Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Positive and negative effects of minimum wage
Debate over minimum wage
Effects of minimum wage in terms of demand and supply of labor
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Positive and negative effects of minimum wage
“Sorry, we are going to have to let you go.” Nobody wants to hear those words, yet it happens every day. There are about 7.9 million people are unemployed in this country (“United 1) and raising the minimum wage will cause even more to lose their jobs. This has been a popular topic for awhile and people seem to be in favor of raising the wage. They believe it will improve our economy and help the working class. The minimum wage was first established so that employers could not abuse employees, but that was in 1938 (Wilson 1). A lot has changed in 78 years including the laws on the subject. The low-skilled jobs are for teens and college students yet more and more people have to take these jobs. The issue should be creating better jobs …show more content…
If a law were to pass to raise the wage, then all employers are forced to comply, but in doing so will have to make other decisions. One is how many employees can they afford to keep at that pay. Many people will be let go in order to make up for the pay increase. The Fight for $15 campaign has a strong following but is causing more harm than good. It started as fast food employees trying to get more money and turning into a movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. They have made progress in places like New York and California and are slowing winning city by city (“About 1). The aftermath is worse after their protests. By increasing the wage so high corporations will let people go because they just do not want to pay that many people that much money for something anyone can do. In some cases, they will use more skilled workers to replace all the lower skilled ones to make the increase more profitable (Wilson 8). Some places even talk about using machines instead of people or moving production overseas That would cause a lot of backlash to the American people. Similarly, small businesses simply cannot afford to keep as many employees as they need. It forces them to fire their help. After some time with fewer workers, they are unable to stay open. Raising the minimum wage will put people out of business, only making this issue bigger. Now they have to get low paying jobs and …show more content…
People will lose their jobs to keep businesses running. Teens and college kids will not have a place in the workforce causing them to start off with financial problems. The economy could fall apart from the cost of living increasing too much too fast. People would argue that it is better to raise the minimum wage but they are misinformed. They want change but the wrong kind. We need to fight for more jobs and better education. If it was easier for these low-skilled people to get more skills then they can get their higher paying jobs without affecting everybody. The only time the minimum wage should increase if because of inflation. There is a point where it does get too low but a dollar or two is very different from six. The minimum wage is low for a reason. Let’s not change something that is there to
Imagine a world where you are working overtime, seven days a week, yet your kids are starving. You can’t get the education you need because you don’t have the time and money to afford it, and you can’t change jobs because this is the only one you can get. Unfortunately, this is the reality for millions of Americans living today. The federal minimum wage is too low to help families, and actually mathematically speaking, too low to survive on. The quality of life for minimum wage families is terribly low, and that is unacceptable. As humans, we should be looking after others and helping the poverty come out of their continuous cycle. Raising the minimum wage would not only help families be able to afford a better quality of life, but help them to afford healthy food, get an adequate education, and invest in the necessary health care they need.
Minimum wage is a topic that has been popping up since the 1980s. From whether we should lower it, or even raise it, but now in the 2000s minimum wage has been the center of attention more than ever. There are two sides to this topic of minimum wage; whether it creates more jobs or does not create jobs. Those who argue that raising minimum wage will create more jobs will have a rebuttal which is that it does not only cause the loss of jobs but that it would make things much worse and vice versa for those arguing raising minimum wage will cause loss of jobs. There will be two authors representing opposite views, Nicholas Johnson supporting minimum wage will not cost jobs with his article “ Evidence Shows Raising Minimum Wage Hasn’t Cost Jobs”
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,
The minimum wage will always be a controversial topic to debate. People are going to protest someday to raise their salaries because they cannot struggle to pay off the increased cost of living expenses. Also, more employers are going to cut off their worker’s hours or get the worker lay off. By raising the minimum wage to $15, people must accept the pros and cons because this a topic will always affect the entire community.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour has been extensively debated over the last year or so. Minimum wage is the undermost wage allowed by law to be given to an employee for their services. Introduced in 1939, its purpose was to stabilize the economy, which was healing from the Great Depression. Most importantly, it was designed to protect the health and welling-being of employees. Currently, the Federal Government 's minimum is $7.25 per hour ($14,500 per year). The ones in favor of the increase are saying that it used to be a living wage; however, now it is not and it now needs to be line with changes to the cost of living. In addition, an increase in minimum wage can increase the productivity and decrease income inequality and poverty. On the other spectrum, the ones who are against the increase are saying that the increased labor cost will drive up unemployment, affect small businesses negatively, and cause other workers from different
In recent years the minimum wage has been a heated topic. People want to hike it up to 15 dollars an hour which they call a living wage, while others just want to keep it the same. There are also others that suggest to bring the minimum wage to around $10.78 an hour, which should be around the minimum wage now if we account for inflation from the 1960’s. I agree with that to a certain point. We as a nation need to bring up the minimum wage only up to ten dollars so that less people are living in poverty, and not any higher so that states with smaller economies don 't crash and burn.
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
Raising the minimum will end up hurting Americans more than helping them. The people that are for raising minimum wage are people who believe that increasing minimum wage can help those people who are unskilled and need an income they can live on. Yet, raising minimum wage would do the opposite and make employers have to fire people who earn minimum wage, because they can't afford the higher wages. People need to realize that increasing the minimum wage would hurt people more than help them. In the end increasing minimum wage would result in some people being let go, for the reason, businesses can't afford paying them minimum wage anymore.
Raising the minimum wage would affect employees. Supporters believe that raising minimum wage will improve people’s lives. We live in a consumer society. People who earn more spend more on products and services. As stated by BuzzFlash Headlines, “Higher Minimum Wage Would Create Over 100,000 New Jobs Nationally” (BuzzFlash Headline). Families would be able to use the money they earn to save for important things such as bills. If they wanted to, they could also buy more groceries or appliances. Non-supporters feel that raising the minimum wage will create many job losses. According to Economic Policy Institute, “Across the phase-in period of the increase, GDP would grow by about $22 billion, resulting in the creation of roughly 85,000 net new jobs over that period.”(David Cooper). If a family owned business has to raise the wage rate they pay, it is possible they will not hire as many people as they usually do. Businesses across the nation would be impacted by raising the minimum wage. According to the CNBC, “The great division among businesses and economists over the impact of raising...
They have long argued that requiring employers to pay workers more will force many of them to either cut back on hours, put off hiring, or lay off employees in order to keep their labor costs down. “Raising the minimum wage will kill jobs and stifle economic output,” NFIB Manager of Legislative Affairs Ashley Fingarson said earlier this week, as the organization sent a letter to the Senate urging lawmakers to vote against a bill that would raise the minimum hourly rate from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour. (The Washington Post) Many businesses will be hurt by the increase in wage rate due to lack of expenses of paying employees more, causing businesses to lose money and even go out of
The minimum wage being too low has been a public issue in America for generations. Basically, the debate includes two different opinions. Firstly, people who want to raise the minimum wage, and second, people who would rather is stay the same. The overwhelming majority of liberals are on the side that favors a raise. Additionally, a somewhat smaller proportion of conservatives favor the change as well, but for different reasons. The liberal opinion on raising the minimum wage is based on the idea that putting more money in the people’s pockets, will stimulate the economy, and decrease poverty. The problem that conservatives and liberals alike have with this, is that a few direct consequences are proven to apply when raising wages. Some proposed consequences include unemployment, inflation, and unfairness to higher educated people. Another main point is that raising the minimum wage is thought to helps small business by increasing worker satisfaction. This issue of minimum wage has become increasingly popular and important in current times, as president Obama has proposed the idea of raising the minimum wage of contract workers to 10.10$ per hour (about a 30% increase from the current 7.25$ per hour minimum wage). A large number of people consider this wage hike unnecessary due to the fact that today’s value of minimum is higher than it has ever been since the 80’s, and because the wage hike comes at too high of a cost. All things considered, the issue of raising minimum wage is not a battle of political parties and their agendas, its really a debate between everyone.
For many people in the United States, life is no more than a regular work cycle. Members of working class usually have a High School diploma and may work in a low skilled occupation or manual labor. Most of the enjoying age of this people is spent in working, as they don’t want their new once to have a life they struggling through. Therefore, this essay will argue that minimum wage should be increased federally to $15/hour by 2017. Firstly, if taxes touches the sky, why should the minimum wage be on the ground? Increasing minimum wages would also create new opportunities for education as the students wouldn’t have to work crazy hours. Likewise, many couples won’t have to work multiple jobs in order to manage the household. Lastly, it will lift
An occurring topic in society today is raising the minimum wage. Minimum wage is the least amount of payment per hour an employer is allowed to give an employee ( a person working for an organization for a salary) for work legally. The national minimum wage is $7.25, but some states have raised it a little bit higher, due to the reason that different states have different costs of living. Currently the national minimum wage is still under $15 an hour. In the United States, 77.2 million workers of ages 16 and above were paid hourly in 2014.
While it is not uncommon for individuals with minimal income to have more health issues than those earning more income; however, an increase in wages could help minimize the cost of healthcare and medical prescriptions. (Qin & Chernew, 2014) The current minimum wage level compared to the poverty threshold, is inadequate to support minimum wage earners and their families. This is a phenomenon that has been lingering for decades, due to changes in the economy. Furthermore, due to the cost of healthier food sources, many low income workers cannot afford a healthy eating lifestyle.
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.