The Effect Of Minimum Wage On The Economy Of The United States

My topic of interest is the effects of raising minimum wage in the U.S. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest wage permitted by law or by special agreement. In 1938, President Roosevelt signed a bill called the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set the minimum wage at $0.25. Although, overtime inflation devalued the amount of the dollar so it was raised there on. After raising the minimum wage the cost of living would keep going up every year. Also, currently advocates are arguing that the living wage should be 125% above the poverty line so that full time workers can afford a living.

House Bill 230, or the most recent bill introduced in North Carolina to increase minimum wage, was introduced by the House of Representatives on March 12, 2015. After the first version of the Bill was introduced, it was revised once. The bill was introduced because the goal of the state is to provide a minimum wage that allows for a decent and healthy life for its citizens. As the value of the American dollar continues to change, so does the average cost of living. The primary sponsors of the Bill were Representatives Farmer-Butterfield, L. Hall, Fisher, and Cunningham. The Bill states that “Employers shall pay employees wages no less than the minimum wage for all hours worked in North Carolina.” It then states that minimum wage in North

Also referred to as living wage, minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate allowed by federal law to be paid to an employee by an employer that is usually determined by inflations and other economic factors. Usually, it is an economic program stipulating an employee’s benefits of working per hour valued against a hardship policy instigated by the employer. In the United States, the minimum wage first came to light during the Depression era which has propelled from levels of 25cents to $7.25 per hour since 1993 (David, 2013). Irrespective if this steep increase, matters inflation in the

Minimum wage is not enough to support a family, not even to support yourself. Everyone in the lower class knows the hardships that come with poverty and the minimum wage job that comes with it. The fact that most of the money is going to the top one percent, just shows their greed and their selfishness not trying to share enough of the wealth with their workers who have to get another job just for them to live a stable life. That is why, the movement, Fight For $15 is so important because the poor is now starting to fight back against the ruling class of America. The social inequality of class is really visibly shown as people who are living in poverty are politically fighting to get their salary raised up to fifteen dollars an hour. As the success of the movement grows, an article from the New York Times is explaining why the movement is becoming so successful, it also exposes the greed of the top one percent as they criticize the movement.

Although, the minimum wage is not the same in all place in the States, almost all those who are depending on it are unsatisfied and are hoping for a rise even though some people see the rising as risky. In 1992, Card David wrote an article about Using Regional Variation in Wage to Measure the Effects of the Federal Minimum Wage. He pointed out that '' arise in the federal minimum wage will typically affect a larger fraction of workers especially teenagers in some states than in others. That variation across states depend on the fraction of workers initially earning less than the new minimum.'' (Card David 1) He agreed that many States had already passed state – specific minimum wages above the new federal standard. As a result, the fraction

Who is hurt and who is helped by an increase in the legal minimum wage?

This report is an economic overview of the United States minimum wage. It’s presented in three perspectives on how consumers, corporations and the community are affected by new minimum wage laws. The purpose of this report is to provide imperative information that examines how an increase in minimum wage attributes to multiple effects. This report will also explain the advantages and disadvantages that many people face when the government intervenes to pass a new minimum wage law in the United States. This report focuses on the state of California and it emphasises on the city of San Jose. This report incorporates how the city of San Jose was affected by Measure D. a new minimum wage that was imposed in the beginning of the

Who gets paid the minimum wage? Well, at some point in our lives we all have been paid the minimum wage. But who are those people earning the minimum wage right at this moment? These are the people who have menial jobs. They work in restaurants, retail stores, bars, and maintenance services (OEA, 9). In 2014, the city of San Francisco proposed an initiative indicating that it would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2018 (Ballotpedia). So would a typical low-wage worker and low-income family benefit significantly from a minimum wage increase? It would probably help them but not that significantly. In today’s economic standing, people earning the minimum wage are considered below the poverty level if living in San Francisco. In my opinion, the minimum wage increase will give a slight rise to the quality of life for those working on minimum wage as well as their families and could potentially result in narrowing the income inequality gap for workers.

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).

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 article “Wetzel’s Pretzels’ CEO says minimum wage increase boosts business” by Sam Harnett, analyzes deeply the minimum wage topic from all aspects; political aspects, social aspects, and economic aspects. It argues that if the federal minimum wage goes up, the net effect will be positive towards all industries in the economy. By positive here, I mean good effect from all aspects. In the textbook chapters under construction, Chapter 4 in “Economics” by Hubbard/O’Brien, it simply reasons the same outcome that increasing the minimum wage is necessary for all states in the US. The textbook chapter additionally highlights that any minimum wage above the current federal minimum wage has to be binding floor wage since the federal minimum

Minimum wage is the topic I chose because there has been a controversy regarding raising minimum wage and the impact of minimum wage to the society. Whether it would aid workers or not. There have been arguments of laypersons of increasing minimum wage to a very high level and there are arguments against it.

I agree with this article, written by Niels Veldhuis, to the extent that minimum wage negatively affects the economy, by increasing unemployment. However, if I were Veldhuis I would have added that the social values of minimum wage may outweigh the negative effects on the economy. This matter is a value judgement, which cannot be proved right or wrong by economics. Veldhuis supports his statement with proof from studies; I will explain these findings with further microeconomic theory. I will discuss the following to reflect upon the accuracy of his arguments: theories of producer behavior and cost minimization, market equilibrium, welfare, and the importance of value judgements.

In order to safeguard specific workers in low-paid, susceptible employments the minimum wage policy had been implemented by the South African government to provide assurance to these workers of a basic subsistence income. In hindsight the government saw the wage ‘floor’ as a tool to efficiently support the working poor and eradicate their poverty while facilitating the rearrangement of income in an uneven society. In light of the recent strikes brought forward by the farmworkers in the Western Cape that ultimately form part of the agricultural sector, Agricultural Minister Mildred Olifant has implemented a minimum wage policy

People go to work to earn their income to support their family. Due to the fact that the prices of goods increase year and after year, the minimum wage has been increasing from less than a dollar to $7.25 now. The question that comes to everybody is that should we increase the minimum wage by too far. Does the minimum wage increase reduce the unemployment since now the current wage is high enough? Some people might think that we should increase the minimum wage in order to increase the labor supply. However, if we think deeply than this, there are more disadvantages than advantages of increasing the minimum wage. The farther the minimum wage increases, the less labor supply will be. Therefore, how will the minimum wage increase affect the US economy overall? How far should we go to increase the minimum wage?