Minimum Wage Case Study

Target has made the commitment to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 for all team members. “Target has a long history of investing in our team members. We care about and value the more than 323,000 individuals who come together every day with an absolute commitment to serving our guest,” said Brian Cornell, CEO and chairman of Target. “Target has always offered market competitive wages to our team members. With this latest commitment, we’ll be providing even more meaningful pay, as well as the tools, training and support our team needs to build their skills, develop professionally and offer the service and expertise that set Target apart.” (Corporation, 2017) While I agree that the minimum wage should have a moderate increase

At the Target that I am employed we are being told that we should only hire those that we feel have the experience or in other terms the WOW factor when we interview. Our Human Resource team has been told they should be setting us up with interviewees from sites like Indeed or LinkedIn that they have already screened. This will in some cases shut teenagers and young adults out of the workforce because they lack the experience or WOW factor that Target is looking for. Some statistics and individual statements shared within con number 5 on procon.org support the theory that teens and young adults suffer when wages are increased “Casey B. Mulligan, PhD, economics professor at the University of Chicago, stated that the teenage employment index fell sharply after the minimum wage increase of July 2009 (a fall of about 8% in three months, while the previous drop of 8% took over a year): "This suggests that the 2009 minimum-wage increase did significantly reduce teenage employment." According to a study by Thomas A. Mroz, PhD, and Timothy H. Savage, PhD, for the Employment Policies Institute, "those experiencing unemployment at an early age have years of lower earnings and an increased likelihood of unemployment ahead of them."” (procon.org, Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased?; Con #5,

Since the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation the rising cost of goods has left a huge gap in the standard of living for most people. Pro number 4 on procon.org states the following statistics and individual statements “Because the federal minimum wage is not indexed for inflation, its purchasing power (the number of goods that can be bought with a unit of currency) has dropped considerably since its peak in 1968. The minimum wage in 1968 was $1.60, which is equivalent to $11.16 in Jan. 2016 dollars and which is 53.9% higher than today's $7.25 federal minimum wage. Between July 2015 and the last increase in the minimum wage in 2009, the federal minimum wage lost 8.1% of its purchasing power to inflation. According to Liana Fox, PhD, Senior Analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, "inflation indexing guarantees low-wage workers a wage that keeps pace with the rising costs of goods and services." Raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation would ensure that low-wage workers could adopt a standard of living commensurate with the current economy.” (procon.org, Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased? Pro #4,