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The positive or negative effects of minimum wage
The effects of raising the minimum wage
The effects of raising the minimum wage
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Should the minimum wage be increased to raise more workers out of poverty? In public policy, a “living wage” is a theoretical wage level that allows the earner to afford sufficient shelter, food, and other necessities of life. The living wage should be considerable enough to ensure that no more than thirty percent of it needs to be spent on housing, but this theoretical wage does not exist today. If it were true, we would see a decline in poverty and government assistance, thus creating a positive increase in quality of life (Nadeau, Glasmeier 1). Currently, the Congress Budget Office reports there are about forty-five million people that are living in poverty. Any person who makes an income of $15,000 or less is considered poverty level …show more content…
Contrary to popular belief, minimum wage earners are hard working Americans age 20 and over, and these adults are large contributors to their households. These adults are the people who work for our everyday low wage companies that help our economy run such as, food prep, leisure and hospitality. Low wage earners are spending less because they have such a burden on costs. A recent survey states, three out of five small businesses with employees support a minimum wage increase. Raising the minimum wage will put more money into the hands of low wage workers, who will in turn spend the money on housing, food and other necessities. When people make more money, the demand for goods and services go up, and they ultimately invest back into our nation’s economy, helping to create more jobs and opportunities. A thriving workplace gives back to the economy in more ways than one (DOL …show more content…
Raising the minimum wage will not only help our economic stimulus but also place less burden on taxpayers. Lifting our workers out of poverty so they do not have to depend on government assistance should be a priority. Let us stop sharing the unequal access to society and equally share our wealth. When people make more money, they also have more to spend and they invest back into local businesses, big or small, helping the economy flourish. Resulting in more quality products produced, happier customers, employees who care about their job and showing up to do it the best they can. Pay our workers a fair minimum wage and let them live a quality life. Let’s raise the minimum wage and give fair pay for
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 living wage movement is an economic reform movement that has become one of the most important public policy issues that has come up within the last 10 years. Although there is no single definition, it is often defined as an hourly salary that allows working families of four to have an income that is above the federal poverty line. This means that the livable wage laws often stipulate that hourly wages should be two to three times above the federal Mininum wage. However, unlike the Mininum wage, the living wage has so far only been enacted on the county and city level. Cities and counties enforce the living wage for companies that have contracts with their respective cities and counties, receive subsidies from their cities or counties, other economic benefits cities and counties provide to companies, and in some cases a livable wage is required for the tourist areas of the particular city. For cities and local governments, the livable wage is perceived as a measure to increase the welfare of the poor. However, like everything in life the livable wage creates its on costs that along with its benefits of increased wage to some low income earners.
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.
Minimum wage was originally established to reduce poverty. It was also made up to do away with sweat shops and companies not paying minors and others a fair wage for Some policymakers may believe that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage through reduced profits, but that’s rarely the case. Instead, businesses rationally respond to such mandates by cutting employment and making other decisions to maintain their net earnings. These behavioral responses usually offset the positive labor market results that policymakers are hoping for.”
Over the past decade, politicians have sought to reform the national poverty levels by lobbying for what is frequently referred to as a living wage. Living wages, on the most elementary level, are the absolute minimum a person must make per year or per hour to stay above the federal poverty level. While the number of people that receive living wages is still small, Wood (2002) suggests that this is a trend that is gaining momentum across the United States because it may help reduce employee turnover and increase worker productivity.
The minimum wage today has a lot of issues; some people say it is not enough to live comfortably. Many agree that there needs to be an increase in minimum wages and by doing that it can help with our issues of poverty. Statistics show that a worker who is full time and earning minimum wage makes only $15,080 a year, which is under the federal poverty line for a family of two. (Gitis, 2013) The problem with that is $15,080 is not a sufficient amount that a person can live and grow on. “A family of two can consist of a mother and son or daughter, father and son or ...
Some think that the minimum wage should not be raised, but others think that the minimum wage should be raised. If one had to be chosen, raising the minimum wage would be better. The minimum wage should be raised because if you were to work full time on minimum wage, you are below the poverty line; Also states that did raise the minimum wage above the federal standard have had more job growth than states that did not. Finally, "Minimum wage workers are much more likely to immediately go out and spend that extra money in the economy," says Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, which favors raising the minimum. "That's because they're often living paycheck to paycheck."
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.
It is very difficult to live in America if you are living off of minimum wage, and many Americans are living off of it today. Raising minimum wages has its benefits like gaining more money to live better, but people do not see the down side of the increases in wages. With the increase in minimum wage, it also causes the cost of living to increase. How can this help the economy or help people? Minimum wages in America should not be increased because it will cause cost of living to increase, reduce employment, and cause businesses to lose money and workers.
Since its inception, the minimum wage has been a hotbed for debate. If today’s leaders could manage to increase minimum wage, millions of families would benefit.
"Raising the minimum wage will benefit about 28 million workers across the country. And it will help businesses, too - raising the wage will put more money in people's pockets, which they will pump back into the economy by spending it on goods and services in their communities." -- President Obama
Raising the minimum wage sounds great, right? Well maybe it would not be so good. The wage that we want we to have seems to $15 dollars, but that would do more harm than good. It would make it very hard for small businesses to start. It also would not solve the homeless problem either.
Many critics claim that that raising minimum wage increases unemployment, especially for unskilled workers, and harms small businesses, including grocery stores and restaurants. The argument declares that companies such as these rely mostly on unskilled workers for labor, and if the minimum wage increases, then their profits and, therefore, hiring would decline, creating a...