Minimum wage is the lowest wage an employer can pay their employees. There is a Federal minimum wage and in some cases a State Minimum wage. The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25. An employee who makes $7.25 an hour and works 40 hours a week, will earn about $14,000 per year. The Federal government deemed that the poverty line is anyone who makes less than $17,000 a year (“Federal Minimum”). Therefore anyone that makes minimum wage lives below the poverty line. As president Obama said in his state of address, "In the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty” (“Federal Minimum”). This essay will examine the problem of low minimum wage and explore ways to resolve this issue. There are two types of minimum wage in the United States. The first type of minimum wage is a Federal minimum wage. Federal minimum wage is established by the Federal government and is the lowest set amount of money an employer can pay its employee (“Federal minimum”). On the other hand, an individual State may set its own minimum wage. The States under the Tenth Amendment have the right to accept the federal minimum wage, or states may set their own minimum wage. Roughly 20 or more states have set their own Minimum wage laws. Some states set their own minimum wage because some states have higher cost of living. An example of cost of living is the price of gasoline. Gasoline in the state of Hawaii cost just about four dollars per gallon, where as the state of Oklahoma cost roughly three dollars a gallon ("Update: Minimum Wage"). Economists point to inflation as the main cause for low minimum wage. Inflation is described as “a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of mone... ... middle of paper ... ...e Minimum Wage Is Stuck at $7.25; It Should Be $21.16 — or Higher." Inequality.org. Inequality, Facts On File 24 July 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. Berfield, Susan. "Fast-Food Wages Come With a $7 Billion Side of Public Assistance." BloombergBusiness. N.p., 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. "Federal Minimum Wage." Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 13 May 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2013 Henderson, David R. "Raising the Minimum Wage Will Not Reduce Poverty." Poverty. Ed. Viqi Wagner. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "The Negative Effects of the Minimum Wage." National Center for Policy Analysis, Brief Analysis. Vol. 550. 2006. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. "Update: Minimum Wage." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 15 July 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.
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A. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 should be increased in stages to $10.10 by 2016.
Many people can think back and remember what it was like to put in an application for that first job and be presented with a position. Taking that position represents adulthood and is a very exciting time for a young person. All first jobs usually start with a minimum wage. Minimum wage is the minimum an employer has to pay an unskilled worker based on the regulations set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was originally established in 1938. As people think back about their first jobs they can also remember what the minimum wage was when they took that position. Minimum wage is only increased based on the cost of living from the prior year. If the previous year shows an increase then the minimum wage will increase in the coming new year. Sinegal (2009) stated "The increase in the minimum wage is long overdue. Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do but it makes for good business". Based on the cost of living we show for the year of 2009 minimum wage will not increase for 2010. Minimum wage is currently at $7.25 per hour. Most people who start at this rate are young people who are in high school or college and are working a few hours to help pay for school. After they graduate they can apply for better jobs and move on. People who live in areas without growth, single mothers trying to raise their children, and uneducated people are working more than one minimum wage job to make enough money to pay their financial obligations. While the cost of living did not increase, minimum wage is low because no increase is planned for 2010 a...
What is Minimum Wage: Its History and Effects on the Economy. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2013/06/what-is-minimum-wage-its-history-and-effects-on-the-economy
"American Enterprise Institute." Why We Shouldn't Raise the Minimum Wage. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
The minimum amount of money that must be paid to an employee by an employer in hourly basis, regardless of employee’s post or qualification, which often fixed by government authorities is known as minimum wages of that country. Currently federal minimum wages in United States is $7.25 which was last set at July 2009. Every year there is a huge debate at our country about raising minimum wages. Increasing minimum wage obviously has massive effect on the country’s economy and its people. Some experts say that, raising minimum wages can improve the life style of those employees who are under the poverty line. They believe that by raising the minimum wages net income of the working class will increase and helps to keep the financial balance in between the management level and the operational level employee. In contrast, there are other people who think that by rising the minimum wages can have negative effect is country’s economy since company can hire low number of staff to keep expenses low, resulting massive unemployment population in the country.
· ------, and T. A. Finegan (1989), "The Minimum Wage and the Poor: The End of a Relationship," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 8 (Winter): 53-71.
Today the federal minimum wage is $5.15, but should be about $8.50 if Congress had adjusted it for inflation over the past 35 years. While $5.15 may not seen that bad, when factoring in such variables as sky rocketing gas prices, budgets can get pretty tight. David Shepard, a sophomore at Wayne State University, worked at a Meijer Retail and Grocery Superstore for over two years while in high school. At the time Shepard lived with his parents and didn’t have to worry about paying rent or buying groceries, all that he had to pay for was filling up his gas tank and paying for his car insurance. Shepard recalled, “It was all I could do to pay for the basics like gas and bill’s, I barely had any money to have fun on the weekends”. This is only an example of a high school student that can nearly slip by on minimum wage with only a few expenses. There are 1.8 million people in America with children under the age of 18 that would benefit from an increase in minimum wage (Minimum).
... 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.
"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
A very controversial yet interesting issue today in the United States is minimum wage if it should be increased or not. While some want to raise minimum wage to the living wage, minimum wage should not be raised because it increases teen unemployment, increase of Cost of goods/services,and Cut back on work hours.
The thought that minimum wage should rise as inflation has risen and as productivity increases is a good thought. According to an article on the Huffington Post, “minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity”. The article also stated had