1. The main purpose of this article is______. Try and state the author’s intent in writing the article. What was he/she trying to accomplish?
The main purpose of this article is to examine and illustrate the effect of minimum wages on poverty in Canada. By doing this study, Campolieti et al. hoped to establish whether a minimum wage increase would benefit anyone, or if it would end up turning into more of a problem than a solution. Since longer run effects are hard to analyze and essentially beyond the parameters of this study, he aimed to look at whether there is a positive effect on raising the wages of some of the working poor, and if it is offset by any adverse employment effects. To do this, it analyzes not only one province, but many,
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Would it increase the wages and income of the working poor? Or, would it result in the reduction of jobs and money that goes to the poorer class?
3. The most important information in this article is______. What were the key facts the author gathered for this article?
Of the people who would be affected by an increase in minimum wage, approximately ¼ of those are classified as poor. While this would be great news in the fight to lessen poverty, it is offset by the fact that those same exact people are the ones who would be the ones experiencing the negatives job effects, nearly half of those losing their jobs would be poor people. Not only that, but it was found that only roughly 30% of the earning gains from the increase would actually go to those who were poor, the other 70% of course being those in the upper classes.
4. The information in this article is seen as credible because_____. Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, and completeness of the
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Minimum wage refers t the hourly wage which an employer must pay their employee for their work. Overall, poverty means the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. Then, Canada, whose capital is Ottawa, is the country to the north of the United States that is second largest by land area measure. Historically, to fix the poverty problem, the solution has always been some form of minimum wage legislation, or some kind of promised legislation. Clinton said it would “raise the living standard of 12 million hard-working Americans”, and Obama also promoted it while on the campaign trail, saying “people who work full time should not live in poverty”. Also, for this study, the term “poor” has been expanded to include the “near poor”, which are families whose income falls between the poverty line and 1 ½ times the poverty line. This was done because it extended the scope of who would be classified as poor to those who have low incomes but aren’t quite poor, as well as allows for there to be a higher threshold when it comes to defining
Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,
The working poor are defined as people who are employed but have incomes that fall below the poverty line . The families classified as the “working poor”, make up about 72 percent of low income families . It is common misconception that those families who live in poverty so not work enough to provide for their families. Those more unfortunate people who work for low wages are often blamed for not being more conservative in their spending habits. It is also assumed that these people do not work long enough hours. These viewpoints are often false for many working poor families. This can be seen by the fact that the average low income family has a work effort of around twenty-five hundred hours or the equivalent of one and one-quarter forty hour a week jobs .
Mascella, A., S. Teja and B. S. Thompson. "Minimum Wage Increases as an Anti-Poverty Policy in Ontario." Canadian Public Policy 35.3 (2009): 373-379. Print.
Currently, in the United States, the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 for the past six years; however, in 1938 when it first became a law, it was only $0.25. In the United States the federal minimum wage has been raised 22 times since 1938 by a significant amount due to changes in the economy. Minimum wage was created to help America in poverty and consumer power purchasing, but studies have shown that minimum wage increases do not reduce poverty. By increasing the minimum wage, it “will lift some families out of poverty, while other low-skilled workers may lose their jobs, which reduces their income and drops their families into poverty” (Wilson 4). When increasing minimum wage low-skilled, workers living in poor families,
Furthermore, while Janice Steele says “A 2014 report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the minimum wage were raised $1.75 more than 100,000 jobs.” This is a small amount of jobs compared to the amount of people’s lives that improve. As seen in Ira Knights research “A 2014 study from the Center for America showing that 3.5 million people would be able to get off of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” Hence, from just a minimum wage increase a large number of lives have been improved from such a small change.
Throughout the decade, a continuous firing debate still remains, whether to raise the minimum wage or keep as it is. People believe that raising the minimum wage can hurt the economy. More will lose jobs than gain. Though all are true, the amount of poverty shown throughout the decades are jaw dropping. That is in fact one of the leading factors. As there is yin and yang, the demand for a higher minimum wage is no coincidence or selfishness as others perceive as is. The poverty shown throughout the decade is deadly prominent. Minimum wage should be raised as people are not gaining enough money compared to the past, despite with more education, too many low quality jobs, “in active” unemployment are outcasted from the statistics, and finding jobs is more difficult than it was decades ago.
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.
More than 4.6 million people live in poverty in the US. A question often raised when talking about minimum wage is, would raising it lower this number? The consensus is, yes, it would. If the federal minimum wage was raised, at lot of peoples’ incomes would grow, not just low wage workers. As employers shifted their pay scales upward, many incomes would grow. According to Jared Bernstein, the former chief economist of the Obama Administration, this isn’t as relevant as the impact is would have on low wage workers. He explains how, although many other people would benefit from an increase in minimum wage, most of the help would go to those who need it. He also notes, “We must be careful not to be wedded to poverty thresholds that are inadequate measures of who needs the help.” If the minimum wage was raised to $10.10 per hour, 2 million people would be lifted out of poverty (US Department of
People always say how they are so poor, but do they really know the meaning of being poor. People who live under the poverty line are the ones considered poor by the government. There are many people who suffer being in poverty. The Census Bureau’s articles says, “In 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent. There were 46.7 million in poverty,” (“2014 Highlights”). The percentage might not seem like a lot, but those are just the ones below the poverty line. There are many people who suffer who are just above the line or going back and forth. Another 1.9 billion people live just above it and struggle to make ends meet. (Lusted) Some even live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is those who can’t even have water, food, housing, and clothing. (Lusted) As for anyone in poverty though, it decreases their lifespan as these people don’t have the money for proper healthcare and nutrition. For one person in the 48 states excluding Hawaii and Alaska, the poverty line is set at $11,770. As you add more people to the family, t...
For most Americans, the word "poverty" suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. But only a small number of the 35 million persons classified as "poor" by the Census Bureau fit that description. While real material hardship certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and severity. Most of America's "poor" live in material conditions that would be judged as comfortable or well-off just a few generations ago. Today, the expenditures per person of the lowest-income one-fifth (or quintile) of households equal those of the median American household in the early 1970s, after adjusting for inflation.1
In 1990, Schwarz (1990) stated about one in five American families lived beneath the poverty line. According Lein (2013), it is estimated that as of the beginning of 2011, about 1.46 million U.S. households with about 2.8 million children were surviving on $2 or less in income per person per day in a given month. This constitutes almost 20 percent of all non-elderly households with children living in poverty. About 866,000 households appear to live in extreme poverty across a full calendar quarter. The prevalence of extreme poverty rose sharply between 1996 and 2011(Lein, 2013).
About “75.3 million people ages sixteen and over worked for hourly wages in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics” (“Minimum Wage”). Meaning almost a quarter of the workforce in this nation are working a minimum wage job. Numerous people believe that these workers are not able to make ends meet, and increasing the minimum wage will help these individuals substantially. Even though people believe that increasing the minimum wage will benefit the society, they tend to overlook the drawbacks of increasing the minimum wage, and how it will prove to be detrimental to the society. People believe that increasing the minimum wage will reduce poverty and improve the living standards of the individuals.
Many areas could be affected by a change in minimum wage, but potentially the most drastic change would be to unemployment. Advocates of a higher minimum wage insist that a raise would significantly decrease the unemployment rate in the United States and improve the quality of living. However, there are conflicting opinions on this. Higher minimum wage would mean higher labor costs for business owners, thus making it more difficult for employers to maintain the amount of workers they have, let alone add new employees. Raising the minimum wage does not increase the value of the worker's labor; it increases the cost of the worker's labor. As a general rule the more something costs, the less of it people will buy. This is true of not only consumer goods but also of workers in the labor market.Many jobs come from large corporations but they also come from small businesses.There are 23 million small businesses in America, accounting for 54% of sales and 55% of jobs. Raising the minimum wage means that all of these corporations and businesses will have to dig deeper in...
In America, there is a high percentage of homelessness and people who are in poverty. So if the minimum wage is rising it will help to reduce poverty for families living in homeless shelter. It will help assist students financially through college by managing their cost of tuition, housing, food, and fees. In contract, in the article “Reducing the Minimum Wage.” James, Skerk. “Skerk James’s story; “who is the follow in labor policy at the Heritage Foundation, argues that raising the minimum wage will not stop poverty. Instead, it will push employees to cut hours and give less job position to low-income workers. If a employees is making a lot of money there is no way for them to cut off hours. That along will motivate workers to put more time and effort in their work so they can be eligible for benefits at their work place. So if rich and poor making enough incomes their will be no differences of categorizing rich from
For the past three decades minimum wage has been seen to rise several times. Only helping some but more than anything harming most. So who are the ones feeling the effects? Certainly not the wealthy, it never is them, mainly it would be the working poor, unskilled and teenagers. Raising minimum wage would cripple the public even more than what it would actually help.