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The Minimum Wage Should Be Increased

Decent Essays

If your social media circles are anything like mine, you don’t have to scroll very far down your facebook dashboard before you see a ubiquitously shared, ‘liked’ and commented on post disapproving of raising the federal minimum wage. The post may have a picture of a soldier, a disheveled EMT in the back of an ambulance, or a waving American flag with overlying text stating something to the effect of ‘“Burger flippers” think they should be paid as much as these minimum wages workers? No way!’ If my experience on social media is any indicator, the most popular posts always contain “burger flipper” or “baconator.” Posts like the ones described above make moral judgements about the minimum wage with little evidence for those judgements and the flurry of comments that follow often fail to elucidate the key arguments for either the proponents or opposition of raising the minimum wage. In this paper, I will argue that the federal minimum wage should be increased by assessing both value judgements and pragmatic economic arguments to dispel some of the most well-worn of arguments by those who oppose. I will attempt to prove that the minimum wage is not feasible for meeting workers’ needs while discussing the historical context of the minimum wage, discuss human motivation as related to the minimum wage, and disprove common economic arguments borne of catastrophizing. When proponents of raising the minimum wage such as myself discuss the need for an increase, they cite the right of

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