The Economic Effects Of Minimum Wage

During all the history of minimum wages a bunch of studies were made to analyse the effects that the minimum wage changes can bring to employee’s life. In the oldest studies, the institutions that worked on it couldn’t find a significant change on the employees, job searches and employee’s behaviours. The only fact that was noticed was the

A study by John Schmitt of the Center for Economic and Policy Research explores the other possible reasons a modest increase in the minimum wage may not significantly impact employment levels. According to his study instead of hiring less workers the labor markets can respond in

In today’s economics minimum wage is used as a price control or price floor that the government enforces. A price floor is a minimum price for a product or service above the market’s equilibrium price. Selling any product or service sold below the price floor is considered illegal. Since the price of a commodity or service is increased the demand will go down lower than the quantity supplied creating a surplus. This theory also creates a surplus in employment. When minimum wage is increased or a price floor is set there will be a surplus of employees and the demand for workers will decrease. Well in order to accurately determine whether the minimum wage employees are receiving is enough to maintain a minimal lifestyle, we must first understand how the minimum wage is calculated. According to the United States Department of Labor, “federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. The federal minimum wage provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).” The Fair Labor Standards Act is a set of standards pertaining to youth employment, overtime pay, and other laws that affect employees within private and public

Figure 7.6 shows how the minimum wage creates a price floor. The difference between the wage rate and the amount of workers needed is unemployment. Figure 7.7 shows the potential loss of labor demanded by businesses. This could become a positive statement to say that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. "Recent research reveals that, despite skeptics’ claims, raising the minimum wage does not cause job loss." (Cooper and Hall). An

Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim that if the minimum wage was raised, then many economic and social problems would be alleviated. This contention is at odds both with economic principles and years of creditable research. The effect of raising or even having a minimum wage has been studied extensively and the majority of studies have proven that raising a minimum wage does not have the desired effect. Both micro and macroeconomic forces affect the results of raising the minimum wage. The secondary effects of raising the minimum wage are bad both for

In 1938, the first national minimum wage laws in the United States were passed as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which served as “a floor below wages,” to reduce poverty and to ensure that economic growth is shared across the workforce. Today, many people who work for companies that pay at or near the minimum wage and remain near or below the poverty level rely on government health and food security and income programs to supplement their living expenses. Since 1938, there have been many additional policies to the Fair Labor Standards Act that have changed many things, such as increasing the national minimum wage numerous times to the currently salary level, which was set in 1997. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, from the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, was a policy to change the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three additions, which began in July of 2009. (U.S., 2009).

Many people believe that raising the minimum wage would make all employees lives easier and that employers and the economic elite are the reason that the minimum wage does not rise. Not only does this line of thinking run contrary to the most basic economic principles of a free society, but it is also illogical. If government could raise the real wages of millions of Americans by merely passing a law announcing that fact, then why stop raising the minimum wage at all. A 500-dollar minimum wage would be better than a 10-dollar minimum wage. But the “logic” is perfectly consistent with the

In this globalization era, as various countries see growth in their economy, there has also been significant differences in the wages set to employees in different countries. The lowest wages set by the law that are fixed to a particular amount which is also defined to be the price floor below which workers shall not sell their labor, has its own effects. The minimum wage law came into force as a matter of social justice amongst the low-wage workers, also to reduce exploitation and see that workers can afford the standard basic living expenses and necessities, not to increase the unemployment rate, indeed to increase the employment rate.

The minimum wage law was first enacted in January 1938 (Mutari, Ellen), and since then, people have falsely been led to believe that it is beneficial to the economy as well as the general population. It has commonly been seen as a method to reduce poverty by redistributing income in order to make sure that people earn a healthy, living wage; however, evidence has shown that it in fact does just the opposite. Forcing a minimum wage goes against the free market, and severely disrupts the natural process of supply and demand. Disrupting the supply and demand process results in many negative consequences, and produces an important question: should the minimum wage law exist? The minimum wage law should not exist because it causes increased

Minimum wage is the lowest or minimum compensation for workers by their employers. As such, it has a noticeable impact on the economy through various channels including standard of living, business efficiency, wage and income inequality, etc. Although minimum wage has many positive effects such as increasing the standard of living as well as reducing inequality, there are also many drawbacks to having a minimum wage such as inflation and unemployment. This paper will attempt to determine the influence of having a regulated minimum wage has on the economy.

Economic theory suggests that the macroeconomic effect of minimum wage increases on gross domestic product (GDP) is ambiguous. Minimum wage increases may increase labor costs and output prices, reduce firms’ profits and job training, and cause adverse employment and hours effects, each of which may reduce GDP. However, if minimum wage increases raise the earnings of low-skilled workers who keep their jobs—and these workers have a higher marginal propensity to consume an additional dollar of income than firm owners or low-skilled workers who lose their jobs—minimum wage increases will result in higher GDP minimum wage increases may increase worker effort, either in an efficiency wage framework (i.e. where workers are paid more to encourage higher

With the passage of time, the concept of minimum wage has evolved and it has exponentially increased. 5 (A.n, www.investopedia.com) Let the market equilibrium wage is $4 per hour, the government imposes Minimum wage of at least $5 per hour. At this wage, supply does not equal demand. With a minimum wage of $5, the supply of labour is 50,000 hours, but firms demand only 32,000 hours of labour, so the labour market is not in

In a paper titled “Four Reasons Not to Increase the Minimum Wage,” the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, offers four empirically backed consequences of increasing the minimum wage; these consequences include: the loss of jobs, low skilled workers being disproportionally affected and priced out of the job market, a minimal effect on reducing poverty, and higher prices for goods. The paper compiles a number of studies to support these

In this regard the employers would want to adjust their new business ventures so that employers are worth at least as much as the new minimum wage rate. This notion holds that these changes would cut low-skilled employees and replace them with mechanized skilled employment, hence many believe the minimum wage leads to unemployment. (Card and Kruger 55-57, 1995).

For business that can be able to transfer the cost to consumers , such business may not lay off staff due to increase in the minimum wage , they would rather pass the cost to the price of the goods and service. More so, the ability to lay off labour worker still depends on the nature of the elasticity of demand for their