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Positive and negative effects of minimum wage
Effects of increasing the minimum wage
Positive and negative effects of minimum wage
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For the past few years, when people around the world talk about minimum wage, a popular question always arises in these discussions. That being, how is the demand for labor and supply of workers affected by the increase of minimum wage and what consequences are felt by this phenomenon? This essay will explain how minimum wage is defined, the concepts behind it, as well as its effect on the demand and supply curve, and why there is such a large gap between minimum wages in first world countries and third world countries. Minimum wage is defined as the minimum amount of money an employee must be paid for his or her labor, which varies between countries. Minimum wages, also known as price floors, are established in “attempts to protect employees from exploitation and allow them to afford the basic necessities to live comfortable lives. Price floors can lead to a dead weight loss in the economy, which in this case, means that the minimum wage might force companies to hire fewer employees, thus increasing unemployment” (Investopedia). With that said, if the equilibrium wage, the wage rate that produces neither an excess supply of workers nor an excess demand for workers and labor market, is higher than the minimum wage, then the minimum wage has does not have a great effect on the market, since the equilibrium point will be above the minimum wage. On the contrary, if the equilibrium wage is below the minimum wage, there will be a surplus of labor: at the newly increases minimum wage rate, therefore, the demand for labor will be lower than the supply of workers, meaning that there will be a surplus of labor, resulting in unemployment. Consequently, not every worker who is willing to work for that particular minimum wage rate wil... ... middle of paper ... ...l. In brief, minimum wage rates vary between countries because of the lack of education either because students are forced to drop out of school to help their families financially or because students prefer making money over sitting in class and hearing lectures when they can be out making money. In summary, an increase in minimum wage is only beneficial for skilled and well educated workers. That is said because workers that are unskilled or lack education are the first people to lose their jobs when there are budget cuts in a company because employers prefer using more labor saving methods in order to maintain their revenue. With an increase in minimum wage, there is a surplus in the supply of the workers because everyone wants to work now that the wages are higher, however, the demand for labor is decreasing which in turn increases unemployment in a country.
Minimum wage is something that maintains the stability of a states economy. Minimum wage is regulated by the provincial government where the most minor of changes creates an exponential ripple effect through both local and international economies. A minimum wage is the wage that is able to provide not only for bare physical needs but also for preservation of efficiency of workers plus some measure of education, health and other things. Like it’s stated above, minimum wage has ties to many other things other than income, such as: education, healthcare, economic statuses and stability, worker efficiency and overall family life. Cost of living is the level of prices relating to a range of everyday items. Left unrelated, the impact of Ontario’s minimum wage not being coupled up with its cost of living can leave not only the economy in detriment, but other social factors as well including, education, healthcare, economic statuses and stability, worker efficiency, family life also increasing the chance of riots, revolutions and in an extreme situation, wars. Minimum wage is one, if not, one of the most crucial aspects of a country in order to maintain adequate levels of stability of a country or state.
Understanding the basic concept of minimum wage is important for every single individual. We all live in this world together and it is obvious that there is an order. In order to continue our lives and afford our basic needs, we all need to work and gain wealth. As the old adage says ‘‘There ain’t a such a thing as a free lunch.’’ We need to give up on something that we like to get something else that we like. That’s why, every single individual in the society face trade-offs. However, people have different status. Some people work as employees and some work as employers. In that case of minimum wage the trade off is between employees and employers. Employees work for employers in order to gain money and afford their minimal living expenses whereas employers give up on their money and pay for employees because employers take care of their need of labor. Employers pay for their workers who we call employees and employees gain hourly money. The calculated minimum money that they gain in an hour base called minimum wages. Besides, there is this cycle that everyone actually works
Understanding how the minimum wage level functions to affect poverty in a given society is crucial for informing policy in a number of important areas. Indeed, examining the link between poverty and the minimum wage is necessary for policy-makers working to establish sound economic policy as well as labour and social advocacy groups seeking to ensure the minimum wage is at a level sufficient to ensure workers can meet their most basic and fundamental needs. Readers should be concerned with the link between the minimum wage and levels of poverty because poverty is a particularly significant and impactful social issue. High rates of poverty can both negatively impact the economy, as well as contribute to a host of negative social issues. At the same time, there may be questions regarding the impacts to poverty associated with the minimum wage. Research which better clarifies this link is particularly important. For these reasons, investigating the link between the minimum wage and poverty is essential. This essay will provide a summary of two academic journal articles investigating the link between poverty and the minimum wage. Each summary will discuss the particular focus of researchers, the contribution of the study, the methodology employed by researchers, as well as their findings and conclusions. Finally, the essay will conclude with a brief commentary regarding the relevance of these articles to the larger topic, as well as their effectiveness in promoting learning.
In “Why raising the minimum wage is good economics”, John Komlos uses his knowledge and experience in the field of economics to explain why Congress should raise the federal minimum wage. He makes his case by comparing low-wage workers to Russian serfs and relating the hardships of the working poor. According to Komlos, a person working full-time at a minimum wage job makes about $12,000 a year after taxes, just above the poverty line for a single person. He also points out that America’s federal minimum wage is well below that of other industrialized countries.
One way raising minimum wage will be beneficial is that it could lift many Americans out of poverty. Raising the minimum wage in Illinois, would help the families of more than 1.1 million workers who work to meet their children’s basic needs and “reduce the adverse effects of poverty on a child’s well-being” (Fiscal Policy Center). Studies have shown that raising the minimum wage would help 1 in 5 Illinois families who are in poverty. By raising the minimum wage in Illinois, it would help workers with families spend money on food, housing, gas, and other needs without going into poverty. Along with puling Americans out of poverty, raising the minimum wage could also stimulate economic growth. Raising the minimum wage, is stimulating economic growth by worsening the income inequality and substantially reducing the employee turnover for the business. Increasing a person’s income would raise their yearly earnings by $3,640 and “Improve the economic security and reduce the economies poverty rate” (Fiscal Policy Center). Low-wage workers spend most of what they earn on their basic needs, which is quickly spent and does not leave the worker with much money left to spend on other needs. This boost in the minimum wage will stimulate the economy and help create opportunities for more people, by hiring more workers to keep up with the
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.
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.
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.
Minimum wage was created as a price floor to protect workers from employers that wanted to provide them with low paying jobs. Cooper explains that “during periods of high unemployment many workers are forced to take lower paying jobs.... because there simply are no other options available to them.” Workers do not have any power during periods of unemployment. Employers can easily abuse their power and they will. Businesses try to make the most amount of money possible, meaning they will pay their workers little to nothing to increase their profit. Thus, the idea of Minimum wage contradicts itself because it is the reason for the high unemployment rate in America. Consequently, forcing workers to take low paying jobs because the supply of jobs is so
On the other side of the argument Americans believe that with the increase of minimum wages it would help Americans out a lot more. One possible way that the increase in minimum wage may help an individual out is in the article Minimum wage Pros and Cons, “The Economic Policy Institute stated that a minimum wage increase from the current rate of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 would inject $22.1 billion net into the economy and create about 85,000 new jobs over a three-year phase-in period. Though this may be true, one problem
... it. Another example imagine three competing coffee shops. All three need to make a certain profit margin to stay in business and make their effort worthwhile. Then they all three coffee shops will lower their prices as much as possible while still covering that necessary profit margin. If one of the shop tries to charge more, customers will simply go to the competitor shops. Wages are prices of labor, so the minimum wage is a price control. Like any price control, it has a ripple effect prices of other services and goods have to compensate. When an employer's labor costs go up, he has to lay off workers and/or increase the prices of what he sells.
A minimum wage is an hourly wage that is established by the government which represents the minimum amount an individual receives per hour. The federal minimum wage was established in 1938 under the “Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt” (Henderson). Currently, majority of the states have their minimum wage less than $10. However, the federal government wants to increase the minimum wage to $12 across the United States. The federal government believes that increasing the minimum wage will assist numerous people in the United States as most individuals are working in a minimum wage job to support their families. 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 of this nation are working a minimum wage job. Numerous people believe that these workers are not able to make their 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 for the society.
Even if the is an increase in minimum wage, people will not lose their jobs they will just have fewer hours and still be expected to do the same amount of work. Overall, it is not beneficial to increase minimum
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 life. 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 it people will buy.