The Pros And Cons Of Minimum Wage

One of the biggest political topics in today's society is the federal minimum wage and whether it should be raised or kept at where it is now at $7.25 an hour. Arguments could be made for both sides on whether it should be raised or left alone. The majority of minimum wage in today’s job market are unskilled positions. Minimum wage jobs were created for teenagers and colleges kids as a way to get into the workforce and to have a little extra money for themselves. It was not designed to be a wage for people to live on. Increasing the minimum wage would hurt the economy by hurting small businesses, a huge loss of jobs and it would increase the competition between teens and adults. Overall if the federal minimum wage is increased it will have many negative effects on the economy.

Raising minimum wage would affect teenage workers. With younger adults and teenagers finishing up school, about half look for a job, while some don’t want to or have other plans such as going to college. If minimum wage were to be increased, it would make more people want to get a job. Increasing minimum wage would put more money in consumer’s pockets to spend in stores; therefore, stores would require more staff. Teenagers would have more money which would enable them to apply more funds towards their education to improve themselves. Supporters feel if people are going to get paid more, they would want to get a job. An increase in your pay would increase the consumer rate of purchasing things, and would require more staff due to more customers since they have more money to purchase things. According to Economic Policy Institute, “Over three-quarters 3.4 million of the affected workers were adults age 20 or older. The other 1.1 million workers were teenagers, age 16-19. Despite the relatively small number of affected teens, this nevertheless represents a large share, 19.9%, of all teen workers.” (Heidi Shierholz). Those who oppose believe that increasing minimum wage would cause prices of products and services to increase rapidly and cause people to limit their spending. As prices go up,

There are a lot of people around the world who struggle with money and a satisfactory way of life. Whether they be in the United States or across the globe, there is a standard minimum wage set for the working class of their country. In the Unites States, there is a federal minimum wage of seven dollars and twenty five cents per hour worked. Almost every state has another set minimum wage, which typically is a little higher than the federal minimum wage, but it cannot be lower than seven dollars and twenty five cents. Countries set minimum wage laws, to ensure there is a basic quality of life amongst its citizens. As the minimum wage goes up in certain states, the quality of life also improves. The problem with a higher minimum wage, is now people are getting paid higher for entry level jobs which are meant for teenagers and people new to the workforce. If the minimum wage keeps increasing across the country, teenagers and young adults will have a much more difficult time finding jobs.

Raising the minimum wage is a very important public policy issue. Raising the minimum wage is a responsible policy that is supported by research and demanded by the American public. Each day, minimum wage workers across the country struggle to make ends meet and provide a decent life for their kids (Scott & Perez, 2016). Raising the minimum wage is a controversial issue, many believe that raising the minimum wage would only provide low wage workers more money to spend. However, the benefits can be endless for low wage workers. If minimum wage is increased across the United States it would afford the people effected more opportunities for financial freedom. Increasing the minimum wage would raise the standard of living for low wage workers, allow families to be removed from poverty, allow for government welfare spending to be reduced and lastly additional income being spent would positively affect the economy.

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 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.

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

Those who are content with raising a family on minimum wage will fail themselves and their family by not making themselves better. Additionally, those employers who report millions and billions in annual profits and continue to pay their workers minimum wage are being greedy, and greater pressure put on the employers to pay a better wage. As the minimum wage rate edges, closer to union pay and state and federal pay scales, it will force the entire country into a labor dispute. Those with a college education or a trade will not continue to work alongside someone with no qualifications and earn the same pay. American companies paying minimum wage in high poverty nations would be overpaying the local nations as they have no experience and the work force pool size to be scarce. Those entering into the workforce deserve minimum wage and this would allow employers to train and employ more workers to fill positions requiring experience. Lastly, those choosing to not better themselves through education, and live on minimum wage is creating a bigger burden for everyone

There are 156. 4 million people in the US workforce, however 5.2% of those are unemployed. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour; however, each state has its own laws regarding minimum wage and the amount can be higher or lower than the federal minimum, but the employee receives the higher of the two (2015). A higher minimum wage means that employers are less apt to hire someone. Some experts explain this by saying that if an employer values the job at a lower wage per hour than the minimum wage set by the government, then the employer is less likely to hire someone to fill that role. The employer only wants to hire someone when that person will be able to generate some sort of value for the company and positively affect the bottom line. Another problem with a high minimum wage is that potential employees are less likely to want to work if they are able to receive unemployment benefits from the government that will almost equal that which they would receive from working a minimum wage job (Gillikin).

Minimum wage often hurts people it is intended to protect from the increase. There are many research papers that will show exactly how the minimum wage affects both the employer and the employee. The employer then has to take action when there is legislation that passes a higher minimum wage rate. I am against minimum wage for many reasons that I will explain in my essay.

The United States is able to maintain a favorable economy without using minimum wage laws according to critics. Those who oppose the increase think that the country would be better without minimum wage laws. According to the opponents, this country does not need to force a certain amount on a company and the free market will set proper wages (Learning). The natural market is powerful enough to maintain a good economy. A jobholder should need to work hard for a higher wage. Over time an employee should earn more pay not have his/her boss be forced to pay a certain value (Arnstrong). Hard work will earn them the wage that they deserve. Many people will lose their jobs if there were a raise. This will happen when the companies have people who aren't able to provide that value that they are paying for (Learning). So, by increasing wage of people who simply don't deserve it, many people will lose their jobs. Increasing wages will cause higher unemployment rates. By forcing companies to pay more than the work is worth, people may actually lose their jobs (Arnstrong). If an employer has to pay each employee more they may have to let people go. Minimum wage does not help with unemployment. Minimum wage only affects people already in the workforce not the people who are looking for jobs (Learning). People searching will not be helped from increased pay. It also makes it harder for a young person

You may wonder how the economy is affected negatively through minimum wage, so I’ll start there. The health of the economy is based upon an array of factors. Many people misconstrue this fact and think the economy is just based on the amount of money that the government have at their disposal and to be frank I can see why they do as such. The fact of the matter is that the economy and its health is based mostly on Gross Domestic Product or better known as GDP. The GDP alone does not indicate how well our economy is swaying, but change in it do. The goal for our economy and is to grow, have great price stability, and most importantly for this topic: have a high employment rate. Employment rate stand out most in this instance because of the power that minimum wage law has over it. One point that can easily be made that the higher the wage, the more people are going to want to get up and get up and work. The problem with that logic is that the demand for jobs will be high, but the supply for jobs will run out well before everyone is employed if the minimum wages was incredibly

The minimum wage decreases supply in labor. The law affects the market of unskilled labor. In result of this law, there is a surplus of unskilled workers, fewer works are employed, and others lose working hours. When wages increase, the supply of labor increase. Employers are maybe unwilling to input more than the value of the additional product their producing and red themselves of the employees they believe are not cost efficient. Other

Minimum wage is the price floor for jobs. Many people are either for it or against it, however not denying the fact that it is very important to employees. Because, minimum wage creates a pathway for workers to sell their labour though getting paid less, businesses willingly hire them and workers gain experiences. Yes, in many ways it can benefit both the employers and the employees but there is always a down side to it. When it comes to revenue businesses can only spend so much and it does not benefit the employees in the long run due to cost push inflations and poverty. A study based on minimum wage jobs from 2001-2012 in UK and Romania indicates how minimum wage have an effect on these countries. Youths are also being affected by minimum wage jobs.

The concept of minimum wage is to ensure that employers do not pay wages below the mandated level. However this does not always happen instead this policy ends up hurting these workers and the economy in terms of lower job opportunities. This is because the increase of labor costs keeping all other things constant would eat into the net profits of the company. Therefore in order to offset the decrease in profits, the need for low skilled labor decreases and companies look for higher productivity workers.