by society’s unequal distribution of wealth and lack of good jobs (William Julius William, Macionis, J. 2004). Most people in US are poor or have a very small income which sides more with society being the blame for all these people struggling to support themselves in today’s economy (Macionis, J. 2004, p. 277). The functional model in sociology focuses on the social structures of low-wages (Merton, as cited by Carnochan, S. 2013) which is what most people in poverty are stuck living off of due to lack of education and opportunity. Some people argue that to maintain low prices for goods and services poverty and low-wage work is important and needed for our economy (Gans, as cited by Carnochan, S. 2013). Some people may believe this is true, usually those in a better social position, but some people have an opposing opinion to the low pay of some workers. The conflict model explains this inequality of wages in the work world, it also brings to attention how people with and without power experience inequality. For example, CEO’s with lots of

Increased income inequality is shown to increase the poverty rate. This is shown as more income moves apart from lower income brackets to upper income brackets. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that increased income inequality has increased 5.5 percent in from the year 1979 to 2007. This increase in poverty is reflected directly from income inequality as the bottom laborers in a business are working harder and gaining less, as the top workers, the CEO’s, and other executives are spending less time working, and more time counting their money. Income deprivation has been the largest driver of change in poverty rate, much above other factors such as economic growth, education, and race.

Price then realized that since it was the workers that were making these productivity gains, their minimum wages should increase. As a result, he cut his own salary to fund a company-wide increase of the minimum wage to seventy-thousand dollars (Keegan). Price’s actions reflect the importance of workers and their contributions to a firm. These gains should be going to the workers since they are the source of the productivity gains. CEOs can implement a program or buy technology to increase rates of production, but it is up to the employees as a collective mass to actually execute this action. Disbursing these productivity gains would contribute to increasing the minimum wage, inherently moving families up closer to or above the poverty line. Ranks show that forty percent of Americans between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-six will spend one year below the poverty line and fifty-four percent will spend a year at or near that line (Kiernan 182). For workers to still live in poverty is because without them, there would be implementation of the good or service a CEO is trying to provide. Employees are the basis of production and should be valued more than the current minimum wage. Increasing the minimum wage would also prevent people from working nonstandard hours to earn more money, which would increase the living standard. Workers that have nonstandard hours tend to be single mothers with children, who are then forced to leave their children alone

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.

Consequently, society has prevented the poor from achieving their goal of reaching to the top. This is because our society needs the less fortunate to do the hard labor that most Americans would not dream of doing. Take the example of Barbara Ehrenreich. She as journalist didn't agree on the idea that their low paid jobs account for their perseverance and abilities. She decided to explore the wonders of low paid jobs and quickly realized that these kinds of jobs were less paying and more demanding of work. With that being, the money she earned was enough for only her basic needs and bills. In these conditions, it’s almost impossible to be able to prosper. This is

In announcing his proposal to increase the minimum wage, the president argued that doing so would alleviate poverty. The president is certainly correct to turn his attention to the poor, many of whom have been suffering for years in a tough economy. And it is clearly desirable for households that engage in full-time work not to live in poverty. But increasing the minimum wage would

This situation is the result of incremental increases in the pay for the poorest segment of society that is never really reflected in more affluent segments. The increase in pay for the poorest segment of society has additionally contributed to the inflation in costs for good as services which many of the poor rely on leaving them in a similar financial situation that they started with months after a minimum wage increased.

In 2017 there were many issues leading the fact people had very low minimum wages so no matter how hard you are working you are barely getting paid. In the article “Should we raise minimum Wage”, Bernie Sanders talks about the problems with low minimum wage right now. He states “. That’s a major reason why more than 43 million Americans are living in poverty. Health-care costs, child care costs, college costs, and housing costs are all going up. Wages are not.” (Bernie Sanders.) The amount that people are getting paid now for minimum wage is not enough to live off of and people can barely live off of it. The low wage has to go up in comparison with other things because if one goes up and the other does not they will not be able to pay for

To this day, the American economy and its workers are experiencing the effects of the enactment of the minimum wage law. The cost of living has increased exponentially and the minimum wage hasn’t risen effectively. In fact, 47 million, or 14% of Americans are living in poverty to this day (“Poverty: 2013 Highlights”

There’s a very simple solution to a increasing poverty level, a raise in the federal minimum wage. People who live at or below poverty level did not have the opportunity to develop job skills, build an education, or invest in financial assets. The little opportunity given to the low poverty populate is due to the absence of a low income, and how many of them could only afford a minimum wage job. If an increase of minimum wage was given, many low income workers could develop skills, that could help them progress in their career. Once these workers succeed in their career, one could hope that they will go on a earn a education, or build their financial assets. These financial assets include loans, savings accounts, and the purchasing of houses or other expensive items. An investment of these financial assets will led to an overall boost in the surrounding economy and crime rates in the area. A federal wage increase has many benefits compared to cons, these benefits include: helping the life of low income workers, who make up most of America, and the overall boost of the economy and the area surrounding it.

Even though having the “poor class” is a necessary evil needed for society to function, most Americans, at some point in time, will experience what it is like to live in poverty or live below the poverty line. One main reason for having a high percentage of people living in poverty is because the U.S. policy makers have ignored the poor and have given tax breaks to those with a much higher income. Funding for welfare was slashed and extended unemployment benefits were ended. With little success with the economic reform the United States has been going through for the past five years, about 14.5 percent of Americans are still living under the poverty line.