Raising Minimum Wage

The idea of minimum wage is an intense argument that holds various opinions. It is a concept that was created to lift low-income families out of poverty. These good intensions have been unsuccessful thus far; minimum wage is not enough for families to live on. Theses bare-minimum pays definitely need to be raised throughout the United States. Despite the predictions that higher minimum wages would cause other issues, Inflation rates have shown that it just isn’t enough to live on anymore, and raising the wage would make the economy stronger by uplifting millions of workers.
The United State’s Minimum Wage is about to be the lowest it has ever been. Even though minimum wage has been increased a couple of different times, inflation is the core

reason that explains why workers are being paid less every hour than they were 40-50 years ago. If everyone were to earn the same amount of money, then everyone’s income would be the exact same. If everyone were to make no money except for one person, who would be earning of the money, that would mean that the income distribution would be extremely unequal. In a regular civilization, Income distribution should be somewhere in between perfectly equal or perfectly unequal. If a slim amount of citizens began to earn a large amount of the revenue in a society, the government would attempt to find methods to redistribute pay. The United State’s government tries to stop the rich from getting any richer, and the poor from getting any poorer. By doing this, the outcome is a good balance of income distribution. Minimum wage laws are the way that the governments get a good balance of income distribution.
Most importantly, an increased minimum wage would pull countless families out of poverty. The official poverty rate now stands at almost 15 percent, an entire 4 percent higher than it was during the early 1970’s. Additionally, the current poverty rate has risen to 15 percent- 1the poverty rate of 1964 was 19 percent. (Eberstadt, p. 6) There are currently 28 million Americans making minimum wage. There are counteracting claims that congress should benefit the poor by taking away these guidelines that redistribute away from the poor families; the wage is expected to hurt the people rather than helping them. There are also various claims that minimum wage needs to be raised to $10.10. Right now, it is only $7.25 in most states. If the nationwide raise occurred, then those 28 million workers from all different households would have a direct increase in pay. Families all around the U.S. could finally make ends meet. Currently, the moderate pay for fast-food workers is about $9 per hour, which is about $18,500 per year to survive on. For a family of four, the Census Bureau’s poverty level is $23,000. That is approximately $4,500 less per year. There were over 3 million United State’s workers that worked year round in 2013. Despite their hard work, they unfortunately still fell below the National poverty level. It is clear that the current minimum wage is not enough to take families out of poverty.
Raising minimum wage is a fundamental step in lessening poverty and providing every family the chance to be successful and just survive.

There are millions of hard workers in America that are barely balancing themselves above the national poverty line and desperately need to be paid more. Minimum wage needs to be higher, because it will lessen poverty and help the employed to support their families. The development of economic policies was created in 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt called it “The New Deal”. Minimum wage became one of the policies that had been included. It basically promised that all American employees would earn a sufficient salary to support their families. The New Deal was the beginning of control of wages by the federal government. It made sure that every worker would be capable of earning a living wage. Because $7.25 per hour is not a living wage, that promise has been

broken.
Raising the minimum wage would result in employment growth. There are many claims that it would actually cause 500,000 people to lose their jobs. Since businesses would be paying more to their workers, they will want to hire staffs with more skill than the ones that they already have. Recent changes in minimum wage have shown that that is completely untrue. There are 13 states that have a higher wage than $7.25, which is the national bare minimum. As studies have been compared, they show that those same 13 states had a larger employment growth then the 37 that did not. It doesn’t matter what predictions are made if they are showing the complete opposite results. Since those states have had a higher employment growth, all states need to follow in their steps to employ more people who are currently jobless. To add to that, businesses like fast food restaurants always have job vacancies. The vacancies occur because the minimum wage is just not enough pay, so people quit. If the wage were at least $10.10, more workers would stay with their job, and even work more hours—because they want to. There have been more than 600 economic Nobel Prize winners that encourage the increase of minimum wage to $10.10; they even signed onto a letter in support for it.
Additionally, if even if businesses did start looking for higher skilled workers, it would inspire people looking for jobs to up their skills.

There are always shortages in jobs that require college degrees. Most kids come out of high school knowing they can take the easy way out and not continue to college. If businesses stopped hiring young adults, since they wouldn’t be “skilled” enough for the $10.10 minimum wage, they would think more about going off to college. Currently there are ___ job openings in the medical field that need to be filled; yet another reason why higher minimum wages would strengthen the economy. A lot of people believe that all minimum-wage workers are young and all unskilled—which is only a stereotype. The truth is that the people who will be most effected by a higher minimum wage are adults in their 30’s working full time, that have a family and are trying to make ends meet. 88 percent of those who would benefit from a federal minimum wage increase are age 20 or older, and 55 percent are women. (United States Department of

Labor)
It is very important that minimum wage keeps up with inflation. Congress sets the minimum wage, but it doesn't keep pace with inflation. Because the cost of living is always rising, the value of a new minimum wage begins to fall from the moment it is set. The minimum wage of $1.60 an hour in 1968 would be $10.90 today when adjusted for inflation (Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index Inflation calculator) The lowered minimum wage is one reason why so many families are in poverty. Opposing opinions are that a constant increase in minimum raise could cause higher living costs. First of all, people making the minimum wage can barely afford their housing as it is. A regular person making even more money an hour means more pocket money. Since they’ll have more extra money, it will result in more consumerism and up sales for businesses. If everyone is already making more money, it won’t account for higher living costs. There wouldn’t be a need for it.
Skilled, high-wage workers won’t have to help pay for the Medicare and welfare of other unemployed or unskilled low-wage workers. Middle and upper classes of our society are taxed to provide welfare and support to the poor; not fair! It is clear that no one would want to continue to help pay for other people’s living expenses when there’s an alternative solution. People who don’t have jobs and don’t bother looking for one do not deserve the extra help. A higher wage means that the poor will work harder to find a job instead of relying on welfare. If fast food workers earned a decent living wage, they would not have to rely on food stamps, Medicaid, or other government programs when their paychecks don’t provide enough to make ends meet.
Some claim that small business owners can't afford to pay their workers more, and therefore don't support an increase in the minimum wage. Small business’s sales would shoot up after consumers are making more money. Small businesses currently aren’t making enough money to raise pay because nobody has the extra money to spend. Raising the minimum wage would increase consumer purchasing power. Increasing purchasing power will make a greater economy because Business owners and minimum wage workers would both have greater incomes. Businesses that start having a greater income will not have problems paying their minimum wage workers more per hour.
Minimum wage workers, for an example, fast food workers, work probably around twice as hard as they did in the seventies. These fast food companies hold their employees at wages that dig them into the hole of poverty; knowing that they are making billion every year, this doesn’t make much sense. Since there is increased numbers of families in poverty, minimum-wage workers work more hours and much harder just to pay the bills. There have been stereotypical claims that minimum wage workers are unskilled, so they don’t have to work hard. The demand at fast food restaurants and other businesses is greater than it was 40 or 50 years ago, therefor the workers put in more effort in one shift. Despite that, they are paid less then they would have in the seventies, considering inflation.
To be blunt, Minimum wage workers just deserve the raise… plain and simple. Even though these people didn’t attend college, they don’t receive enough credit. Fast food worker's jobs are a lot tougher than people may think. Not everyone would be able to work long hours in such a quick-paced and demanding environment. A raised minimum wage is only right because of good ethical reasons, but also because the owners of these businesses make heaps of money and could afford to pay their employees a higher pay with no problem. These jobs are stressful, especially fast food places. It takes a lot to go through an entire shift of nonstop work, especially when they know they’re only getting $7.25 for every hour of hard labor. A lot of the time, It is a struggle to pay bills and support a family with a minimum wage of 7.25 or even lower-- especially because the prices of everything is only rising. For example, gas, car payments, kids, house payments, electric bill, water bill, and medical bills… they all add up quickly. Companies always hire individuals proclaiming that “these are your responsibilities,” and they expect their employees to do it. Then, while they are working, they are asked to fulfill more burdens and are trained in several other places, but they get no raise for the additional skills they have obtained. They deserve more money!
United States citizens should clearly encourage raising the federal minimum wage because observed information proves that it does not lead to losses in jobs. Americans know that a minimum wage raise is an ethical way to help others that are struggling. For numerous working Americans, a rise in the minimum wage will make the change from living in poverty to not living in poverty. A higher minimum wage, a system that would guarantee employees that they're getting a reasonable pay for their efforts, would definitely provide for the poor families who would otherwise not earn a decent living.