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Effects of increasing the minimum wage
Effects of increasing the minimum wage
Effect of minimum wage on employment
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Unemployment, minimum wage increases and the stock market all play key roles in our economy. Currently in New York, Governor Cuomo has signed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Now everyone starting out a new employment option without a degree will start at a wage close to that of some employees who have attended a two-year college to earn a degree. Take my degree field for instance, the starting minimum hourly wage is $14 and averages around $17 after two years of paid studies and passing state boards. So, this is where I find the wage increase incredibly unfair, I paid for the schooling and the cost of taking my boards. I started out at that minimum and worked my way up but with this wage increase, I am excluded just like
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)
Imagine working under poor conditions for over 40 hours a week to afford basic human necessities only to remain nothing more than a cog in a corporal machine seen unworthy of livable wages. While this may seem unrealistic, it proves as reality for many lower class Americans. Minimum wage has seen a drastic decline in relation to the inflation of living costs, an issue addressed in Lew Prince’s, “The American Dream Needs a Fair Minimum Wage”. In the article, Prince, a business owner, states, “... in 1979, the minimum wage was $2.90 -- that would be $9.50, adjusted for inflation in 2014 dollars”. Even with this information, many americans above the poverty level line argue against an increase in wages. Although opinions often
Many people against raising the minimum wage create arguments such as, “it will cause inflation”, or, “ it will result in job loss.” Not only are these arguments terribly untrue, they also cause a sense of panic towards the majority working-class. Since 1938, the federal minimum wage has been increased 22 times. For more than 75 years, real GDP per capita has consistently increased, even when the wage has been
A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The first minimum wage was just 25 cents an hour in 1938. Can you imagine surviving off of 25 cents an hour? Now just over 70 years later the federal minimum wage is now 7.25. The question at hand is the federal minimum wage enough to meet the minimum requirement for a good, happy and healthy life? Some states and cities say no. While a select few states and cities have mirrored the federal minimum wage of 7.25, some states have placed their state or city/county minimum wage marginally higher than the federal minimum wage. So why would some states prefer to have a higher level than required by the federal minimum wage when some state have decided to match or even go below the federal minimum wage level. The answer to this question lies within each state city and county and how they perceive the cost of living in the presiding area. Minimum wage needs a makeover in America despite some of the negative effects that may come along with it. This paper will explore the reasons behind federal and state minimum wages and why some of them differ among states counties and cities across America.
"The rich get richer while the poor get poorer." This quote was originally stated in William Henry Harrison's 1840 speech but sadly enough can still be used today to describe our economic downfall and crisis. With California currently holding a minimum wage at $10 many argue that this just isn’t cutting it anymore. One of the only ways to live prosperously on this income is to work, relentlessly, day in and day out. With many people living day-to-day and paycheck- to-paycheck, it is safe to say that the place minimum wage is right now is not working for most of the nation. With our developing economy, standards of living, unemployment rate, and debatable employee morale, it just seems right to increase the minimum wage.
Since the cost of living has gone up drastically, raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do to boost the economy, lift workers morale and productivity, and improve the self sufficiency of potentially millions of American workers. Raising the minimum wage is a vital step in decreasing poverty and giving every family the opportunity to survive and succeed. Even businesses agree raising the minimum wage would give many customers more money to spend in turn increasing sales and higher profits for the companies. Therefore, raising the minimum wage would help and not hurt the economy and it would give many Americans a better livelihood and a more secured life. In today’s society it is very expensive to live in American and even getting by daily is difficult if you are living on minimum wage. Therefore, anyone who thinks the minimum wage should not be raised should try living in
“Sorry, we are going to have to let you go.” Nobody wants to hear those words, yet it happens every day. There are about 7.9 million people are unemployed in this country (“United 1) and raising the minimum wage will cause even more to lose their jobs. This has been a popular topic for awhile and people seem to be in favor of raising the wage. They believe it will improve our economy and help the working class. The minimum wage was first established so that employers could not abuse employees, but that was in 1938 (Wilson 1). A lot has changed in 78 years including the laws on the subject. The low-skilled jobs are for teens and college students yet more and more people have to take these jobs. The issue should be creating better jobs
Articles and interviews inform the public that “raising the minimum wage will help the lower class” (Neumark). People that currently earn minimum wage want to increase the minimum wage level because it has been raised in the past; “the states have raised the minimum wage level 91 times since 1987”(Cap). Some lower level workers are also relying on food stamps to feed their families. The media says that raising minimum wage will increase job opportunities because people will be more willing to spend money if they earn more per hour. The protesters say that they cannot support their families with only minimum wage amount. They need more money to keep their family off the streets. Raising the minimum wage is not a bad thing to do, but raising it to $15.00 would have a dramatic effect on our economy where as “raising the minimum wage amount to around $10.00 would then have a less dramatic effect on the economy”
The federally mandated minimum wage has been a divisive political issue in American politics since it first came into effect in 1938 under the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR advocated for the minimum wage with the argument that “all but the hopelessly reactionary will agree that to conserve our primary resources of manpower, government must have some control over maximum hours, minimum wages, the evil of child labor, and the exploitation of unorganized labor” (Greene 2013). This idea led to the passage of the first minimum wage law in American history, twenty five cents an hour (Greene 2013). Prior to the passage of this law, several state minimum wage laws had been struck down as an unconstitutional prohibition of workers’ rights to set the price for their own labor. However, in 1941, the Supreme Court case U.S v Darby Lumber Co upheld the federal minimum wage, overturning the precedent it had set for state level minimum wages. The Court dismissed the argument that Darby Lumber did not engage in interstate commerce based on the commerce clause and stated that Congress had the constitutional right to regulate interstate commerce, along with intrastate commerce that directly affected interstate commerce (U.S v Darby Lumber Co.1941). Justice Stone, writing for the majority stated that Congress
The hard workers of the great state of California deserve a livable wage, but they won’t be receiving their living wage until 2016. Governor brown signed into law bill AB10 which will raise the minimum wage in California to $9.00 per hour beginning July 1, 2014, and then to $10.00 per hour beginning January 1,2016. The minimum-wage was adopted in California as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 during the Great Depression. Ever since then the minimum-wage has slowly been growing. According to The California department of industrial relations the California minimum wage has been steadily increasing since 1918. It has gone from .21 cents to 10 dollars an hour. Increasing the minimum-wage does many things; it stimulates the economy, allows people to live in better conditions, and helps level out the problem of income inequality. The minimum wage also helps in indirect ways. The raising of minimum wage achieves a domino effect, it allows for new job growth since people have more wants, it also helps to reduce crime, people that are able to pay their bills with what they have and don’t need to go and steal just to feed their families. It is commonsensical that the minimum wage be a living wage not a subpar amount that causes people to work double the amount just to make ends meet.
Minimum wage is the biggest debate that United States has to go through throughout the last century. But recently our leaders are having arguments on weather or not we should raise the minimum wage for hard working people. Oklahoma's Gov. Mary Fallin is having to the answer the question to raise the state's minimum wage higher than it is recently at with $7.25. There are many concerns that owners of businesses have about if the government is going to raise the minimum wage. As of 2014 Gov. Mary Fallin signed into a law a bill that would banned cities within Oklahoma from creating a mandatory minimum wage and employees benefits. The minimum wage issue is a microeconomics issue because it mainly effects a single individual of a household, a group of consumers, and businesses.
The minimum wage being too low has been a public issue in America for generations. Basically, the debate includes two different opinions. Firstly, people who want to raise the minimum wage, and second, people who would rather is stay the same. The overwhelming majority of liberals are on the side that favors a raise. Additionally, a somewhat smaller proportion of conservatives favor the change as well, but for different reasons. The liberal opinion on raising the minimum wage is based on the idea that putting more money in the people’s pockets, will stimulate the economy, and decrease poverty. The problem that conservatives and liberals alike have with this, is that a few direct consequences are proven to apply when raising wages. Some proposed consequences include unemployment, inflation, and unfairness to higher educated people. Another main point is that raising the minimum wage is thought to helps small business by increasing worker satisfaction. This issue of minimum wage has become increasingly popular and important in current times, as president Obama has proposed the idea of raising the minimum wage of contract workers to 10.10$ 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.
"Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty... so join the rest of the country. say yes. give America a raise" (President Barack Obama 2014). This quote depicts that not a single human being that works hard at their job should ever have to be poor. This idea among many was part of President Barack Obama's state of the Union Address for 2014, promoting while seeking, a year of change to all American citizens. As a citizen of the United States, one knows the economic hardships and unemployment rates increasing. There needs to be a stop to these inclines, especially towards the poor and those becoming more educated with college. This is why I, for one agree with President Obama on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Raising the minimum wage slightly from $8.25 to $10.10 (only $1.85 increase) will have a huge impact on Americans today and even future Americans. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour will aid millions researchers say, through the economic values of food prices, small businesses unemployment rates, college students coping with college debt, and the poor living in a state of poverty.
A while ago I was told by my parents that I got a call from (my now boss), Donald Makepeace, asking if I was still interested in a job. We played phone tag for the longest tag, but finally I was hired at the local Dairy Queen. My parents originally said that I was supposed to contribute some money to help pay for insurance, gas ,and ect. After, seeing how much money I brought back week after week, they ignored that request. The truth of the matter is, it’s hard to live on a minimum wage job. In fact, many individuals must have at least two jobs to keep the bills meet. So, President Obama is trying to get Congress to pass an increase in the minimum wage. However, Congress refuses to raise the minimum wage. I agree with Congress, that we should not raise the minimum wage because these jobs are mainly for high school students and more people wouldn’t be able to hire people.
On the 1st of April 1999, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) was introduced in the UK at a rate of £3.60 per hour for workers aged 21 and older, and at a rate of £3.00 for workers aged 18-21. Since then, it has grown steadily to reach a rate of £6.31 per hour today. The NMW is “the minimum pay per hour that almost all workers are entitled to by law” (www.gov.uk). In 1999, 1.9 million people were paid less than £3.60, sometimes even below the Living Wage due to the dismantling of unions by the Thatcher government. The idea of a minimum wage then came up, supported by the Labour Party, in order to reduce the increasing poverty and to prevent low wages workers from being exploited by their employers. The Conservative Party, supported by employers, was strongly opposed to this project, arguing that a minimum wage will damage the economy and create poverty due to higher unemployment levels. So, how does the NMW really affect poverty and employment in the UK?