Imagine there is a standard, a standard that all labor, service, and other unskilled sectors of employment adhere to. That standard is to only pay the minimum compensation for their employee’s time. Many people, in America, know this as minimum wage. Minimum wage is not sufficient for any person working full time, a 40-hour workweek, to have a large enough income that is considered a living wage or even an income that provides the standard of living. There are two economic principles that are relevant to this topic. The first is the standard of living; that can be understood as the smallest, or minimum, income for a person to cross a threshold that is reflected in society to be on par, or higher, with the average income of a collected area, or region. The second principle is the quality of living; it could be simply understood as a life that is enjoyable and is without general hardship, including economic hardship. The issue of discussion here is should minimum wage be changed, and if it should be, then how should …show more content…
You work full time at a labor job. For the sake of the argument, let’s say this job is operating a convenience store. You work a 40-hour workweek. In order to have this job you need a means of transportation. There is public transportation, but is public transportation really the standard? No, the standard of living in America is for independent adults to own a vehicle. So, you purchase a vehicle and all the cost associated with owning a vehicle, including auto insurance. As well as the car that is needed; you need a place to safely put your head at night. You get an apartment. After all of these expenses you’re nearly out of money. All of the money you have left is used to buy food. Now you’re completely broke, and you continue on like this every month, and every paycheck. You are just barely able to afford food at the end of the day. This is how many people live their lives, working from paycheck to
Should government raise minimum wage? Minimum wage is set at $7.25 an hour, and if minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour such as in California, California 's law will affect both a much larger number of people, and a much more diverse population of workers than any other measure to date. A few reasons why raising minimum wage is a bad idea is because current employees who get paid the minimum wage would be obligated to do more work. To keep labor costs low, these employees would have to take on additional duties and responsibilities to make up the difference in hours available. Since more people would be willing to work for more pay, the current workers would be likely replaced by higher quality workers or automated systems.
At first glance, these writings may seem unrelated. However, the themes of minimum wage and work ethic go hand-in-hand regarding these texts. These writings express the correlation of working a minimum wage job and having a strong work ethic does not always result in enough money to pay for the cost of living. Consequently, unskilled workers become forced to
We have a systematic problem that includes not supplying livable wages. In the documentary 'One Crisis Away' chapter four, 'Living On $10 An Hour, While Trying to Pay the Bills', as well as in Reading 50 in our text book "The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality" shows how people struggle financially even when being paid over the minimum wage. People are then forced to work two jobs in order to pay bills and take care of their children. However, there is a kicker, if one would make too much money, for example, in Reading 51 or one of the examples from the panel discussion in 'One Crisis Away' then they could lose any government assistance they might be able to utilize to help take care of themselves medically or in terms of food stamps. This, to me, seems to be an effort to keep people down, instead of helping them
On average a worker would make a few dollars a week, which lead a factory worker from Texas to write President Roosevelt, “ I can’t see for my life President why a man must toil & work his life out in Such factories 10 long hours ever day except Sunday for a small sum of 15 cents to 35 cents per hour & pay the high cost of honest & deason living expences,” (pg 171). This reality of people working for nothing needed to come to a conclusion. In order for the people to receive a higher hourly wage the government needs to implement a law that dictates the minimum amount of money a worker gets paid hourly. This amount needs to be determined based on the cost of living, and in order to prevent people from working for little to nothing in the future it needs to fluctuate with the cost of living. Owners of factories and other business will be upset and not follow the law, and that is why the government will need to be strict and enforce this minimum wage law.
Opponents also argued on how the increased wages for workers will decrease the workers’ incentives to receive better education. Since people who receive minimum wage are usually teens who just start out in the workforce, most of them earn money for personal wants rather than using it to support their whole family. Patton believe a minimum wage job “should never be the end game. Rather it should be a beginning step in the career path for those inclined to improve their circumstances”. The minimum wage will enable workers to start climbing up the ladder and gain more experience.
Why we Should Raise the Minimum Wage In Kevin A. Hassett's essay which appeared in American Enterprise Institutes online issue March 10, 2013 , '' Why We Shouldn't Raise the Minimum Wage'', he responds to announcement proclaimed by President Obama, in his 2009 State of the Union address, regarding the minimum wage. '' In the wealthiest nation on Earth... no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.'' President Obama 2009 . Hassett believes that the President's resolution to raise the minimum wage would prove to be counter effective. He does not believe that it will solve the , present and worrying issue of poverty in the country.
Small Businesses could go out of business if we raised the minimum wage to a higher price. This is a widely debated subject of money, income, and the effect raising the minimum wage can have on businesses and the economy. Currently, the federal minimum wage is seven dollars and twenty-five cents and have been established that way since 2009. It has been said minimum wage should be increased to accommodate living expenses and travel time to places of work. The problem with raising minimum wage , that many people do not realize, is how it affects big and small businesses.
Seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour, or fourteen thousand five hundred per year, is the lowest amount the government deems appropriate to pay workers. This amount is sufficient for a single person with no extra expenses, but that is often not the reality of minimum wage workers. While some believe that raising the minimum wage would do more harm than good, increasing the minimum wage to a living wage would benefit society by reducing poverty, increasing productivity, spurring economic growth, and improving peoples’ quality of life. Some people say that paying workers a living wage would benefit not only the workers but the whole of society.
Throughout the years the United States’ economy has had to overcome many obstacles to get to where it is today, through good times and bad. One of the major topics that have been discussed for over the past decade is raising the federal minimum wage. This specific topic has been debated all up through presidential debates and congress meetings to where even voters are influencing their governor votes on rather if they will fight for raising the federal minimum wage or not. The desire to increase the federal minimum wage has been gaining momentum throughout the years “as a way to alleviate rising wage and income inequality”, especially within this past presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (Neumark). Many states have already raised the minimum wage by their choice, but doing this to the rest of the country through law
those who are responsible for the poverty many Americans live. The government must determine how much to increase the minimum wage; if they decide to increase it at all. Leading the struggle for increased minimum wages are the fast food workers of America, each with their own personal stories of struggle and reasons they must depend on a food service job, paying these meager wages, to provide for their family. As David Neumark states, “Since its enactment, there has been widespread debate about the merits of minimum wage laws, along with numerous efforts to evaluate their economic effects” (55). I seek to show the value of a significant minimum wage increase and the effects it will have, not only on fast food worker’s lives, but the good it could have on the US economy.
The topic of our debate is “The federal should raise minimum wage”. I am going to define the following terms: minimum wage- lowest legal wage that can be paid to most workers ($7.25). I the affirmative team believe the statements are true, our following contention will uphold my point: • Living Standard • Economy Contention 1: Living Standard Raising minimum wage will help many people that are in “living wage”. Living wage enables workers that can’t support their life and their families with a low amount of payment they get. Nearly 8 million Americans go to work every day yet still live the poverty line.
Is it really a good thing to raise the minimum wage to meet the basic need for poor people? Is it the best way to prevent poverty rate and income inequality? Answers must vary from skeptical to comprehensive response depending on whoever answers these questions. Amid a debate on this
Minimum wage and poverty With everything going on with the Walmart workers picketing for fifteen dollars an hour wages, the topic is widely discussed with many people taking many different sides. The essay “Raising the Minimum wage will reduce poverty” By Sharon Parrott and Jason Furman, They go into how they think the minimum wage should be raised in order to decrease poverty in america, Of course there are reasons to raise it and reasons to not raise it. Yet with the multitude of reasons for and against it, it’s hard to make a decision that makes everybody content, Some of the reasons not to raise it include, Raising it can make prices for everyday items go up, Why go and spend thousands of dollars on college when you could get a decent job right out of high school, and Why let workers who work at unskilled jobs make as much if not more than the military. Some reasons for minimum wage raising is, The fact that the cost of living is higher means people can’t survive with minimum wage without federal care, And just helping people get back on their feet when they couldn’t find a job. The reasons Minimum wage shouldn’t be raised outweigh the reasons it should.
Explain to a labour unionist why imposing a minimum living wage may actually harm workers. The national minimum living wage is a wage legally set by government that all UK workers who are above 25 should be paying high enough to have a normal standard of living. This ensure all workers are able to afford their day to day life’s routine, such as food, shelter, transport and etc.
Though, we are able to reduce this problem. For one, we can enforce living wages. Despite its disadvantages of inflation, rising taxes, and increasing produce costs, workers should be able to have a wage that allows them to earn enough money to support themselves and their family. By raising minimum wage, not only does this improves the standard living for workers, it enhances their own dignity and give them the motivation to continue working, allowing productivity to increase. Everyone should be empowered to create, innovate, and produce.