Increasing Minimum Wage Essay

601 Words2 Pages

Everyone wants more money, which is why there is such a huge push to increase the minimum wage. Increasing the minimum wage may sound like a good idea in theory, but it is a short sighted solution to the problem of poverty and people not having the money they need for necessities. While there may be some benefits to increasing the minimum wage, the negatives outweigh the positives. Raising the minimum wage is not a good idea because people would lose their jobs, people would be less incentivized to get higher education, and prices of goods would increase. The first issue with increasing the minimum wage is the fact that jobs would actually decrease. Employees are only worth what an employer is willing to pay them, and if the wage for employees exceeds what an employer is willing to pay then that job is lost. If the price of employees goes up, then employers may also not see the need for the amount of employees that are currently hired. It is projected by the Congressional Budget office that this hike in wages could result in over 500,000 lost jobs. One way that businesses may try to alleviate the pressure of expensive employees is to not have them at all. Many establishments have already reduce physical employees in favor of automated machines. These machines allow customers to order food, …show more content…

Raising the minimum wage also raises the competitiveness of getting back into the job market. Employers of lower tier jobs like fast food have already shed weight to reduce costs and aren't going to be looking for new employees. This means that people will need experience or some sort of higher education to appeal to a higher tier job like working in an office, but these higher tier jobs now have comparable wages to a low tier job. When the wages of high and low tier jobs are so close, there is no incentive to work harder for the higher tier

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