Minimum Wage is the base hourly amount that employers are permitted to pay their workers. The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. There are several exemptions to both federal and state minimum wage laws, including employees who receive tips, students and minors, and several others. Many people think that this is too low of a price. Minimum wage effects the lives of people very much. It should have a reason on why it is being raised. That reason should be based on the cost of living rate. The cost of living is raised almost every year. Because it raised so often the people working at minimum wage jobs are getting left behind. They are not able to support their families, better yet support themselves.
There are many advantages to
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A living wage is a wage that is high enough to maintain a normal standard of living. The movement to initiate a living wage for all workers looks at the cost of living. The calculations for the living wage use a different criteria for determining the income needed to sustain a reasonably comfortable standard of living, than minimum wage. Living wages raise the minimum hourly wage to a level adequate for workers to meet the basic needs of their families. Local governments would use the living wage standard to ensure that public dollars create well paid jobs. Economists would calculate the recommended living wages based on the cost of living in a given area, household size and other factors, such as poverty rate. This could potentially help the poverty rate to go down, because if the living wage is set to a point where it is at a reasonable level with the cost of living, people and families would not have to worry about not having enough for the basic necessities of life. Having a living wage would cause less people to have to lean on the government so much. This would help them become a better independent person. Living wage should not be set to put people in a luxurious position. It should be set so that people can get …show more content…
If the employer has a tight pay budget and the minimum wage is raised, they will no longer be able to pay the same number of employees at a higher rate, which means they will have to fire some people to stay in their budget. These companies will also not be able to hire anymore employees. Or rather than hiring fewer employees, the company may start hiring people in other countries that are willing to work for a much lower price, resulting in fewer jobs for Americans and a higher unemployment rate. The employers might have to raise the prices of their products in order to induce enough income to pay their employees the new wage. This would ultimately make a domino effect for other companies and industries, resulting in a slightly higher cost of living, and another push to raise minimum wage again. If the minimum wage increases, overly qualified people will be competing for minimum wage positions. This would cause younger, inexperienced workers to stop applying for jobs, and is basically robbing them of their opportunity to gain experience and knowledge to build resumes for themselves and join the workforce. Raul Labrador said, “My mom worked at McDonalds, and she decided she wanted to make more money, so she got into the management program at McDonalds. And that’s how you move up the chain. It’s not by demanding that minimum wage is raised; it’s actually acquiring the skills. That’s the way that people get ahead in life.”
The minimum wage was, as it should be, a living wage, for working men and women ... who are attempting to provide for their families, feed and clothe their children, heat their homes, [and] pay their mortgages. The cost-of-living inflation adjustment since 1981 would put the minimum wage at $4.79 today, instead of the $4.25 it will reach on April 1, 1991. That is a measure of how far we have failed the test of fairness to the working poor.” (Burkhauser 1)
(Webster). The differences between the minimum wage and a living wage are that government regulates minimum wage and a living wage is the amount of money that a person needs to earn in order to have what
This article gives you a yes and no opinion on whether or not the F...
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.
Poverty continues to grow in America. The average minimum wage in the United States is $7.35 an hour- far too low in today’s society. Key expenses, for example, gas and housing prices, have gone up significantly since the minimum wage was last changed in 2007 (Wagner 52). The laws creating the minimum wage were intended to improve the standard of living and decrease poverty. Raising minimum wage is a vital step in decreasing poverty and giving every family the opportunity to survive and succeed. Millions of hard-working Americans are below the poverty line and need an increase in pay. Minimum wage must be raised because it will diminish poverty and assist the working class to support their families.
"When we talk about the kind of folks whose lives will be made better by raising the minimum wage, we're not talking about a couple teenagers earning extra spending money to supplement their allowance. We're talking about providers and breadwinners. Working Americans with bills to pay and mouths to feed."
Minimum wage is a difficult number to decide on because it affects different income earning citizens in different ways. According to Principles of Microeconomics, by N. Gregory Mankiw, minimum wage is a law that establishes the lowest price for labor that and employer may pay (Mankiw 6-1b). Currently, the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour. For many years politicians and citizens have argued on what should be the minimum wage that would benefit the economy and society in general. A minimum wage was first established in 1938 to increase the standard of living of lower class workers. To discuss what is better for the country and its citizens, people have to understand what is a minimum wage and what are its effects.
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 definition of Minimum Wage is “an amount of money that is the least amount of money per hour that workers must be paid according to the law” (Minimum wage). Minimum wage, like other laws, are used to keep the economy in line. Minimum wage laws were invented in Australia and New Zealand with the purpose of guaranteeing a minimum standard of living for unskilled workers. (Linda Gorman) Minimum wage puts a price on the services one offers. Many different principles can be used to explain Minimum wage and explore the different aspects of it. Including what minimum wage does for our economy and the current status of it.
There are indeed risks of raising the minimum wage, but the rewards outweigh those risks, so the minimum wage should be raised. Some people who are against this may say ...“But other economists say raising the minimum wage actually hurts the very people it's designed to help: One of the basic laws of economics is that if you raise the price of something, there will be less demand for it. In this case, if you raise the price of workers, the demand for workers will decline. That could mean companies cutting the hours of employees, laying them off, or hiring fewer workers in the future.”... Yes, it could hurt the people it is designed to help, but different states have done this and found the opposite to be true. With America’s still fragile economy we need a boost, a helping hand; And this could be it. So next time you go down to vote on a mayor or maybe even the next president, remember that raising the minimum wage is a good thing, and you should be supporting
Today the federal minimum wage is $5.15, but should be about $8.50 if Congress had adjusted it for inflation over the past 35 years. While $5.15 may not seen that bad, when factoring in such variables as sky rocketing gas prices, budgets can get pretty tight. David Shepard, a sophomore at Wayne State University, worked at a Meijer Retail and Grocery Superstore for over two years while in high school. At the time Shepard lived with his parents and didn’t have to worry about paying rent or buying groceries, all that he had to pay for was filling up his gas tank and paying for his car insurance. Shepard recalled, “It was all I could do to pay for the basics like gas and bill’s, I barely had any money to have fun on the weekends”. This is only an example of a high school student that can nearly slip by on minimum wage with only a few expenses. There are 1.8 million people in America with children under the age of 18 that would benefit from an increase in minimum wage (Minimum).
The minimum wage must be raised because the cost of living has gone up considerably. Education is essential if one wishes to work, and the cost of education has increased drastically in the past twenty years. Companies should be requied to pay workers what they deserve, and that is more than minimum wage is now. With our new technology and the technology in the future work is harder and more complicated. A minimum wage increase would raise the wages of many workers and increase benefits to those disadvantaged workers.
Raising the minimum wage will improve the overall living conditions/standards for minimum wage workers. For someone working under minimum wage income, they need to work twice as many hours than higher payed counterparts for items needed for life. Having to work double to afford certain things such as rent, utility bills, and other items that are essential for life. In working a regular 40-hour week, a minimum wage worker does not have the ability to pay for a two-bedroom apartment or food without requiring some form of government assistance such as “food stamps”. Many would be pushed past the poverty line with not having to worry on how they are going to be able to afford items that they need.
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.
“Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. … And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”