The Minimum Wage Debate
Raising the minimum wage would strengthen the economy and help lift the working family. Anyone who works a full time job, which pays minimum wage, should be capable of supporting themselves and their families. Single parents do not always have the resources or finances to get childcare beyond their child’s school day, which makes it hard for them to work beyond their child’s school day hours. There is also the issue of the extra financial burden placed on them to pay for childcare. In today’s society, there should be an opportunity to be able to support yourself and your family, financially, if you are willing and able to work a full workweek or more.
Since a call to action by President Obama in 2013, there has been 17 states and Washington DC that have passed law to raise the minimum wage. Some cities and counties have also joined in by passing minimum wage laws. The average full time minimum wage worker makes approximately $14,500 a year, for a family trying to make ends meet, this is well below the poverty level. Opponents of these laws claim that with a minimum wage increase that everything else will go up in price. They also claim that people working in certain fields do not deserve to make as much as someone who perhaps has went to college to land a $15.00 an hour job. (“Raise the Wage”, n.d.). That maybe true, but anyone who is willing to work for a living, should
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When earning more money we are more inclined to spend more, which means pouring more money into the economy. On the other hand, those who oppose a minimum wage increase argue that a higher minimum wage would be such a burden to employers, especially small businesses. However, a resent study by the Federal reserve bank of Chicago has shown that those households who received an increase in minimum wage spend on average of $700.00 more per quarter. (Sarah Shemkus,
If they raised the price than the people who make minimum would have to make more money so they would have to work two jobs making they spend less time with friends and family. Raising minimum wage would do absolutely nothing because it 's like if you had 2 dollars and something cost 4 you work a week get 20 dollars and then have 22 you can buy it but then the price raises to 26 dollars and so on. Finally people suggest the fact that even if you raise minimum wage than not all people would still want a job and it would be harder to find a job making the poor population either rise because of people getting fired or get better because of people finding
A recent study involving three hundred fifty thousand small businesses and the IRS proved that by raising the minimum wage, proved that by raising the minimum wage in cities, actually created jobs (Meyerson A.19). The survey showed that the cities with a higher minimum wage had more jobs come to the area, aiding in job growth (Meyerson A.19). Another argument that leans toward the raising of the minimum wage involves people in poverty. Studies have shown that by raising the minimum wage, more people can live above the poverty line (Meyerson A.19). By raising the minimum over nine hundred thousand people would be
The opposing arguments about raising minimum wage is the increase will force a strain on companies and force them to slash jobs. Around two thirds of low wage workers work for large businesses like McDonalds, WalMart, Burger-King, and ninety percent of businesses like these are profitable the increase of minimum wage would not have a huge impact on these companies where they would lose that great of
Because the cost of living has welkin rocketed, it has become virtually infeasible to raise a family on a minimum wage job. A person living on his or her own cannot survive on minimum wage job either. Their living expense would just be exorbitant. The earnings of minimum wage workers are crucial to their families salubrity. Evidence from 2013 and 2014 minimum wage increase shows that an average minimum wage worker brings home more than a moiety of his or her family 's weekly earnings.
In a minimum wage increase to $10.10 like Obama wanted that would raise the national ratio to 50 percent. In San Francisco they raised minimum wage up to $10.74 and that has made the 40 percent city median wage. In February of 2013 Obama raised the minimum wage and one month into doing that the economy raised and got better for workers and
The minimum wage actually has risen by a couple of cent. An increase in pay is necessary to provide support to the parent if they have children,need to feed their family, and provide essential needs. First, The children,Families don't earn the pay they need to provide for their children(“procon.org”).The amount
To try and help out the poor from becoming poorer, there has been a proposal of raising the minimum wage. The proposal has consequently brought lots of debate around the benefits and/or the drawbacks of raising the minimum wage. Whether it
Should the Federal Minimum Wage be Increased? Have you ever thought that you wanted a raise at work but did not have reasons? In this essay you can give your boss these reasons and get more money. The minimum wage in 2012 was $7.25. The minimum wage is a large-scale reason of poverty.
Introduction More numbers of state are joining to take action to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in a few years even though there is a high disputing controversial all over the nation. The federal has set the minimum wage level to $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2015. In less than a year the index number of the minimum wage is going up automatically with cost of living. And eventually it will be likely to increase year by year with automatic and expectation index.
Today’s minimum of $7.25 an hour is worth 25 percent less than the minimum in the late 1960s. From research, a full-time, minimum-wage worker earns about $15,000 per year, which is below the federal poverty line for a worker with just one child. We need to raise the minimum wage to the point where the lowest-paid worker can afford their basic needs, such as food and other necessities. An increase to $10.00 an hour as proposed by President Barack Obama would actually reinstate the wage factor to the same value it had back in the 1960s. In doing so, it would lift earnings for nearly 28 million workers nationwide roughly 1 in 5 U.S. workers.
A person working full time at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour earns $15,080 in a year, which is 20% higher than the 2015 federal poverty level of $12,331 for a one-person household under 65 years of age, but 8% below the 2015 federal poverty level of $16,337 for a single-parent family with a child under 18 years of age (procon.org pro#2). If you put the minimum wage at $9.00, people will be able to live comfortably without unemployment rates going up. However, raising the minimum wage
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.
This poses the question: “Is the current minimum wage a livable wage?” The answer, unfortunately, comes back negative. The current federal minimum wage, at $7.25, is worth nearly 38 percent less compared to 1968 when the federal minimum wage was valued at its highest ($11.72 in 2016 dollars). Given the facts, it is justifiable to raise the federal minimum wage as it would amount to a more livable wage, stimulate the economy, and provide better circumstances for workers of color and women.
There are a lot of potential benefits for an increase in minimum wage and on the surface it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t want to increase the wage. One of the clearest to see is that an increase to the minimum wage will also increase the spending for each household during the following years. So it works to help stimulate the economy in whatever area you increase the minimum wage. Along those same lines increasing the minimum wage will lead to a decrease in poverty as well. With the decrease in poverty you will also see a decrease in government spending on welfare items because the individuals receiving the higher wage in theory will be able to pay for these services/welfare items without assistance.
In the past three years, many politicians and labor unions have been pushing for an increase in minimum wage. Minimum wage is the lowest set wage by a law of a government body. An increase in minimum will benefit some people, and hurt others. An increase in minimum wage will cause benefit in the short run but will be very damaging to the economy in the long run. There should not be an increase in minimum wage because it is unhealthy to the economy in the long run and it will be the major cause of job loss, increase in inflation, competition, and the price level of goods and services.