UK National Minimum Wage Should Be Raised

The topic on whether the minimum wage should be increased our untouched has been a hot topic in the media and political scene lately. Both the republicans and democrats have spent some big bucks lobbying their insights on the matter. There has been a lot of subjective and objective arguments that are reasonable on both the pros and cons of increasing our national minimum wage. To add to the drama associated with this topic, President Obama endorsed a bill proposing a nearly 40% rise from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. The President has been campaigning around the country ever since his State of the Union address, pushing congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Many say this is too high due to the costs of enacting such an increase, and many say this is a little low due to the increased cost of living. After looking into both sides of this debate, I realize that overall it would be better for the well-being of our nation to increase the minimum wage due to the short term and long term costs that an increase of the minimum wage could lead to. In terms of helping out the lower class and poor citizens of the United States, increasing the minimum wage level is not the answer.

This drop in demand then results in an oversupply of goods from the producer, who is then forced to reduce his supply to the new demand level, or goods may sit on the shelf. E2 represents the new Equilibrium level between supply and demand. If the good was perishable and the supplier did not adjust his supply, there would be a lot of wastage.

“No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage” (Benjamin Todd Jealous). In 1938, minimum wage was created by the federal government in order to protect workers by ensuring a minimum of twenty-five cents per hour worked. Though President Roosevelt had the right idea in protecting the workforce, something needs to be done to ensure that Americans are getting a reasonable amount of money for the amount of hours they have worked. As Benjamin Todd Jealous stated, minimum wage is not enough for the average American to live on. Although many would argue against increasing minimum wage due to the possibility of heightening prices and intensifying competition, I believe minimum wage should be raised in order to stimulate the economy and create more job opportunities.

Next, another problem the rise of minimum wage poses is the rise of inflation. If employers are required to pay their employees more, then they need to do something to compensate for the extra money they are losing. With this in mind, employers would have to increase the prices of goods. But sometimes raising prices is not an option for employers. “If a business cannot simply pass along its new labor costs, it must somehow absorb them—by eliminating workers rendered unproductive by the new minimum wage, by replacing labor with more-productive machines, or by cutting production” (Intorduction 2). This brings back the issue of minimum wage causing a dramatic increase in unemployment. Sherk believes it is the wrong time to increase minimum wage, due to the fact that America is currently in a recession. The right time to think about raising minimum wage would be when the unemployment rate drops drastically. Sherk states “In 2007, Congress voted to increase the minimum wage, raising it in three $0.70 increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The final installment represents a 10 percent increase in the cost of hiring minimum wage employees” (Sherk 1). Seemly inflation and minimum wage increases influence each other.

The current minimum wage is $7.25, which equals two gallons of milk, one fast food meal or two gallons of gas. Can you imagine yourself working 12-hours a day and only having enough money to pay for rent and put food on the table for your family? With working all those long hours, you can barely afford to pay your utility bills and after that you don’t have enough money or time for luxuries like clothing or vacation. You have no savings as matter of fact, you are in a huge debt and you are living paycheck to paycheck. This is the story of millions of American worker, who are employed on minimum wage. The shocking part about this story is that million of Americans would be saved from this poverty life, if the American government raises the minimum wage. This would not only help the workers, but also the economy because raising the minimum wage would put extra money in the pocket of minimum wage worker and extra spending would help restore consumer spending.

We are arguably living in the aftereffects of a country that reached its heights of Capitalism during the Industrialization era. Prior to the introduction of machinery and railroad systems to America, the economical framework relied on a warped version of lasseiz-faire and featured wealthy descendants of British merchants who joined the colonies. Others worked menial jobs and apprenticeships to guarantee their source of income and it is safe to say that many were unhappy with their predicament --- even if they had no platform to voice this opinion. While the Industrialization Era introduced centuries of wealth to America, it also severely tipped the wealth distribution scale which can be seen extremely in events like the multiple depressions of the 19th Century and recessions in the 20th Century. In a 2013 statistic, researchers found that 53.5% of people despise their jobs. If you ask around, you 'll find that many overqualified Americans are still working menial jobs to provide for their families and that even office jobs are not that promising in terms of salary. The wealth cap for most of these citizens is around $60k~ and many, many Americans are living in poverty. There seems to be a socio-economical propaganda that is being spewed around for many years that many workers of minimum wage are lazy, entitled teenagers who have nothing better to do than sit around and collect

“When we talk about the kind of folks whose lives will be made better by raising the minimum wage, we 're not talking about a couple teenagers earning extra spending money to supplement their allowance. We 're talking about providers and breadwinners. Working Americans with bills to pay and mouths to feed” (Perez 2015). Minimum wage is a problem to America because some people cannot live off it and some people say businesses should not pay extra. Should the minimum wage be raised ? “A native of Detroit, Cecil Euseary, 52, moved to Holland, Michigan in 2007, after his mother died — he had to get out of town. He moved back to Detroit in 2014.He works at Burger King working minimum wage there. He can only get about 25 hours of work per week at Burger King. Cecil has been active in the "D15" campaign to increase the minimum wage in Detroit to $15 per hour. He once met with U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, when he was visiting Detroit. "It 's hard. If it weren 't for my god mom — this is her house; I get a room upstairs — if it weren 't for her, I don 't know what," Cecil says. "I 'd probably be out on the street, in a shelter." (Euseary 2014). The minimum wage should be raised from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour because if you raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour it would lift people out of poverty, it would increase the federal purchasing power and not as many families struggling to make ends meet. Here’s another story, Enriqueta works as a housekeeper for minimum wage in the

Imagine being a single mother of three. Now let's say someone didn’t finish high school because they were pregnant with their first child. They are also paid at minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour where they live. Would it be possible to live like that? 1.3 million people in the united states are paid at minimum wage. In some states the $7.25 an hour is lowered or there is none at all. Minimum wage should be raised, although some argue it shouldn’t because of consumer prices.

Minimum wage is an ongoing debate in the United States. There are some people who think that it should be raised to a higher rate and others who think that it should not. There are many different pros and cons with raising minimum wage. Minimum wage is at a balanced rate that should not be raised due to lack of skill, low education, and economic problems.

In 2008 the United states came into recession due to many factors. Based on the article, the minimum wage should be raised. Ever since that meeting many economists have proposed different plans to solve this issue. One of these solutions for this particular issue is to raise the minimum wage. This would affect the economy, workers, and job growth which will follow in need of help. This plan would help, but there has been research that has gone against the solution stating that there is more cost than the overall benefit. There are still discussions to this day for if which they should raise the minimum wage.

In today’s society, minimum wage is an issue. It’s whether or not it should be raised or

This quote suggests that an important factor of a booming economy is the worker. A simple fact is that the more the worker makes, the more goes into the economy. Moreover, in President Obama’s State of the Union address back in 2013, he notes that raising the minimum wage means that “for businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets” (Luhby 1). This proposes that an increase in the minimum wage helps businesses as well as the worker. As of right now, American people whose sole income is through a minimum wage salary can barely afford to pay for basic needs such as groceries and rent. With not a dollar to spare, every single penny of their already small paycheck goes towards these basic necessities. With an increase in their salary, the more Americans making minimum wage can spend on things outside of their basic necessities, which would in turn help out businesses in America and contribute the economy of the country as a whole.

Since 1938 the federal government for the United States of America has set the minimum wage. The laws were put in place to prevent employers from taking advantage of workers and paying a person less than the mandated amount per hour. At this point the minimum wage has not been increased since 2009 and it is only $7.25 per hour. This means that a person working full time will only gross $15,080 per year, an amount that is well below the poverty line. It is time to raise the minimum wage for several reasons: First, if you take in to account inflation, a person making minimum wage today is making less than a person who made minimum wage in 1968. The minimum wage in 1968 was equal to about $8.68 in 2016 dollars. Second, people earning a good wage is not only good for the worker and his or her family, it is good for society. And finally, raising the minimum wage will act as a stimulus for the economy.

This paper gives an insight on the debate whether the minimum wage should be raised to $10 an hour or not in the United States. There is a big debate in the United States regarding as to whether the minimum wage should be raised to $10 per hour, but before we go into details of the debate lets first understand what is meant by a minimum wage and how did it come into existence. A minimum wage is the lowest wage that is paid to workers by their employers, and the government legally sets it. A minimum wage is a price floor, workers are not allowed to sale their services below price, and the government legally sets the price (Neumark et al 2008). Although the minimum wage is put into effect in jurisdictions, there exist different opinions

Many people say raising minimum wage to fifthteen dollars in California is a horrible idea,but it can actually help lots of people.