Picture this: You are a single parent of two, you work 40 hours a week plus occasional overtime at a minimum wage paying job, you struggle to put food on the table to feed your family, and then you receive a call from the bank saying that your home is being foreclosed. This is the situation faced by thousands of Americans every year due to low income and wealth inequality. The federal minimum wage (FMW) as of April 2014 is $7.25, which is not enough to keep a family of two above the poverty line. There are certain questions on this topic that should be addressed, such as why is poverty and wealth distribution an issue in the United States today? Should the FMW be raised and why? How would raising the FMW affect American families? What are the benefits of raising the FMW, as well as the drawbacks? Finally, what is ultimately the best path in regards to the FMW? This paper asserts that raising the federal minimum wage would hold predominantly positive benefits for low and middle class families, lessening the poverty rates. The increase would help lessen wealth inequality between the upper and lower class citizens of America.
Before we dive into why raising the FMW is important in helping poverty, we should first examine how poverty is defined and researched. Firstly, the federal government identifies poverty by using "a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition.” Knowing that the 2010 U.S. Census states the average American household size to be 2.58 people per household, we can round to the figure of three people per home. According to 2014 U.S. guidelines, a family of three meets the standards to be in poverty if their annual income is less than $19,790 while a full time FMW worker makes $15,080 annual...
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Poverty continues to grow in America. The average minimum wage in the United States is $7.35 an hour- far too low in today’s society. Key expenses, for example, gas and housing prices, have gone up significantly since the minimum wage was last changed in 2007 (Wagner 52). The laws creating the minimum wage were intended to improve the standard of living and decrease poverty. Raising minimum wage is a vital step in decreasing poverty and giving every family the opportunity to survive and succeed. Millions of hard-working Americans are below the poverty line and need an increase in pay. Minimum wage must be raised because it will diminish poverty and assist the working class to support their families.
The minimum wage was, as it should be, a living wage, for working men and women ... who are attempting to provide for their families, feed and clothe their children, heat their homes, [and] pay their mortgages. The cost-of-living inflation adjustment since 1981 would put the minimum wage at $4.79 today, instead of the $4.25 it will reach on April 1, 1991. That is a measure of how far we have failed the test of fairness to the working poor.” (Burkhauser 1)
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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.
Although raising the minimum wage won’t eliminate poverty as poverty can never be eliminated. It could help with lowering the poverty rate. The “inactive” unemployed Americans lack motivation, because they can’t support themselves with the money earned. It simply is not enough. As the cost of living rises, minimum wage stays stagnant. This is not balanced at all. If minimum wage back in 1968 was doable, raising it now could not kill the economy. Increasing the minimum wage could be an incentive for workers to finally seek jobs again; prompting growth in the economy and lower down poverty levels in many ways. The quality of a job is just as important when creating quantity of jobs. What lacks in the U.S right now is the incentives to make Americans want to do better. Raising the minimum wage could stimulate the desire to work and get around, possibly pursuing more education to climb the ladder to get higher in the economic
National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL). "State Minimum Wages." State Minimum Wage Chart. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
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 ...
U.S. Census Bureau. 2012. “Poverty Thresholds by Size of Family and Number of Children” [Excel file].
...y Status, by Family Relationship, Race, and Hispanic Origin Washington D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/historical/people.html.
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,
U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - Minimum Wage. (n.d.). U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - Minimum Wage. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/chart.htm
Common words of the supporters of increasing the minimum wage are “It will help those in poverty.” If an employee worked 40-hour weeks, he/she will earn approximately $15,080 per year, slightly below the federal poverty threshold of $15,130. However, it is imperative to consider that most employees earning minimum wage work less than 40 hours per week. Therefore, more cha-ching is good! Right?
Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2010. Us Department of Justice Census Bureau website. N.P. November 3, 2011.
There has always been controversy about raising or lowering the minimum wage. The minimum wage should be raised. Raising the minimum wage has the benefits of raising family incomes, may get the economy back on track and allows families to pay their debts; however lowering the minimum wage has a downside, because families don't have enough money, it has not kept pace with cost of living and families earning minimum wage still need government assistance to survive.