The Issue Of Minimum Wage Essay

Minimum wage has caused controversy throughout history between the two parties in government, the Democrats and Republicans, debating if they should increase minimum wage or not. Minimum wage was first established during 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Sessions). The first act to enforce employers to pay its employees is the Fair Labor Standards Act which followed the Social Security Act (Sessions). Minimum wage started as twenty-five (25) cents per hour which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it was at that time (Sessions). The United States tended to raise the minimum wage when the standard of living changed. Since 1938, two other amendments were created to increase minimum wage laws even more. By 1961, minimum wage raised to $1.15 with another increase in 1963 (wages). Since the 1963 wage change, minimum wage created a trend of increasing yearly or every other year (Wages). From 2007 to 2009 minimum wage increased each year making the current minimum wage $7.25 (wages). Sine minimum wage has been established, Congress has increased minimum wage twenty-two times (22) (). Since minimum wage is supposed to change when the standard of living changes, then why hasn’t the United States government changed it since 2009?

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.

The idea of raising the federal minimum wage that has developed nation wide attention, including protesting and arguments, has caused many discussions on why it could potentially help the economy grow and how it could result in the crash of the economy. Many people feel like raising the federal minimum wage is a must, while others think it will destroy the economy. There are many benefits that come with raising the federal minimum wage, but those benefits also come with many disadvantages.

The minimum wage is one of the most controversial issues on our country, which is United States has been facing last ten years. There have been never ending debates over this issue until the government, company, and others party stand together, and raise the minimum wage throughout the nations. There are communities that believe raise the minimum wage has negative impact of every sector of the country. Other communities have different beliefs over the issue, raising the minimum wage helps the poor people, and would help not hurt our economy.

Minimum wage is an important and hot topic throughout the world, especially America. The minimum wage is the lowest amount of salary that an employer can give to their employees for their work. The federal minimum wage is covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act, also known as FLSA. The FLSA covers standards for government, local, and state employees, including overtime pay and record keeping. This protects the rights of the employers. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, was the first president to establish the idea of minimum wage in 1938 due to the economic downfall of the Great Depression. (“History of Minimum Wage”) The Great Depression was a huge recession for the economy and for the people. Since FDR applied the minimum wage, the minimum wage keeps increasing over the years. According to Bebusinnessed website, the first year with minimum started at twenty-five cents an hour, which is equal to around four dollars and fifteen cents in USD in present currency (“History of Minimum Wage”). Over time and many presidents later, in 2016, our lowest minimum wage is seven dollars and twenty-five cents. From the numbers presented on this website, the minimum wage seems to be increasing and getting better with time, but in fact, the government is not to kept up with the current “real” dollar amount. Nowadays, parent employees cannot fully support their children. The real question, in our society, should minimum wage be increased or decreased in order to fulfill both the government

The controversy over minimum wage has been ongoing. However, as explained in a Time article by Chris Lu on the subject, now is the prime time to raise the federal minimum wage. “Three out of four Americans support an increase; the economy is healthy; and many employers are already raising wages.” It’s reasonable to be worried about the consequences that raising the minimum wage might have in a time of crisis or unrest, but this quote mentions a healthy economy that would be able to handle the shifts in wages if things went south temporarily. Another argument made by opposers of raising the minimum is that businesses will be unable to survive. On the contrary, a good business will find it beneficial. “‘It’s a simple, but critical, concept: take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.’ For &pizza, higher wages reduce employee turnover, increase productivity and improve customer service.” Rather than hurting the economy, raising the minimum wage will help workers, business owners and the economy itself. A higher wage for all is

Raising the minimum wage would hurt the less fortunate families. It spreads income unevenly. Some people would receive more pay and others would lose their jobs making families and the economy suffer. If someone have a minimum wage job that pays $5.15 it is better than no job at $6.00 (Henderson). If someone has a job that does not pay well be thankful for it, it still provides for the

According to Jerome Fin minimum wage even at the federal level costs jobs ( Rotson 1). If a recession comes, higher wages will mean more layoffs (Alper 1) Although, this may not happen are you willing to risk it all? If a continuous amount jobs are lost not only will the lower class be affected ,but so will the middle class and upper class. “I feel every minimum wage, even at the federal level costs jobs”(Roston 1). Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says “ The minimum wage is largely an entry - level wage and raising it to ten dollars and ten cents an hour would lead to destroying jobs for young people”(Raasch 16). After, Seattle raised their minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour major problems started occurring. Adam Ozimek says “First wave of minimum wage increases appears to have lead to the loss of over one thousand one hundred food service jobs in Seattle's” (Puzder

Most people have witnessed firsthand driving through a densely populated city and glancing out the window to see camps set up on the streets for people who cannot afford living quarters. These poor citizens are living like this because they either do not earn enough money annually to keep a home and use what they have on a source of food. Increasing federal wage to $10.25 would help these poor American citizens and the children in America as well.

Many argue that raising the minimum wage makes hiring workers more expensive, eliminates jobs at the bottom, slows growth and ultimately raises unemployment. Economic studies show that raising the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation creates little additional harm, but what the president is

If we look this in an economist’s perspective, the businesses that will be directly affected by the new minimum wage are factories, supermarkets, fast food franchises, small hotels, restaurants and grocery stores, as well as transportation businesses. As a consequence, the increase in the cost of production will be transferred to the consumers. Those people who are all well paid will have less headache dealing with the increase in the cost of living. But how about the college students, the people who just started to work? They need to deal with the increase in the price of food, as the transportation cost has increased. These people who can barely make ends meet will find eating outside to become more expensive than before and need to cook food for at home. Certainly business like restaurants and hotels will suffer, because if the firms increase their prices, they would get fewer customers, but if they stick to their current charged, the businesses would get lower profits as the employees’ wages have increased. Certainly, a little inflation rate is favorable for economic growth, as people will invest on assets when they expect the price will increase. However, if the level of inflation is too high, and there are too many goods where prices are inflated, people will afraid to spend their money, thus the economy will

In the United States people have the opportunity to choose what job they want to work at, its take time and effort also dedication to get a high paying job. Some jobs in the U.S do not require much time and effort to work but the pay is not the best. In recent news there has been lots of attention regarding pay for fast food workers. Most employees that work at fast food restaurants get paid minimum wage which is an average of $8.00 an hour depending on which state you live in. Most states minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and in a few states minimum wage goes up to $9.32 an hour. In the 2014 State of the Union address President Obama asked Congress to raise the minimum wages for individuals working on federal services contracts to 10.10 an hour.

As far as employment rate, I do believe that it would hurt small business. A small business is normally run by one employee or a few and they might not have the funds to pay several employee. But big company I believe it won’t hurt them, more than likely they have the money to pay their employee and provide medical insurance. But now that they want you to have health insurance, business Polly will cut employee hours to part-time witch will hurt low-income families. But if minimum wages did go up, then this low-income family can afford to provide for their family and health insurance. According to dol.gov, academic research has shown that higher wage sharply reduce employment and training cost. Also, minimum wage increase has little or no effect on employment as studies from economist across the country (dol.gov). If minimum wages was raise I think the government would spend less taxes dollars for low-income family that have food stamps and other government assisted program, because if these low-income family had a little more money to spend each month, they would not need to have more food stamp every month. This also go with child care, every month some parents are giving a break on how much to pay child care provider, when other family over the poverty line have to pay way more than a low-income family would. Now, during my research I had a hard time

Many people want the Government to increase minimum wage so they can earn more money. What they don’t understand is all the consequences that the impact of raising minimum wage would have on our economy and the poor people in society. Sure it would guarantee you more money but it doesn't have a positive effect on the people it is suppose to help. A minimum wage increase would force businesses to cut the unskilled workers forcing more of them into poverty, which will ultimately hurt them when the price of goods go up.

The minimum wage is important because it raises wages and reduces poverty. Proponents assert that it is needed to protect workers from exploitative employment practices and that boosting the minimum wage will reduce poverty without reducing jobs. Some people argue the minimum wage is not enough, and have proposed more generous “living” wages. A living wage aims to provide a minimum standard of living, accounting for the cost of housing and basic needs for an individual. However, Opponents of the minimum wage claim that it is an unnecessary government intrusion into the relationship between employer and employee. A new study by The Public Policy Institute finds