United States Support Minimum Wage

To begin, there is an extensive debate over whether if the U.S were to raise minimum wage, could it really help the working poor of low income families. Nancy Cook, in her article from the National Journal, “Why a Minimum-Wage Hike Can’t Help the Poor”, she points out that two thirds of around 100 surveys from 2007 had a negative effect and that it does more for the middle class than the lower one. (p.14). So, therefore, from her

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.

Rex Huppke writes, correctly, that raising the minimum wage is a complex issue. The majority of Americans agree to higher minimum wage, most being Democrats, while many owners believe that we should keep it the same. He says that people like to raise the minimum wage because “[I]t appeals to people, and it sounds like the right thing to do” (146).

The issue of raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour is a heavily debated topic. Both sources against or in favor of the minimum wage refer to a “growing gap” between low-income workers and high-income earners. Sources against the minimum wage believe raising it will increase this gap, whereas those in favor of the minimum wage believe it will decrease this gap. The arguments in favor of the minimum wage rely mostly on ethical beliefs, such as “pay should reflect hard work,” to advance the need for a higher minimum wage. Whereas, the arguments against the minimum wage use quantitative data like unemployment rates and economic analysis involving supply and demand to undermine the policy behind the minimum wage. Ultimately, the

The controversy over what to establish as the official minimum wage in the United States has been debated and argued over for many years. Due to inflation, the gradual increase of pricings due to a saturation of printed currency, the minimum wage for workers has to be increased in order to compensate for the ever-fluctuating value of the U.S. Dollar. Many today are rising to the conclusion that a minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour is necessary. This motion is designed to keep those who have minimum wage income out of poverty and to increase the amount of money in the consumer’s pocket overall. However, this particular increase in minimum wage will lead to the inevitable downfall of the United States’ economy and be a catastrophe for the working class.

How an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage Would Impact the Single Mom and Ultimately the American Economy.

The debate is still going on about raising minimum wage, but most low income individuals have hope that the federal government will vote in favor of the raise. However, the upper class Americans believe the lower class Americans can do better without the raise because of their stereotypical thoughts they have about the lower class individuals such as drug habits, being alcoholics, and living off of government assistance. Not realizing that type of thinking is not good toward lower income families because there are some poverty struck families that are trying their best fighting for a better life, but it is hard with the cost of living going up every other day, yet the money they make is still the same. Remembering the crisis the federal government

Barbara Ehrenreich establishes her claim on how society and the government are detrimental to people in poverty. The negative generalization that minimum wage workers experience in America affect their ability to move from the low class and into the middle class. I agree with Ehrenreich because many people who are in poverty are categorized as lazy and many people also believe that poverty does not occur on a large scale in the US. While government assistance does exist, most individuals surpass the threshold for welfare, yet still can not afford basic necessities.

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.

Since minimum wage workers are primarily the poor or lower middle class of America, a raise in the minimum wage is meant to help exactly those people. In Are Minimum Wages Fair?, a 2012 American Enterprise Institute article, Aparna Mathur and Michael R. Strain argue that the minimum wage shouldn’t be raised, because it is fair. The authors state, “ If on balance raising the minimum wage finds fewer people working and more poverty, then it is hard to argue that raising the minimum wage is fair.” This quote directly correlates to the previous article, because the authors are stating that the minimum wage is fair as long as it doesn’t rise. A rise in the wage will cause people to lose their jobs. The authors’ logical appeal enables them to cross their point to their audience very effectively, because they imprint a sense of logic in the audience’s thought process. The use of an “if, then” statement causes the audience to accept the authors’ claim, because it is presented as common sense. The authors go on to state, “In addition, the minimum wage doesn’t primarily affect the poor. Many poor Americans are unemployed and are obviously not helped by increasing the minimum wage. Among people who do work, only a tiny fraction of them are employed in minimum wage jobs, and many of those are teenagers from middle-class families.” The authors make a convincing point in this quote. They state that the point of raising the minimum wage is to help out the poor and lessen the gap between the rich and the poor, but most poor people aren’t employed. This ultimately leads one to accept that raising the minimum wage wouldn’t positively affect many people. Although this is the logical side of this argument, the truth is “poor” is a technical term. This article classifies poor as living in poverty and being unemployed. However, as stated in the

Wealthy people in America are incapable of understanding the fact that the actual minimum wage, after being adjusted for inflation has continued to fall in the past 50 years. After adjusting for inflation the calculated minimum wage of the late 60’s would be $10.90, which is significantly more than todays $7.25. The unemployment rate of 1969 was 3.5 percent compared to today’s unemployment rate of 5 percent. So that alone lays to rest all the arguments claiming that a higher

Minimum wage should be increased, so the Democrats project. It should be increased seeing that it would benefit citizens and their families for the reason of financial issues. Those who did not have the opportunity to receive a higher education are struggling to make ends meat. Minimum wage is at a very low rate for a person trying to own a home, car, clothing, food and benefits. A person can be working more than one job and still may not have those necessities, due to the fact that goods and bills take a great amount of money. If minimum was increased there would be no need for public housing, food stamps or medicare because citizens would be making enough money to be able to provide themselves with all of these necessities to live. The Republicans say that the problem with raising the minimum wage is that prices of goods will incline and will put society in the same spot that we are in today. Citizens would not be able to afford that increase. Education is a problem today in the political realm. For a higher education, the cost should not be as high as it is today for the reason of needing an education to survive in today’s world. Democrats believe that the cost should be cut completely or lowered tremendously. Republicans on the other hand disagree, it is citizens own responsibility to get themselves a higher education and should not rely on the government for

The conflict perspective for raising the minimum wage is between the upper class that runs large corporations and the lower class that works at minimum wage salaries. Lower class people want to make a higher minimum wage and the wealthy class does want to increase their wages because they want to keep making a large profit. Also, The upper class or wealthy control

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

The minimum wage has arguably become the most controversial topic regarding our economy today, as it influences one of the largest classes of people within the United States, the working class. Federally, the minimum wage has not been raised in eight years, so it has stayed at $7.25 per hour for all non-exempt workers (U.S. DoL). The opinions on this topic are typically split across a progressive-conservative line, with progressives being in favor of a raise from $7.25, and conservatives wanting to stay at the current rate. This can be seen when looking at the typical progressive stances from states and municipalities that raise the minimum wage for businesses operating within their jurisdiction, since the higher rate among all levels of