The Debate Over Raising Minimum Wage

Everyone believes they know where they stand on the issue of minimum wage. But think about this. A small store owner who has only been in business for six years. He is finally making a small profit. Any change to his expenses will bring him once again into the red. The owner does not have any other source of income. If the business fails to bring in a profit he will be hard pressed to pay his bills. Working in his store is a young woman of twenty. She is a single parent who receives no child support and does not qualify for government assistance. She is making minimum wage only and works 40 hours a week. As she brings home just enough for food and housing and needs to rely on family and friends for daycare. A raise in wages would help tremendously. As both proponents and opponents of the minimum wage debate have valid reasons for their stance, a person needs to look further into the facts to determine what is best for the nation.

Rex Huppke, a writer for the Chicago tribune,writes about how raising the minimum wage may not be as positive to the society and economy as Americans are lead to believe. After interviewing many specialist and professors concerning this subject, he concludes that despite what other newspapers are saying raising the minimum wage could damage the economy. As an effect of what the media is saying this article was written to inform the public of the real cost of raising minimum wage.

Paying for a college education creates a dilemma when a student only earns minimum wage flipping burgers at a local fast food restaurant. The current federal minimum wage stands at $7.25 per hour before taxes. The debate on whether it should increase or remain constant has been occurring for many years. Raising the minimum wage to match the current cost of living seems like a good idea, but this could cause some negative effects. John Komlos’ article “Why raising the minimum wage is good economics” delivers a more effective argument than Rex Huppke’s article “The argument against raising minimum wage” through the use of ethos, logos, and a valid conclusion.

Life is a struggle and finding a job and paying your bills is not always easy in this world today. A major debate that has been an issue is whether there should be a law to raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage is the lowest hourly salary an employer can pay an employee for their work. According to Williams (2013), “The minimum wage was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938”. The first minimum wage was 25 cents per hour. Since then, the minimum wage has been increasing as the last increase of Florida's minimum wage was an increase of 14 cents on Jan. 1, 2014. This federal increase makes it 68 cents higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Gibson (2014) states “Obama, who last year called for an increase in the

Raising minimum wage has been an ongoing issue for many years. Similar to every debatable issue, pros and cons are inevitable. In the United States, minimum wage started when the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) was passed and minimum wage started at 25 cents per hour. The purpose of setting a minimum wage is to set a maximum workweek and to eliminate child labor. It is defined to be the least amount of money employers are obligated to pay their employees by law. As the years passed, the minimum wage began to increase to accommodate the growing economy. Although the wage has increased from a mere 25 cents per hour to $7.25 over the course of 75 years, living expenses are much higher causing many people to be poverty stricken (Debate.org). President Obama proposes raising the minimum wage, so that it would help minimize the income gap in America. However, most business organizations and the Republicans oppose to the idea, saying that it could potentially lead to more economic problems. While both sides have valid points, which one provides a more compelling argument? In the United States, the minimum wage should be raised in every state; therefore workers can have a more comfortable standard of living, lower the poverty line, and minimize the income gap.

The issue of the minimum wage has recently come to the forefront of the debate on social policy. There is much disagreement over the wisdom of an increase in the minimum wage in the current fragile economic recovery. Some argue that a dramatic increase is what is needed in order to lift the standard of living for those in the bottom of the economic pyramid. Economists reason that the basic principle of supply and demand mandates than an increase in the wage would result in the loss of available jobs. Small businesses maintain that it would spell their doom.

The minimum wage debate brings about a range of reactions from different people. There are those who believe that there shouldn’t even be a minimum wage and that wages should be determined by the markets. On the other hand, we have those who vigorously argue for increasing the wage minimum citing inflation, the poverty line and worker productivity. Regardless, we do have a federal minimum wage rate in the United States at $7.25 per hour, with some states having a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum. President Obama, in his first state of the union address of his second term proposed “Tonight, let’s declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour” (The White House 2013). A year later, he has revised that number to $10.10 per hour after signing an executive order that has already raised the minimum wage for federal workers to that number. (The White House 2014). With more and more states raising their own minimum wage, a minimum wage increase seems almost imminent with Democrats and Republicans getting closer to a deal. (Bolton 2014). But we are more interested in the efficiency of a minimum wage implemented at the federal level. The main question that surrounds this debate is whether this price floor in labor markets is efficient given that the stated goal of the minimum wage is to make sure full-time workers earn a living wage and are above the poverty line.

Increasing the federal minimum wage isn’t always followed by national job growth, or loss for that matter. There were twelve solid months of job growth following the 1978 increase, but twelve months of job loss following the 2008 increase. That was following the recession in late 2008. Economists are split over what effect minimum wage has on job growth. There’s some research that shows raising the minimum wage negatively impacts job growth, and a lot that shows it has an insignificant effect. A university of Chicago poll asked forty lead economist if raising the federal minimum wage would make it "noticeably harder for low-skilled workers to find jobs.” One of the most thorough reports on this debate comes out of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The report concludes that the "bulk of the best statistical evidence" shows little to no effect on employment when the minimum wage goes up. Those who say raising the minimum wage results in job loss generally follow the logic that when workers become more expensive, businesses will be less likely to hire them, and unemployment follows. David Neumark is an economist who has researched the issue and believes raising the minimum wage reduces employment for the lowest skilled workers. He noted, though, that the economy has grown over the long term, resulting in job growth in all wage and skill

economy will see extra spending as a result of the higher minimum wage. Raising the living

Over the past few years the debate over the raise of the federal minimum wage of the current $7.25 has been argued by both sides, whether it should be raised or not. With both side, the affirmative and negative making strong arguments for their side. We will take a look at how each side frames their issues as how well their counterpart can refute those claims. The affirmative would like to propose the raise of the federal minimum wage to $12.00 by the year 2020; this is the standard that most states are going with. For example, California being one of the most recent to change their federal minimum wage to $12.00 by the year 2020. The negative would like to stay with the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, in other words defend the status quo. We will look at all the major arguments the affirmative and negative side have and in the end go with the best option for the majority. Aristotle’s three fundamental concepts will help determine what decision should be made after each side of the public state their case. Aristotle’s three fundamental concepts are truth and probable truth, Ethos (Credibility), Pathos (Emotional Appeal), Logos (Logic), and his final concept, it’s all about the audience. So what exactly is the minimum wage and what is its purpose? Minimum wage is the minimum an employer has to pay an unskilled worker based on the regulations set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was originally established in 1938 according to the United States

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

A huge controversy has been raised by the rise and fall of the set rates for minimum wage within many states in the US. Many people believe that the rate should be raised and some believe that the rate should remain or even decrease. If the minimum wage rate was heightened, then there would be more high school dropouts, prices would heighten, and fewer people would have jobs.

The bill was created to “provide for an increase in the Federal minimum wage”, H.R.1010, was introduced March 06, 2013 by representative George Miller of California and 197 other cosponsors under the Democratic party. The bill hoped to increase the minimum wage to aid the economy by boosting consumer spending and aiding working class families. The house of representative bill was “referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce. To become a law it must pass both the U.S. House of Representative, U.S. Senate and then signed by the president of the United States or override the president’s

There have been many questions raised about increasing the minimum wage in the United States but not many people have the knowledge to understand how their lives will be affected. People are more concerned about increasing the minimum wage into living wage. Everyone should be educated and have concerns about the politics of raising minimum wage to a living wage.

The minimum wage has grown twenty two times since it was first introduced in 1938.