Texas Minimum Wage Research Paper

“A 15 percent increase in the minimum wage nationwide would destroy about 290,000 to 590,000 young people's jobs, and about 400,000 to 800,000 jobs overall” (Henderson, David R). Due to the Fair labor Standards act, the federal minimum wage, or the lowest you can pay an employee for work, currently stands at $7.25 an hour. Although a number of Americans think that raising the minimum wage would benefit our country, it would actually bring a number of problems to our economy, such as a rise in job loss and high school dropout.

The minimum wage debate has been a hot topic over the past year, especially with the Presidential Election. This is a divisive topic that people rarely agree upon. There are essentially two sides you can take when it comes to this argument. Either people are for minimum wage or are against raising, or even having, a minimum wage. Proponents of the minimum wage are typically politicians who are lobbying for the vote of the people who feel that a minimum wage is critical to their wellbeing, and those who sympathize with people who earn “minimum wage”. Minimum wage is destroying America’s free market economy and someone needs to take action and find a better solution to this problem. Without anyone acting on this problem now, it can potentially be worse in the long run. Raising the minimum wage in the United States will do more harm than good to society because of the long-term effects.

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?

Texas workers that get paid minimum wage are outraged about how they can’t afford a car, a home, and other things because of how little they are paid. Workers that get paid very little have to struggle to get the things they need. Some people work two or more jobs just to pay rent or catch up on payments they are behind on. $10 period is a perfect amount for someone to live off of and get the necessities they need to survive. Everyone enjoys having money, not struggling. Homes get foreclosed, cars are towed, and lives are ruined because people get fired from their jobs and are forced to move down to a minimum wage job. If minimum wage were raised, people wouldn’t be suffering as badly.

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.

At the end, there are advantages and disadvantages of raising the minimum wage in Texas. But the fact is, minimum wage right now does not support living expenses. And for that reason it has to increase, and by doing so, “it increases the reward for work among low- and moderate income households struggling to make ends meet and spreads the modest costs of doing so broadly in proportion to families’ ability to pay”

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.

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.

Raising minimum wage has been a battle for many decades and it has always been a battle to raise it. Many families that work for a minimum wage job often have trouble making ends meet because making $8.75 just isn’t enough in this today’s economy. Some jobs are paying $2.13 an hour but this is mostly at restaurants that are family owned but if they don’t make enough on tips they must get paid $7.25 per hour they worked. Although minimum wage has changed dramatically since 1938 when it was $0.25 cents (Kurtz&Yellin) American families simply cannot live on minimum wage. Raising minimum wage should be raised to help families that need it the most.

Texans pride themselves on working hard and being self-sufficient. However not many workers and their families earn enough to stay above poverty. Texas ranks near the worst states for working families, with 38 % earning less than $47,000 per year for a family of four. If we want to live in a state where hard work means real self-sufficiency, then we need to raise the minimum wage in Texas. The Center for Public Policy Priorities conducted new analysis to identify the Texans who would benefit from raising the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to a new statewide minimum wage of $10.10 per hour in 2016. Nearly 2.4 million Texans, or 1 in 4 for-profit and non-profit workers, would receive a pay increase if the state adopted a minimum

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. )

As the cost of living is raising every day, it is really important to raise minimum wage as well. Through the years, there have been questions about this topic, but no changes have been made. Some people do not realize the importance of minimum wage or even its history. It is a real struggle for many people because they are living in poor conditions making around $200 a week. That is a real struggle for those trying to provide for their family. They have a really hard time trying to make it till the end of the month. They are afraid and worried at the same time because they cannot pay their bills in time or even go to the doctor if they get sick. Increasing the minimum federal wage could make a difference for those living in unfortunate conditions.

Who knew that minimum wage could save the world and the people in it? The last time minimum wage was raised on July 24, 2009, and that when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, How have we been living on $7.25 this long? We haven't been living on it we were trying to survive and a lot of people can’t survive on a minimum wage that low. Raising minimum wage to an amount that could actually let people live comfortably would help the economy and a lot of people who struggle in this economy. This is not all that can help but raising the minimum wage can be the start of a lot of problems that deal with job growth, reducing child neglect, and poverty.

In my opinion minimum wage should not be raised. With the proposal to being to spend a billion dollars to help het less than a million people under the poverty line out, and it only realistically helping people who are in the middle class and above. As of right now our leaders want to accept a plan that is not going to work the way the say it is. So even if it does take 900,000 over the poverty line this will only make a slight dent in our high poverty, less than one percent. This is going to be an extremely ineffective way to decrease the gap between the middle class and the people who are under the poverty line. By raising the minimum wage you increase the wages of low wage workers who are living of it, but the consequences from it could be even more devastating. It will cause companies to lay off workers, prices of products will rise, and companies will be less likely to hire. Don’t forget the fact again that the majority of the families who are going to benefit from this the most are already above and out of poverty. Instead of spending 100,000,000,000 dollars a year on something that will have a huge negative effect on this country we should start putting more resources on the ever growing and lingering national debt. This is going to turn out to be a failed attempt to help bring low wage workers to a better living

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.