America today is faced with its fair share of problems. There are low employment rates, debt, and inflation everywhere, riddling the economy with issues. There is absolutely no reason that any American citizen should want to pile upon the problem. Yet, some believe that it could be done by raising the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. Fortunately, history, economics, and common sense prove the minimum wage raise proposition wrong. In cities like Seattle, Washington, the minimum wage raise has been adopted. Seattle 's local government intended to increase their unimpressive employment rates. The rates had been rising slowly over past years. Almost as soon as the minimum wage was raised to fifteen dollars, the once climbing employment rates faced immediate decline. Just as the economists in the surrounding areas had predicted, the results of the raise were disastrous. Seattle is just one of many examples of the danger raising the minimum wage poses. …show more content…
Maybe it does not effect them directly, or they consider it "just a few people losing their jobs." What do these dropping rates show for themselves? According to economists from the American Action Foundation, raising the minimum wage just one dollar caused 747,700 people to lose their jobs. That is just considering the adults. Teenagers from ages sixteen to nineteen also make up roughly 25% of the workforce. According to statistics, in areas where the minimum wage increased one dollar, showed the teenage unemployment rates skyrocketing up to 4.67 on a five point
Many economists say that by raising the Federal minimum wage by $2 would increase the unemployment rate significantly. However, the Congressional Budge Office said in 2006 said that
Compare to the charts depending of the cost of living there are some changes that can take place and raising the minimum wage stats whereas living can be better for society and Americans. Minimum wage is an issue still today and is debated word wide with eclectic audiences. Minimum wage will always be looked at s priority and poverty with low income and housing as a minority family. When the day has set and the family is around the dinner table for dinner then the issue of minimum wage comes up in the conversation, how can the family do better, what can we do to be middle class if not top class where the millionaires lives and the status of a millionaire. Not sure how a millionaire lives but comparing to the stats society is way off to another side of the map.
If they were to raise minimum wage their life would be so much easier , other families can benefit from this too. The government needs to raise minimum wage. If parents are getting underpaid how are they supposed to support their family. “High school kids were getting underpaid” (Patricia 1). They’re so easy to convince.
In 2013 one million single mothers with children under 18 would have benefited from a minimum wage increase to $10.15. Single mothers are 10% of workers affected by an incrementation but they make up only 5.7 of the overall work force. More than two million espoused men and women with children under age 18 would additionally benefit from an
Minimum Wage Laws in America As cost of living continues to rise across the United States, America’s minimum wage remains the same. With a gallon of milk closing around four dollars and federal minimum wage at $7.25, one can understand how the minimum wage can be troublesome for our working class Americans. States such as California, New York, and New Jersey have some of the highest food and rental cost in the country. We must find the right balance and compensate for inflation, otherwise our lower class citizens will keep on struggling to support their families and themselves.
Desiree Ripoll Professor Heuer ENC 1102 5/30/2017 Increasing the Minimum Wage is Good for America Raising the minimum wage is not only beneficial to those who are struggling financially, America’s economy would benefit from this as well. Doug Hall and David Cooper express how increasing the minimum wage would be a tool for modest job creation in the article “Raising the Minimum Wage Would Help Lower-Income Workers”. In the article “Is a $15 minimum wage economically feasible?” Jeannette Wick-Lims discusses how raising the minimum wage is good for the economy if we adapt to the changes accordingly.
Just simply raising the minimum wage is like what Germany did after World War I. To pay off their debt they just printed off a bunch of money, but what they did not realize is that the value of their money dropped. Just raising the minimum wage is not going to magically help the United States economy. Raising the minimum wage also decreases employees work ethic and the use of incentives ("Seattle Wins 'Fight for $15,' but Low-Skill Workers Lose." A.7). If the minimum wage is raised then many companies will no longer be able to use a raise to promote their work ethic because they will no longer be able to afford the raise.
Many opponents to raising the minimum wage might protest that those working a minimum wage job are often teenagers without anyone to support, the study by the Economic Policy Institute has found that perhaps those who benefit most from a raise in the minimum wage are the children of minimum wage workers. The study states that, “The workers who would receive a raise do not fit the stereotypes of low-wage workers: Among affected workers, the average age is 35 years old, nearly 88 percent are at least 20 years old, and more than a third (34.5 percent) are at least 40 years old. Of affected workers, about 54 percent work full time, about 69 percent come from families with family incomes less than $60,000, and more than a quarter have children. The average affected worker earns half of his or her family’s total income,” (Cooper). The image of a minimum wage worker is very skewed by opponents of a raise in the minimum wage.
A minimum wage increase from “$7.25 to $10.10 would result in a loss of 500,000 jobs”. ("The Effects of Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income”) This claim is better because it shows how raising the minimum wage will decrease job growth instead of increasing it. But, the minimum wage should be increased because increasing will also increase economic activity and spur job growth, decrease poverty, and improvements in productivity and economic growth have outpaced increases in the minimum
Because taking into account negative employment effects and increases in consumer prices induced by the minimum wage would wipe out any positive direct effects on household affected by the minimum wage. The minimum wage becomes even less effective in reducing income inequality when negative employment effects are taken into account. I will address the negative effects in sociological aspects by the
The people who are against the increase of minimum wage often argues that it will harm young adolescents the most, and that they will need the experience of working at the minimum wage. It is significantly unfair with other states, such as California and Massachusetts. The minimum wage for these states gives other states a disadvantage in the economy. I feel that every state should have the same price range of minimum wage just to make every state feel that they are equally the same without any disadvantages. Raising the minimum wage is something that should’ve been done a long time ago.
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
With the thought of minimum wage being raised the nation has to think of the upsides and the down side. For me, however, there is only a downside. If the minimum wage was to be raised to 15 dollars and hour, then the cost of living, food, and many other factors of everyday life would also increase in price. When the cost of everything else goes up, then many people would want the minimum wage to follow the trend and increase even more.
We do not know how the rise of minimum wage will affect us in the future here in California, but in Seattle, Washington the minimum wage is now $11.00. The money it is not making a difference. A study in my fourth source “Jacob Vigdor, an economist at the University of Washington and one of the authors of the report...leading the researchers to conclude that the minimum wage reduced the number of hours worked quarterly by 3.2, roughly 15 minutes each week. Those figures do not include workers without jobs… Workers employed by thriving businesses who did not lose any hours could have enjoyed welcome gains.
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.