Why Do We Have The Minimum Wage?

According to the American Enterprise Institute, it is stated by president Obama that increasing the minimum wage: “would alleviate poverty”. The president is certainly correct, this wouldn't help everyone. As the information given: only 11.3% of the people will get beneficiated by this raise. Why this? People who don’t work are the ones in poverty; and because firing some its workers, there will be more poverty than there was before. And if the case is that a company keeps their employees… the people

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.

The issue of the minimum wage has recently come to the forefront of the debate on social policy. There is much disagreement over the wisdom of an increase in the minimum wage in the current fragile economic recovery. Some argue that a dramatic increase is what is needed in order to lift the standard of living for those in the bottom of the economic pyramid. Economists reason that the basic principle of supply and demand mandates than an increase in the wage would result in the loss of available jobs. Small businesses maintain that it would spell their doom.

It 's the year 2014, and we are in the state of the financial crisis which is still being felt

The federal minimum wage in the United States is currently $7.25 an hour. Increasing the minimum wage would lift approximately 900,000 people out of poverty. Forty-three million Americans are living in poverty due to low income, health care costs, childcare costs, college costs, and housing costs. The federal minimum wage should be raised because it keeps up with inflation and would scale down poverty levels.

The government spends millions of dollars supporting poor families every year. Since the government is already in an estimated $19.4 trillion debt as of 2016, raising the minimum wage would be a way to save them money and pay back some of that debt (Lantigua-Williams). By raising the minimum wage to $10.10, 1.7 million workers would no longer need governmental support to be financially stable. With this amount of people no longer needing the government's help, the government will have extra money to use. Just from the increase of minimum wage, the government would save $4.6 billion from not having to send out as many food stamps alone. And over just one year, the increase in pay would reduce the government spending on income-support programs by $7.6 billion (“Should Federal Minimum”). The government will be able to use this money on other important things that will help the country grow and

Price then realized that since it was the workers that were making these productivity gains, their minimum wages should increase. As a result, he cut his own salary to fund a company-wide increase of the minimum wage to seventy-thousand dollars (Keegan). Price’s actions reflect the importance of workers and their contributions to a firm. These gains should be going to the workers since they are the source of the productivity gains. CEOs can implement a program or buy technology to increase rates of production, but it is up to the employees as a collective mass to actually execute this action. Disbursing these productivity gains would contribute to increasing the minimum wage, inherently moving families up closer to or above the poverty line. Ranks show that forty percent of Americans between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-six will spend one year below the poverty line and fifty-four percent will spend a year at or near that line (Kiernan 182). For workers to still live in poverty is because without them, there would be implementation of the good or service a CEO is trying to provide. Employees are the basis of production and should be valued more than the current minimum wage. Increasing the minimum wage would also prevent people from working nonstandard hours to earn more money, which would increase the living standard. Workers that have nonstandard hours tend to be single mothers with children, who are then forced to leave their children alone

Raising the minimum wage will help keep up with inflation. For example, this piece of evidence supports the fact that poor families are even poorer than what was expected. The article "pros-and-cons-of-raising-the-minimum-wage "stated, "The minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation. As a result, the pay of man workers, particularly those with families of three or more people, are no well below the poverty level." Minimum wage is already so low to the point that it is considered poverty.

In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the minimum wage currently remains at a meager $7.25 an hour while twenty-nine other states have raised theirs (Source 3). Kentucky essentially needs to raise theirs as well. Politicians continue to debate this topic with no end in sight. Among many reasons, Kentucky should raise its minimum wage to account for inflation, to relieve the poverty rate, and to stimulate the economy.

Many people may believe that raising the minimum wage is a great idea. An employee making federal minimum wage is below the poverty level. But could it be that a decrease in, or not having a minimum wage at all, would be better for the economy?

It seems only logical that providing the poorest segment of society with more pay for their work will improve their situation and give them the working capital they need to work their way out of poverty. With each incremental increase those who are directly affected by the increase will instantly have more money to help them purchase more good and services to improve their living conditions. Additionally increasing the minimum wage would likely have a positive effect on the overall economy as workers immediately increase their consumption possibly increasing GDP and the resulting employment

While in theory, it may seem like increasing the minimum wage to 10$ will raise the standard of living by providing households with more money; in reality, this plan will backfire. According to www.forbes.com, about 60% of those below the poverty line are unemployed. We see from this that the majority of those who are living below the poverty line do not have jobs; increasing the minimum wage will not help

If there is an increase in minimum wage, it will slowly pull people out of poverty. Poverty level for a single person is just under $12,000 per year, but for a household with two kids, it’s over $23,000 per year. At the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a person’s annual salary would be about $15,000 per year. Also, since cost of living varies in different places in the country, the same minimum wage often does not even cover living expenses. Increasing the minimum wage to $9 per hour will lift 300,000 people from poverty. If increased to $10.10 an hour it will lift 900,000 people out of poverty and reduce the number of non-elderly living in poverty. Since young people are most likely to be working minimum wage jobs, they often face other issues associated with making minimum

In “The minimum wage: To raise it or not to raise.” Mike Patton explains the negative effects of raising it. He addresses the various consequences this change would lead to the society in a long-term scenario. Even though protestors believe that the best choice they have to improve their economic situation is to get a higher wage, this action would lead not only to atrocious but perilous complications. It is undeniable that we are always seeking for an improvement in our economy but the issue of increasing the minimum wage cannot be discussed without considering the negative outcome of this tremendous change.

A raise in the minimum wage would improve the income inequality across The United States. During his presidential campaign Bernie Sanders stated, that the richest 1% of people control the same amount of wealth as the other 90% of families. The increase in minimum wage would help to equalize the disproportionate income inequality that affects all of