The Minimum Wage Law Should Not Exist

Well, jobs are a great thing. You have to be a bit careful: If you raise the minimum wage, you're encouraging labor substitution and you're going to go buy machines and automate things — or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. And so within certain limits, you know, it does cause job destruction. If you really start pushing it, then you're just making a huge trade-off. (Bill Gates)

Even though having a minimum wage helps in many ways and keeps a minimum to what people can work for, it also can do some harm. The minimum wage law does cost the economy thousands of jobs. The essential principle of economics is supply and demand and the minimum wage aspect goes hand in hand with it. In the sense of labor, this means the amount of workers increases and wages increase, and the demand for employees by employers’ decreases as the wage increases. For instance, if an office cleaning job was publicized for hiring. If the wage was $90 per hour, many people would be interested in taking the job. However, if the income was $2 per hour, there most likely wouldn't be anyone to want the job. On the contrary, if the government obligated the owner to pay at least $9 per

The argument for minimum wage has remained remake consistent over the years. Some people are against minimum wage and the other think minimum wage can help you in a certain way. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Unites States federal government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The law has been amended almost every year to expand coverage of the wage floor and to increase the wage itself. Many of the fifty states have enacted their own minimum wage laws, some of them set even higher than the federal level. Minimum wage jobs don’t only help adults at hard times it help teenagers and college students. I learned that the proponents for minimum wage believe the raw value of one’s labor to a business

There has been many conversations about what the positive impacts can come to America 's lowest income workers as a result of an increase in the minimum wage, and there has also been equally as many discussions over the negative effects the increase can have on similar people. This paper’s purpose is to combine each viewpoint and objectively analyze the arguments for and against an increase in the minimum wage. I will first discuss the benefits for an increase, then the disadvantages, and in the last paragraph, I will

Raising minimum wages is a contestable issue because it is debated in wide and varied audiences. Minimum wage is near the top of economists’ interest; they are looking for the connection between low wages and poor job markets. Each country sets its own laws and regulations regarding wages. For this reason, it has significant importance to policy makers and workers in each of those respective countries. Social activists have also found interest in the topic due to the fact that those who earn a minimum wage tend to come from poor minority families. Furthermore, the average American should have the strongest interest in the conversation because most citizens have been paid a minimum wage at some point in their life. Due to this fact, the idea of a significant federal minimum wage increase in America is open for debate specifically to rejuvenate the job industry, improve living conditions for citizens, and strengthen the economy as a whole.

By raising the minimum wage millions of workers would see an improvement of their lives because they will finally have more money to be able to spend on themselves. In article one it talks through and states how “11 million workers above minimum wage will see and increase through “spillover”.” This shows that by increasing the minimum wage, workers that are already at that level would see a bonus within their pay. Another quote from article one is “the new minimum wage would affect families, disproportionally women who work 20 hours.” This shows that families, would be the first to feel the effect and also help families whose parents have to work overtime. In general, raising the minimum wage is very beneficial for families and female workers who work at or around 20 hours a week.

Are you a millennial in need of money? Then raising the minimum wage seems like a logical solution. The minimum wage law has existed in the United States for many years, its purpose being to regulate the amount of money that an employee must legally be paid. Citizens of the United States should be against the minimum wage rising but instead should focus on improving government assistance programs and closing the wage gap. If the minimum wage drastically increased, then other wage average salaries would also need to increase, causing prices to rise as a consequence. A common argument against raising the minimum wage is that it would impact small businesses, and that jobs will be lost. The overall amount of jobs in the U.S. is not finite, and

In America and countries around the world, we face a universal problem: poverty. Among many options, a widespread solution for this problem is the implementation of a minimum wage. Aside from the US, countries such as Luxembourg, Belgium, and Ireland all have set minimum wages(Petroff). Minimum wage was first established during the Great Depression when President John F.Kennedy was striving to help the economy and lift many Americans out of poverty(Day). At the time, the minimum wage was $0.25 an hour, which corresponds to about $3.98 an hour in today’s money(Minimum Wage). Since then, the minimum wage has steadily increased to today’s $7.25 an hour. With the fluctuating economy, people’s views and opinions on the subject have swayed every which way throughout the years, with minimum wages rising and falling over different cities, states and countries. The imminent truth is that people simply need more money, with around 60% of the population already in poverty (Dunkelberg). Often times, people are very liberal with this issue and suggest that America raise the minimum wage drastically to $15.00 an hour. The face of the proposition is a pretty one, suggesting that everyone gets more money, so how could one say no? While increasing the minimum wage has had some small benefits, especially from an employee’s perspective, the success of this idea proves to be a facade on the face of the future

This is turn causes unemployment for the very jobs the new minimum wage was created for. The federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 an hour (Calvert, Scott, and Morath). Unfortunately, there are states that have decided to raise the minimum wage. The state with the highest minimum wage at $11.00 and hour is Massachusetts (Wuttke). All states should be required to revert back to the federal minimum wage and not have the ability to raise it whatsoever. Doing this would ensure that inflation would not rise because of anything minimum wage related, lower unemployment, guarantee safety of the middle class, and create a fair and level playing field among workers across America. But, reverting the minimum wage in places where it is higher will not necessarily be an easy task. There are many advocates for it, and most of them being minimum wage workers themselves. To act upon this problem a bill would have to be placed forward into Congress. In order for the bill to be passed it has to receive a majority vote, and this could be difficult because many Democrats support a higher minimum wage. However, if they took the time to look at the opposing view and realize the negative effects it causes, their minds will change.

The federal minimum wage was raised to $7.25 an hour by Congress in 2009, something that has been carried out only a handful of times since the establishment of the wage in the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. Even with this modest rise in income, the minimum wage today does not provide for a decent standard of living. It has failed to keep pace with the wage growth of an average American worker. The minimum wage was intended provide a minimum standard of living; to aid in alleviating poverty and reward one for their work, however, in today’s economy, it fails to live up to these modest goal. Despite the fact that many adults and their families included depend on these wages to make ends meet there exists stiff opposition to any

Initially the minimum wage law was introduced to reduce poverty and inequality. Proponents of the Minimum wage do believe that these laws attain to these objectives. They do guarantee that the workers at the bottom level of the pay scale are being treated right and don’t get underpaid as the result of the belonging to a particular race or sex. They also guarantee that the workers are receiving a reasonable compensation from the employer (Cho, n.d.). The proponents of minimum wage also believe that it may have a positive reflection on the work ethics of the low-pay workers, thus it may benefit employers. It is also might encourage more people to join the workforce instead of trying to gain earnings by the means of unlawful methods, such as prostitution, selling narcotics

Policymakers in the United States continually struggle to create viable and sustainable solutions to the poverty outbreak that is prevalent in our country. This has become a critical part of the road to recovery from the recent economic recession. One of the main approaches suggested to eradicate the pervasive poverty problem is increasing the minimum wage of American laborers. If adopted, this suggestion is expected to be implemented at both the state and federal levels. This approach is based on good intentions as it is projected to have positive effects on the employment, wages and overall poverty levels in the country. However, increasing the minimum wage will only hurt the low-income earners, less-educated and experienced

Minimum wage has become a major part of the conversation on labor. The base hourly rate in this country is something that has been raised to $7.25 federally and can become as high as $9 in some states. This is important social policy because it deals with the distribution of wealth particularly with lower class workers. Part of the discussion about minimum wage is whether or not someone can make a decent living on it. Talks of subsidization and supplementation have always surrounded minimum wage talks. The idea is to make sure that on a full-time schedule at minimum wage, someone can afford housing, food, and clothing. With those things taken into account, lawmakers have debated whether or not to raise

The issue with the minimum wage is that some companies don’t see a benefit from it, it can be a factor to decisions the company or businesses may take. The owners of these businesses would rather have no limit to how much they spend on their employees, but that would create a problem. Some Companies could neglect the workers and just pocket more of the profit they make. This would be unjust to many employees’ especially low-income employees trying to support families. Another could be that the people receiving minimum pay will argue it is too low. Originally minimum wage is to set a dollar amount for those who make less amounts. Raising the dollar amount will help the employee’s see bigger numbers on their pay stubs, but everything else priced will

The Minimum Wage – the argument over its efficacy has waged since before the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Prior to answering the moral, social, or political question of whether a minimum wage should be mandated or whether such a law is fair; it is necessary to look at the data. What does the data say and how should we interpret the data? This paper will rely heavily upon David Neumark’s and William Wascher’s research and analysis in this subject as well as upon the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report from February 2014. Also, in order to assess whether a minimum wage can or has been successful, the definition of what minimum wage represents must be offered.