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Effects of low wages
Impact of the minimum wage law
Impact of the minimum wage law
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The Living Wage The general ethical issue and why it is important to me personally There is an idea out there that an employer should be responsible for making sure that their employees are making a living wage. The reason that this is a burning issue for me is because a living wage is subjective. What is a living wage for me may not be what another person considers a living wage. I will look into some of the fallacies of the argument that employers are responsible and explain where I think they are wrong. In the aspect of my life I had to make the decision to come back to school and lose out on the second household income for my family of 3. During the process of making this decision things had to be sacrificed, no more vacations, no more going out to nice expensive restaurants, taking road trips across state lines without lots of planning. Those type of things were included in my “living wage” when my family had 2 incomes. The underlying ethical question or questions involved that I intend to answer Some of the questions I hope to answer are; why is it the employers’ …show more content…
However the effects of it could have impacts on others, for instance a waitress could become a tip only type job. There would also be many changes to laws, for example a minimum wage would not be necessary because most positions would be filled with skilled workers who are able to barter for their wages. Organizations would have to evaluate how they pay their employees and decide if they want skilled workers or unskilled and then how much they would be willing to pay for those employees. The rate of pay could potentially keep employees from accepting positions, so that would be a factor as well. I think that despite there not being a minimum wage or a living wage requirement an employer or employee would be able to work out a satisfactory wage that they can both benefit from and in the end both being happy about
Almost two years ago the company where I am employed, RGIS LLC, mandated a pay policy change for the hourly employees. Hourly employees make up over 95% of RGIS’s labor staff. This new, four-tier payment scale, aptly named “Pay 4 Performance” (p4), ultimately affected thousands of employees who had been with the company for years and had high pay rates simply as a result of longevity. The four new levels would have a matching pay scale based upon each individual employee’s production. These levels are what RGIS calls an ASET level: Auditor, Specialist, Expert, and TopGun, with each level advancing to a higher production and pay rank, respectively (Company).
Employers who do not offer an employee healthcare can leave them open to a different type of financial responsibility. Employees who qualify for a premium tax credit, in turn qualify their employers for a provision called the Employer Shared Responsibility.
The struggle for pay equity is part of America's evolving sense of what is fair and just. After all, slavery was once an accepted part of this democratic nation; union
Nowadays to live in Napa, CA where I live, one single person should make at least $12 an hour to receive a living wage. Then for one adult and a child the adult has to make $25.82 an hour at least for two adults and one adult working he/she should make at least about $24.13. The minimum wage in Napa is $9, and it is very hard for people to survive on a minimum payment. People often work two jobs to pay rent, bills, but the sad part is that the family loses a lot of time together because parents are working most of the time. For example, I know a man from my neighborhood who works two jobs during the day from 8a.m to 4 p.m. He works at a hotel as a dishwasher, and during the night, he works in a restaurant as a dishwasher. I rarely see him, and I see he is not with his family all day. He works almost every day to sustain his family, but doesn’t have time to hangout with his family. I just think that this is wrong because it is inhuman that a person works all day, seven days a week. My neighbor is so skinny, and I think he is like this because he works too much. We should have a minimum wage increase to benefit all people who work hard like him.
By neglecting to acknowledge the importance of balancing work and life, policies have failed to support employees and their circumstances. This disregard has also cost taxpayers their well-earned dollar. And who are these taxpayers? Needless to say, they are our employees. The Family and Medical Leave Act stipulates that employees are allowed a twelve (12) work-week leave in a twelve (12) month period (for specified situations dealing with childbirth, adoption, family care, serious health conditions etc.). Unfortunately, this act does not specify that the said employees on leave MUST be paid, and it only applies to about sixty (60) percent of all workers. The Federal government is the single largest
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour has been extensively debated over the last year or so. Minimum wage is the undermost wage allowed by law to be given to an employee for their services. Introduced in 1939, its purpose was to stabilize the economy, which was healing from the Great Depression. Most importantly, it was designed to protect the health and welling-being of employees. Currently, the Federal Government 's minimum is $7.25 per hour ($14,500 per year). The ones in favor of the increase are saying that it used to be a living wage; however, now it is not and it now needs to be line with changes to the cost of living. In addition, an increase in minimum wage can increase the productivity and decrease income inequality and poverty. On the other spectrum, the ones who are against the increase are saying that the increased labor cost will drive up unemployment, affect small businesses negatively, and cause other workers from different
The living wage movement is an economic reform movement that has become one of the most important public policy issues that has come up within the last 10 years. Although there is no single definition, it is often defined as an hourly salary that allows working families of four to have an income that is above the federal poverty line. This means that the livable wage laws often stipulate that hourly wages should be two to three times above the federal Mininum wage. However, unlike the Mininum wage, the living wage has so far only been enacted on the county and city level. Cities and counties enforce the living wage for companies that have contracts with their respective cities and counties, receive subsidies from their cities or counties, other economic benefits cities and counties provide to companies, and in some cases a livable wage is required for the tourist areas of the particular city. For cities and local governments, the livable wage is perceived as a measure to increase the welfare of the poor. However, like everything in life the livable wage creates its on costs that along with its benefits of increased wage to some low income earners.
In recent years the minimum wage has been a heated topic. People want to hike it up to 15 dollars an hour which they call a living wage, while others just want to keep it the same. There are also others that suggest to bring the minimum wage to around $10.78 an hour, which should be around the minimum wage now if we account for inflation from the 1960’s. I agree with that to a certain point. We as a nation need to bring up the minimum wage only up to ten dollars so that less people are living in poverty, and not any higher so that states with smaller economies don 't crash and burn.
Over the past decade, politicians have sought to reform the national poverty levels by lobbying for what is frequently referred to as a living wage. Living wages, on the most elementary level, are the absolute minimum a person must make per year or per hour to stay above the federal poverty level. While the number of people that receive living wages is still small, Wood (2002) suggests that this is a trend that is gaining momentum across the United States because it may help reduce employee turnover and increase worker productivity.
The minimum wage being too low has been a public issue in America for generations. Basically, the debate includes two different opinions. Firstly, people who want to raise the minimum wage, and second, people who would rather is stay the same. The overwhelming majority of liberals are on the side that favors a raise. Additionally, a somewhat smaller proportion of conservatives favor the change as well, but for different reasons. The liberal opinion on raising the minimum wage is based on the idea that putting more money in the people’s pockets, will stimulate the economy, and decrease poverty. The problem that conservatives and liberals alike have with this, is that a few direct consequences are proven to apply when raising wages. Some proposed consequences include unemployment, inflation, and unfairness to higher educated people. Another main point is that raising the minimum wage is thought to helps small business by increasing worker satisfaction. This issue of minimum wage has become increasingly popular and important in current times, as president Obama has proposed the idea of raising the minimum wage of contract workers to 10.10$ per hour (about a 30% increase from the current 7.25$ per hour minimum wage). A large number of people consider this wage hike unnecessary due to the fact that today’s value of minimum is higher than it has ever been since the 80’s, and because the wage hike comes at too high of a cost. All things considered, the issue of raising minimum wage is not a battle of political parties and their agendas, its really a debate between everyone.
The low income workers who receive public assistance will seem to make more in wages but will lose money from what public assistance they were also collecting causing them to request working less hours to maintain what they would have received from public assistance. A worker with children who is paid $7.25 an hour will have a higher income than if they were paid a higher wage, but because at the higher wage they will lose the public assistance such as food stamps, welfare, and other benefits because of making the higher wages. This is causing people to request to work less hours so they can receive their public assistance benefits. Who seems to gain the most from a living wage requirement is the public employee who is in a union as their involvement with the union is a form of protection in the job market. The living wage laws can and will have negative effects as they can in certain job markets reduce employment opportunities for the low skilled workers or the workers without a higher education. Some employers will be forced to eliminate some job opportunities because they will not be able to produce enough profit to be able to or justify to having to pay the higher wage. The hardest hit will be the mom & pop or non-chain stores as they do not have the backing or income to support
For many people in the United States, life is no more than a regular work cycle. Members of working class usually have a High School diploma and may work in a low skilled occupation or manual labor. Most of the enjoying age of this people is spent in working, as they don’t want their new once to have a life they struggling through. Therefore, this essay will argue that minimum wage should be increased federally to $15/hour by 2017. Firstly, if taxes touches the sky, why should the minimum wage be on the ground? Increasing minimum wages would also create new opportunities for education as the students wouldn’t have to work crazy hours. Likewise, many couples won’t have to work multiple jobs in order to manage the household. Lastly, it will lift
As a result, abolishing the minimum wage will allow businesses to achieve greater efficiency and lower prices. Teenagers, college students and interns all have their options and opportunities limited by the minimum wages.
Author Greg IP, describes real pay as the amount an individual makes in monetary terms after accounting for inflation. The logic behind this theory is that “the more a worker produces for his employer, the more he’ll earn” (Ip, 2013, p. 58). Greg Ip, provides an example of this theory and its dilemma in his book titled The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World. Greg Ip, states that “someone with a backhoe can dig more than someone with a shovel”, therefore it may be expected that the employee who produces more is compensated respectively (Ip, 2013, p. 58). However, the employment world does not always guarantee that the highly productive employee will benefit more than the employee with less productivity and often it is the “employer” who gains the capital profitability in this employment agreement and other times it is even the consumer of the product or
When it comes to contract negotiations, labor unions may differ from one and another throughout the different industries, but they usually share the same goals when it involves contract negotiations (Sloane & Witney, 2010). During these procedures, demands are usually made by from both parties, the employer and the union; this processes main goal is to negotiate a written agreement between each other covering a multitude of issues and concerns (Sloane & Witney, 2010). These talks are typically the most confrontational part of the relationship between labor unions and management, especially when it comes to wage issues (Mayhew, n.d.). This author will take a look the wages and wage-related issues, employee benefits, institutional issues, administrative clauses, and make recommendation that will would prevent wage-related grievances from happening.