Persuasive Essay On The Living Wage Movement

1054 Words3 Pages

The living wage is more and more being called a movement because the current federal minimum wage laws does not provide enough money for an individual that works a full time job to be able to support a family. Making them feel like they should not have to raise a family in poverty. Across the United States there are efforts to provide what is called living wages for workers which began with requiring all employers to pay at least the minimum wage to its workers that is equal to the living wage for the area (City/State) they are working in. The current minimum wage is set, depending on where you are living it can be up to several dollars short of what should be the living wage. The living wage movement is very active in full force forward …show more content…

The low income workers who receive public assistance will seem to make more in wages but will lose money from what public assistance they were also collecting causing them to request working less hours to maintain what they would have received from public assistance. A worker with children who is paid $7.25 an hour will have a higher income than if they were paid a higher wage, but because at the higher wage they will lose the public assistance such as food stamps, welfare, and other benefits because of making the higher wages. This is causing people to request to work less hours so they can receive their public assistance benefits. Who seems to gain the most from a living wage requirement is the public employee who is in a union as their involvement with the union is a form of protection in the job market. The living wage laws can and will have negative effects as they can in certain job markets reduce employment opportunities for the low skilled workers or the workers without a higher education. Some employers will be forced to eliminate some job opportunities because they will not be able to produce enough profit to be able to or justify to having to pay the higher wage. The hardest hit will be the mom & pop or non-chain stores as they do not have the backing or income to support

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