Wages For The American Worker Essay

Jason Furman and Parrot Sharon explain why raising minimum wage will help families. The wage has to be elevated to just the point where a family can actually afford all the necessities they need in order to survive. The cost of living in houses for poor people makes it difficult for them to afford it and is difficult to stay on task with all the bills. Many minimum wage workers have families to support. The cost of raising children is very expensive. It is an average of $7,100 per year. Minimum wage workers can barely afford to pay child care for one child, let alone two. Increasing minimum wage will also make life easier to those who have food stamps and child care needs. Which can also help them get into college a lot faster so they can go out and pursue a better paying job.

“A 15 percent increase in the minimum wage nationwide would destroy about 290,000 to 590,000 young people's jobs, and about 400,000 to 800,000 jobs overall” (Henderson, David R). Due to the Fair labor Standards act, the federal minimum wage, or the lowest you can pay an employee for work, currently stands at $7.25 an hour. Although a number of Americans think that raising the minimum wage would benefit our country, it would actually bring a number of problems to our economy, such as a rise in job loss and high school dropout.

Right now,according to Victoria Smith,over 40 million people are living in poverty. This could be changed if they were able to get enough money from their jobs, but the minimum wage isn’t high enough right now. Even if only by a little, if minimum wage were raised, the amount of people living in poverty could be reduced by at least 5 million according to Mike Konczal . Originally, the minimum wage was at only .25 cents an hour. Due to causes such as inflation, this wage has been raised to meet the current standard. Although interest in raising the wage has gone away until recently. Minimum wage should be increased because it would increase job growth and economic activity,it would reduce government spending on welfare, and reduce poverty.

When there are millions of Americans living at or below poverty lines, something has to be done. Billion dollar companies and businesses that employ workers, paying them low wages is hurting the economy. The reality is, unless the minimum wage is raised, the cycle will only continue. With higher minimum wages in place, the entire country does better and, therefore, should be raised. There needs to be laws put place to raise the minimum wage. Doing so would boost the economy with all of the money that Americans would put into it. With higher minimum wages, millions of Americans can get out of poverty, not having to rely on the government for assistance such as food stamps, public housing, child care, and health care needs. They can afford better housing options in which they want to live. Communities would see less crimes in neighborhoods creating a safer environment. Aside from that, Americans can afford a good education, health care, as well as healthier eating and exercising habits.

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.

If the government raised the minimum wage, then the amount of people in poverty would decline. The poverty line in 2015 was $12,331 a year, only 20 percent below a full-time minimum wage worker’s annual salary of $15,080 (Should the Federal). As a result, minimum-wage citizens can barely meet their living needs. A study completed by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 2015 said that a worker must earn $15.50 an hour to be able to rent a one bedroom apartment. If someone needed a two bedroom apartment they would need to earn $19.35 an hour (Should the Federal). More people would be able to find adequate housing or their family if minimum wage were to increase. As a result. Less people would be living on the streets. If the minimum wage was raised to $9 an hour, over 300,000 people would be lifted out of poverty. Even better, raising minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would result in over 900,000 people out of poverty (Should the Federal). Consequently, more people would be living comfortably if the minimum wage were to be raised. Poverty levels

The federal minimum wage should be raised for the low-income workers, because it may reduce the gap between the rich and poor in our nation, it can help bring people up from below poverty lines, and will improve the economy. The federal minimum wage has been widely talked about, and continues to be a growing issue in the United States today. Many low-income workers have come together because they want equal pay.

Raising the minimum wage is a false idea that millions of Americans have; people believe it will put more money in their pocket and will be making more money than he or she is now. This is a wrong accusation to make. The people wanting to raise the minimum wage is the people of lower income levels. If the government raises the minimum wage, the cost of living is going to go up, guaranteed. Many people think that raising the minimum wage will help kids pay for school, when this actually encourages them to drop out early in the pursuit of money.

If the minimum wage were to be raised, nearly 1.7 million people would not need to rely on government assisted programs, and with each person costing about $4 a day for food stamps, the government would be saving $2.5 billion a year of food stamps alone. Raising minimum wage will cut down the cost of government

A wage increase in our country would do a world of good rather than harm. This country is in dire need of a wage increase but just because it needs one doesn’t mean people shouldn’t read in between the lines and how it will be helpful. Minimum wage was always the status quo in this country there was a time where it didn’t exist. With time however, it established itself into our modern day society. Because of the growth of the country the minimum wage was left untouched forgetting what it was made to do in the first place. There are some negatives pertaining to raising the wage, some fictional others factual. Before, it was raised to compliment the normal amount money required for the standard of living for Americans. However, it never raised

Several American families are struggling to make ends meet because they work a minimum wage job. Americans often face that fact and wonder how they are going to pay their bills and still have food on the table for themselves and their families. This has been an issue for quite some time now and it needs to change. Americans should not have to worry about how they are going to pay for necessities they need with the little amount of money they are earning at work. The United States would benefit from the minimum wage being raised by the growth of the economy and creation of jobs, reduction of poverty, and reduction of income inequality.

If the minimum wage were to go up, people would not have a reason to improve their education. This would bring the lower-class and middle-class together, creating a bigger gap between the upper-class, and that of the average U.S. citizen. The average upper-class family makes roughly 70 times the average income of a lower-class family (Fry). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, right now only 3.3 percent of hourly paid workers are paid minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage will greatly increase the percent of people who are paid minimum wage. The amount of workers who would need to further their education to get a good job will decline. The average pay for workers who only have a high school diploma of less is $14.64 (Earnings). Increasing the minimum wage will nearly eliminate the lower half of the average. Therefore, this will make it so people will not have to attend college to get a job to satisfy their wants. People need to go

Many argue that the national minimum wage is, ‘Not a Living Wage’, which is often backed up using low-income, impoverished, full time workers as proof for their argument. There is plenty of evidence for this side. According to the federal census, at least 13.5% of Americans are below the poverty line. The poverty line for two people is $16,240. The poverty line for a family of four is $24,036. The 13.5 % may seem insignificant, but that means forty-five million people are living in poverty in the U.S. To fix this issue, many argue the method of raising the minimum wage. Congress seems to agree, seeing that the “Congressional Budget Office states that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.” The Federal Bureau

Contrary to these beliefs, I believe that raising the minimum wage will not only benefit the company and employee immensely, but overall increase the productivity of workers. The raising of the minimum wage will help these low income families support their families, which decreases the poverty level too.

The maximized earnings of the lowest paid workers are the instantaneous advantage of a minimum wage increase however, the irrefutable effect could far exceed the extra income. Notably, raising the minimum wage does not cause job loss, despite the claim of many skeptics. Notwithstanding, a minimum wage increase would strengthen jobs like unemployment benefits, as well as tax breaks for lower, and middle-income workers. Plus, raising the minimum wage puts money in the pocket of working families thereby increasing their spending power (Cooper and Hall, 2012).