Anyone who’s ever worked for a company, or worked a job is all too familiar with bargaining for salary. Employees are usually unsure of if they’re asking for too much, or asking for too little. Unbeknownst to them, most of them are already making too little. In this case, one could use minimum wage workers as an example. They work unrealistic hours to pay to support themselves while still not earning a living salary. The last minimum wage raise was in 2007, and it hasn’t budged since then. Since then, the economy has gone through multiple inflations and yet the minimum wage has not yet adjusted to match it. Although many opposing sides disagree because they think that it will raise taxes, the minimum wage should be increased to adjust to inflation, …show more content…
Unemployment has reached its lowest point in seven years while the hourly wages for all workers fell by 4% from 2009 to 2014, but the low wage workers were hit hardest by an average of a 5.7% decrease in hourly wages. While 1.3 million Americans earn the current federal minimum of 7.25 while 1.7 million workers work with wages below the federal minimum (Alper).This behavior is creating unlivable wages and is not benefiting the middle class at all, as some may believe. The only ones benefiting economically are the billionaires and millionaires of the upper class, as they are gaining the most from low wages as many company CEOs refuse to raise their hourly wages because it would cause the company to spend more money on the employees. Regarding women and women of color, they will significantly benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. The minimum wage still does not factor in the wage gap, in which women make 75 cents to every dollar a man makes. The wage gap is still more complex than that, African American women get paid 64 cents to every man’s dollar and hispanic women make 56 cents to every man’s dollar, putting women of color at a further disadvantage if they are being paid with the wage gap AND working at a low wage job (NWLC) .More than half of African- American workers and almost 60% of Latino workers in the U.S make less than $15 per hour, and women make up 55% of workers making below $15 hourly wage ( Alper) . …show more content…
Contrary to popular belief, most minimum wage workers are 30 or above with families to support, not entry level teenagers as some politicians believe. The American dream isn’t functioning when the middle class is shrinking, instead of growing (Prince). “If one works 40 hours a week, every week at 7.25 an hour that means an annual income of $15,080, with no sick days and no time off…. That’s $15,080 a year, or $13,926 after FICA deductions. Imagine paying market rates for rent in the D.C area, where a tiny apartment might take up two- thirds of the income, and require an hour or longer commute to get into the city, with subway costs taking up an additional 10% or more.”(Ornstein). The statistics show how the low wage workers live. With the added prices, like tax deductions and rent and transportation costs, there is not much money left for food and water, not to mention child care as the employees are working on average 40 hours a week. The low wage workers not only struggle to support themselves, but to support their families as well. In low wage families with single parents life always seems to be a struggle for survival and juggling the costs of necessities vs the meager paycheck the employees bring
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.
White men had higher hourly earnings than all except Asian men in 2015. In 2015, average hourly wages for black and Hispanic men were $15 and $14, respectively, compared with $21 for white men. Only the hourly earnings of Asian men $24 outpaced those of white men. Among women across all races and ethnicities, hourly earnings lag behind those of white men and men in their own racial or ethnic group. But the hourly earnings of Asian and white women ($18 and $17, respectively) are higher than those of black and Hispanic women ($13 and $12, respectively) – and also higher than those of black and Hispanic men. While the hourly earnings of white men continue to outpace those of women, all groups of women have made progress in narrowing this wage gap since 1980, reflecting at least in part a significant increase in the education levels and workforce experience of women over time. White and Asian women have narrowed the wage gap with white men to a much greater degree than black and Hispanic women. For example, white women narrowed the wage gap in median hourly earnings by 22 cents from 1980 (when they earned, on average, 60 cents for every dollar earned by a white man) to 2015 (when they earned 82 cents). By comparison, black women only narrowed that gap by 9 cents, from earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white man in 1980 to 65 cents today. Asian women followed roughly the trajectory of white women (but earned a
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)
For the past year I have watched my younger sister struggle to support herself and her now 11 month old baby. She makes more than minimum wage. She has struggled to the point where she was evicted and now lives with me. I have also experienced struggling on low pay. When I was 18 I was kicked out of my family’s house, and I was only making $8 an hour. There were days where I had to choose between paying rent and getting my electricity shut off, just because I couldn’t work enough hours to pay all of my bills. It can be very scary to only make minimum wage and have to support yourself. There are changes that need to be made so that every person can live properly with any job.
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.
The reality of wage differences between men and women is that above all changes women continue to earn less than men. Countless arguments have promoted that wage inequality has changed and that everyone finally receives an equal amount of pay. “For women of color, the gap is largest of all: In 2006, black and Hispanic women earned 86 and 87 cents on the white man’s dollar, respectively,” (Mcswane 2). If a woman is lucky enough she will get an equal pay compared to a man doing the same job. But it is challenging for a woman of a minority background to achieve this. Not only are women paid less because of their sex, but also because of their race. There seems to be a mentality that because someone is a woman and a minority that they cannot do the same job as men or that women do not have the same education as the men, so employers do not have to pay them the same. “When the numbers are broken down by district, they 're pretty hard to ignore. Women in Texas are being utterly screwed financially, according to the data compiled by AAWU, with women earning anywhere from 66 percent of what men do in some districts, to the top end of things, which is about 89 percent,” (Leicht 4). The proof cannot be ignored. It i...
Obviously minimum wage has increased significantly since 1968 where it was at $1.60 but, how much has it really increased in connection with inflation and rising prices of things such as food, gas, land and etc? That is what's really lost in the whole conversation of increasing minimum wage to give people more money doesn't necessarily mean you can buy more. Senator Tom Harkin made a great statement regarding inflation senator Harkin said "today, tens of millions of hardworking Americans who are earning at or near the minimum wage can’t even aspire to live a middle-class life or achieve the American Dream. Instead, they are falling further and further behind" (Harkin). This is because of inflation, although minimum wage has increased from $1.60 in 1968 to $ 7.25 in 2013 we actually have less buying power. What that means is that $1.60 in 1968 would get us more food than $7.25 would in 2013. People are tricked into thinking that small incremental increases are good because we are making more, guess what we're actually making less. If we kept that $1.60 wage today and indexed it to account for inflation minimum wage should be at $10.56 in 2013.
If there is only one main source of income in the home and that person is only making minimum wage do you think it’s hard on that one person? I believe it is because just think about it, after all that hard work to get that one check you only made enough to pay all your bills. That money you just worked two weeks for is gone in the snap of an eye due to you making too little. "The fact is, almost two-thirds of minimum wage workers are adults, and four in ten are the sole bread winner of their family” (The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage). Most households rely on people that are making minimum wage and half the time those checks aren 't even enough. "The President 's proposal to increase the minimum wage would raise wages of more than 5.7 million working women. This includes more than 950,000 African-American women and 760,000 women of Hispanic origin” (The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage). By the president pushing towards making wages higher it will help all the single moms out there because there 's a one-fifth population in America of single moms. "In short, as people age they gain more skills and experience. The resulting higher productivity pushes their wages up” (Boudreaux/ Williams). If an employee has worked for a company for a long time they gain more experience over time and become better at the job. That 's one way people in poverty can take notes on and
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 ...
Because the cost of living has sky rocketed, it has become almost impossible to raise a family on a minimum wage job. A person living on his or her own cannot survive on minimum wage job either. Their living expense would just be too much. The earnings of minimum wage workers are crucial to their families well being. Evidence from 2013 and 2014 minimum wage increase shows that an average minimum wage worker brings home more than half of his or her family's weekly earnings. In 2013 one million single mothers with children under 18 would have benefited from a minimum wage increase to $10.
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,
Nowadays, most women remain unaware that their employers underpay them. Women cannot argue for higher wages if they do not know they earn less than their male equivalents. Each employee sharing their salary will allow women to detect if they are earning less than their male colleagues with little difficulty. This will give women the tools needed to argue for a higher pay rate, and will help lower the wage gap. If a female worker goes to her boss with statistical evidence that she earns less than her male associates, the chances that her boss will award her a higher salary significantly increase. The law will make it almost impossible for companies to pay their male workers more than their female workers (Glynn para. 7). Furthermore, a law requiring employees to share their salaries will bring to light other forms of wage discrimination. The wage gap not only represents gender discrimination in the workplace, it also reflects the ongoing issue of racial discrimination. While white women do typically earn less than white men, they out earn the majority of female colored workers in America. The average African American female makes only 64 cents for the white man’s dollar. Additionally, Hispanic women receive only 54 cents to their white male coworker’s dollar (Hegewisch para. 9). If women of color become aware of how little they earn compared to
The minimum wage being too low has been a public issue in America for generations. Basically, the debate includes two different opinions. Firstly, people who want to raise the minimum wage, and second, people who would rather is stay the same. The overwhelming majority of liberals are on the side that favors a raise. Additionally, a somewhat smaller proportion of conservatives favor the change as well, but for different reasons. The liberal opinion on raising the minimum wage is based on the idea that putting more money in the people’s pockets, will stimulate the economy, and decrease poverty. The problem that conservatives and liberals alike have with this, is that a few direct consequences are proven to apply when raising wages. Some proposed consequences include unemployment, inflation, and unfairness to higher educated people. Another main point is that raising the minimum wage is thought to helps small business by increasing worker satisfaction. This issue of minimum wage has become increasingly popular and important in current times, as president Obama has proposed the idea of raising the minimum wage of contract workers to 10.10$ per hour (about a 30% increase from the current 7.25$ per hour minimum wage). A large number of people consider this wage hike unnecessary due to the fact that today’s value of minimum is higher than it has ever been since the 80’s, and because the wage hike comes at too high of a cost. All things considered, the issue of raising minimum wage is not a battle of political parties and their agendas, its really a debate between everyone.
On an average, a worker must make $18.92 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in most places in the United States today (Network, Jolie Lee/USA Today). Additionally, most of the workers have to balance multiple job schedules, travel, and struggle to keep up their life going. In fact, according to the most recent available numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2010 Census) in December of 2011 more than 7 million people were holding 2 or more jobs. “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Benjamin Franklin (1789). In brief, people work and dies to pay the circle of education, work and taxes. The increase in minimum wage will indeed decrease a huge stone of stress of working enormous hours. The federal poverty line guideline for a family of four is 24,250 according to 2015 census. (Obamacarefact). Accordingly, a person will have to work 50 hours a week in order to fulfill the guideline. Whereby, $15 an hour will perfectly meet 40 hours work law without overtime or working multiple
Are you aware that in 2015, women who were working full time in the United States were only paid 80 percent of what men were paid, at a 20 percent gap? This number is only up a measly one percentage from 2014, and the change isn’t of any major significance. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the earnings ratio hasn’t had significant annual change since 2007. This gender wage gap has only narrowed since the 1970s and due largely to women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate. Still, the pay gap does not appear likely to go away on its own. At the rate of change between 1960 and 2015, women are expected to reach pay equity with men in 2059. But even that slow progress has stalled in recent years. These