Case Study: National Minimum Wage

Since the Great Depression, there has been a minimum wage in America, but this minimum wage has changed 22 times since the Great Deprnbession. Many people say minimum wage should stay at $7.25 like it has been since 2009. Meanwhile, other people believe that minimum wage should be $15.00 so they can have more money to live comfortably. People think that a higher minimum wage will help, but it will hurt more people than it will help. If America makes the minimum wage $9.00, people will no longer be in poverty and it will make the economy balance out.

In the great scheme of things yes the American Dream is alive but, with the way our social system is constructed and if it continues this way then the American Dream will become ever harder to reach. When it comes to living wages (earned income from which a worker and his/her family can live off of.) Americans are stuck working long hours at jobs that do not pay nearly enough to support a comfortable lifestyle. One of Brandon King’s (2015) points in his article to achieving the dream is to “save for the future” (p.612). Now I agree with King up to a point, that saving for the future is a good plan for trying to accomplish the American Dream.

There are some that denounce that there is a wage gap at all. The first reason why women are paid less than men is because women choose lower earning college majors. Women are significantly more likely to attend and graduate from college but many of them choose majors in the social sciences and the liberal arts. This results in women disproportionally getting jobs in lower paid professions like elementary school education and nursing.

A group known as the Knights of Labor came together “ To put forward a wide array of programs from the eight-hour day to public employment in hard times, currency reform, anarchism, socialism, and the creation of a vaguely defined “cooperative commonwealth”(Foner, 2017). Working challenges was a huge challenge for workers throughout the nation because tons of people were dying or couldnt properly function in the work place because they were so tired. The labor movement helped threaten government 's power and gave hope for the American workers for economic rights for everyone. However by 1886 thinks did improve the Declaration of Independence was rewritten based on the alienable rights and conditions of life, liberty, etc. American workers wanted to seek freedom and change to gain control over their working lives and things were starting to look up for them when the Declaration of Independence was

Also, employees with much experience receive higher earnings than those with less experience Whether or not lower wages haves any impact on crime has been a contention among various researchers and experts in the field. Researchers have sought to explain how wages contribute to an individual committing property crime. Chan (2012) argued that lower wages could compel the worker to look for other sources of income mainly through involvement in illegal activities as revealed in the crime model by Becker (1968). One may be tempted to ask, if the minimum wages set by the Federal and state governments has sufficiently addressed the needs and wants of society, given the

There is an increase demand for skilled labor in many employers looking to hire. 2. Someone with a degree is looking to find a career that last a long time, rather than someone else looking to find a job that simply just pays the bills. B. You don’t have to settle for less. 1.

Prospect of reducing poverty through rights-based approach Introduction Poverty is a complex social problem, difficult to define and harder to evaluate and address as it is a global phenomenon; it exists not only in the South but also in the affluent nations in the North (Lister, 2004: 1). Poverty is described as unmet human needs that limit the living standard in the society (Hartley, 2010: 52) and in 1960 it was one of the top agendas of the World Bank, yet still today it is one of the dire issues. So, how can poverty be tackled? A potential solution could be rights-based approach although it has some shortcomings to it.

An important implication is that obtaining a college degree matters in terms of eventual financial independence. Mitchell & Syed (2015) noted that regardless of other markers of adulthood, college graduates earned twice as much as those with no or some college work by their 30’s. College graduates were more likely to work fewer hours during their high school years. Working more hours during high school could limit how much career exploration an individual is able to do, which in turn affects the type of education and career he or she pursues.

INTRODUCTION For much of the past century, the minimum wage has been a controversial subject among policymakers and economists. The minimum wage policies are implemented by governments to ensure a fair wage for the lowest paid workers; the main objectives of the policy include poverty alleviation and inequality reduction. In terms of income inequality level, South Africa ranks among the countries with the highest level as measured by the Gini Index. Highly unequal distribution of income and opportunities has marked South Africa for so long. The government has been actively involved in various programs to address the issue and has now considered introducing the national minimum wage as the key remedy for poverty and inequality.

Workers’ party is proposing a “phased rollout” of a national minimum wage starting at S$1,000 a month to ensure the lower income families have ability to pay for their basic needs. However, PAP has countered opposition calls for minimum wage. Instead, Singapore government use a different approach which is flexible wage system. The recommended wage structure by the Singapore Government is 70:10:20. The ratio represents basic wage, monthly variable and annual variable components respectively.

Title: Why is care work under-valued and under-rewarded? Key Words: paid and unpaid care work, wage penalties, undervaluation Abstract This literature review draws upon relevant literature on undervaluation and relative wage penalties of work associated with care. By dividing care work into paid and unpaid, the article departs from the fact that most care work is under-valued and under-paid, despite some exceptions. It aims at investigating the reason that causes the current phenomenon, via comparing and inducing different frameworks and theories.

This leaves American citizens with less jobs, more competition, and less money for spending on goods necessary to maintain a lifestyle that of the middle class. Thus, if one is eligible for loans and credit cards, debt will be inevitable. Debt must begin somewhere in our lives and where else would it begin other than when we are students? Students obtain debt early

This is because, a given type of worker may be scarce either because the U.S. supply of his skill type is low relative to the rest of the world, as with workers who have little schooling, or because the U.S. demand for his skill type is high relative to the rest of the world, as with computer scientists and engineers. They further note that between 1960 and 2000, the amount of working-age native-born U.S. citizens with less than twelve years of schooling fell from 50 to 12 percent (Hanson, 2007). Furthermore, it has been found that over time, although many native-born citizens believe that immigrants may take their job opportunities away from them, research says otherwise. Costa, Cooper, and Shierholz (2014) report that in the long run, immigrants do not, in fact, reduce native employment rates. However, from a short-term perspective, they may slightly reduce native employment, because the economy takes time to adjust to new influxes of immigration.

“As college students head back to the classroom this semester, a harsh reality confronts them - the rewards for the time, energy, and money that young people put into college are less than they were a decade ago”(Source C). Young college graduates have seen wages, deteriorate. This lack of wage growth has been surprising to those who have read about the ast unfilled need for college graduates. After gains in the 1980s and 1990s, hourly wages for young college graduated in 2000 decreases. For young college-educated men in 2000 hourly wages were $22.75, but almost dropped a full dollar $21.77 by 2010.

What are the real numbers regarding households in poverty in the United States and what is the best way to help those people and families out of poverty so they can stay out? Should creating good paying job while upgrading our infrastructure be part of the plan to reduce poverty? 7. After I have wrestled with the ideas in these two texts, what are my current views on this issue.