I am currently completing an on-campus Microeconomics course. When the subject of minimum wage came up, one of the other students made the comment that he thought minimum wage needed to go up because he had been in a job for almost a year and was still making minimum wage. Why should a person who is working at a fast food restaurant make more than what another person is willing to do the job for unless they have a special skill? The current debate is whether the minimum wage should be raised to $15.00. According to Jonathon M. Trugman in Raising Minimum Wage Would Cost a Million People Their Jobs even a small increase in the minimum wage would cost over 500,000 jobs. He states “The minimum wage is by design an entry-level wage; it is not supposed to be permanent.” Mike Patton in The Facts on Increasing the Minimum Wage takes this point a step further and says …show more content…
Bill Quigley’s Top Ten Arguments for Raising the Minimum Wage argues that since the impact is so negligible there should be no reason businesses can’t afford it. He also addresses the “free market” system stating it will not take care of the workers. He points out the special tax breaks for businesses and states that this is nothing compared to raising wages, but this has yet to be done. Overall they seem to all agree that the workforce should be paid more, but do not agree how this should be enforced or even encouraged. Quigley very clearly believes in a minimum wage hike, stating that businesses will not take care of the people. Patton after examining both sides of the argument believes that the worker should earn their wages by working hard and progressing up. Trugman seems to believe that if businesses had a lower corporate tax rate than the employee’s salary increase would be a natural side effect. I think Patton said it best with this quote” America is still the “Land of Opportunity” for those who will roll up their sleeves and work hard to obtain the necessary skills for a higher
Raising the minimum wage has been one of the biggest debates during the 21st century. One side of the spectrum argues that raising it will make it so they have a living wage, while the other argues that raising it will hurt the economy. Whichever the case is, people are clearly divided on this issue. Before Oregon passed the 15 dollar minimum wage law, people wrote arguments to try to either prevent or pass this law. The article, “How a $15 minimum wage would affect a real business: Guest opinion” by Lee Spector argues that raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses like the one he earns.
The topic of minimum wage is one that can lead to heated debates from both sides of the aisle over how much a person should be getting in payment versus how much work they do, or how hard they work to earn the payment. Countless people today are not getting paid the amount they should be based off of the work that they are putting in to their job. There are arguments leaning towards the raising of minimum wage, and there are arguments leaning against the raising of the minimum wage, however one of the arguments I find persuasive. There are some arguments that lean towards the raising of the minimum wage. The first argument presented involves job creation in the United States.
Minimum wage should not be raised because it is not an income that someone sold live off of. Minimum wage in the country is currently $7.25 but some states have changed it in a way that is way too much. For example Washington state currently has the highest minimum wage at $9.32 that’s a $2.07 increase to the current amount minimum wage. Seattle is currently considering to raise their minimum wage to $15 it’s understandable that the city is very large and things cost more money but if they raise minimum wage to $15 that will only bring inflation causing things to cost only more money than it already does. If there is one thing that should not be done to the country it is to cause inflation.
One of the biggest debates in the United States at the moment is whether or not the minimum wage should be increased. It has drawn a lot of arguments from economic experts, political players as well as many labor organization as to whether raising the minimum wage would be sustainable or not with each side of the divide providing reasons to support their case. However, the proponents of increasing minimum wage tend to have better arguments than those who oppose the increase. While in school, we had a debate with some of my classmates about the minimum wage and I learned about interesting arguments for those against and those for the increase. It is this curiosity that led me to want to dig deeper into the topic to find out more.
Although there are those out there that would argue that the minimum wage increase would cause more damage to our economy; I believe
The federal minimum wage should be increased because raising it would increase the economic activity and spur job growth, decrease poverty, and also improvements in productivity and economic growth have outpaced increases in the minimum wage. Increases in job growth and economic activity will happen when the minimum wage is elevated. If the minimum wage was increased it will “inject 22.1 billion net into the economy and create about 85,000 new jobs over a three year period”. (“Raising the Federal minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Lift Wages for Millions and Provide a Modest Economic Boost") Thousands of new jobs will be created and it will put billions of dollars into the economy.
Also, it might take time for employers of many low-skill workers to learn how to economize on their labor costs. They will over time since the incentives to do so are much larger and that would be bad news for the very low skill workers the higher minimum wage is designed to help. Whenever increasing the minimum wage is discussed, there is always a concern that doing so might hurt job growth or imperil businesses that employ low-wage workers business they have to pay their works more and that could be hard for some business or companies. The effect of increasing the minimum wage on employment is probably the most studied topic in labor economics because the government has to worry about inflation and prices going up and also the consensus of the literature is that moderate increases in the minimum wage have little to no effect on employment.
Minimum wage should be agreed upon to increase because no one should have to make the decision of keeping the lights on at their home or buying food for their kids to eat. The economy is growing and it is getting more expensive to live in the United States. At this rate, we will be back in a depression if pay is not increasing with the cost of living. In today’s world minimum wage is $7.25 and to rent a one bed room one bathroom is a $1,000 without water and utilities. Clothes, food, car payments, and gas to get to work and back should not be a struggle.
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.
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.
Although you can back up whether you think workers should be payed more or not, the minimum wages of fast food workers should not go up. If the minimum wages increased, taxes would increase as well and the people who earned higher paying jobs by getting a great college degree and deserve getting payed a pretty decent amount would be taken away money through taxes to give to people with an unskilled job that anyone can get, anyone. Now that doesn’t make any sense! Unemployment rates would also go up because if the minimum wages per hour double, then the company would have to fire half of their employees and lots of workers would lose their jobs. So, it would actually hurt the economy by raising the wages then it would do good.
In conclusion, a federal minimum wage increase will significantly improve the standard of living of low-wage workers. To meet their basic needs, workers must be given a living wage. It is not only morally correct to do so, but also beneficiary to both ends. The increase in wages allows for a more supportable income, but it also stimulates the economy.
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.
Minimum wage Minimum wage in America is poverty it creates a wage lower than the living wage. It 's only backbone of support is social welfare and the affordable care act medicaid and obama care so people who have low wage paying jobs and minimum wage has to rely on taxpayers and the government to pay with their subsidizes, Because social welfare no longer becomes support but becomes a lifestyle. Minimum wage is set by the Department of labor, and fair labor standards act they set a minimum wage and a overtime pay. Why isn 't minimum wage raised to living wage or out of poverty level? Because if minimum wage goes up so does the prices of goods.
The major reason against raising the minimum wage rate is that businesses are unwilling to overcompensate an individual if they have not contributed that amount of value to the company. In the article “Problems With Minimum Wage” author Jason Gillikin addresses this topic. “If an employer needs someone to perform odd jobs, and he values the work at $2 per hour, he will not hire a person if the minimum wage is $7 per hour, thus keeping unemployment in low-wage brackets higher than it would otherwise be” (Gillikin). In order to compensate for the increased cost of paying workers more than what they are contributing, a company may chooses to reduce the amount of total hours worked for each individual in an effort to reach an efficient wage expense.