The Minimum Wage Must Be Increased

1491 Words3 Pages

“Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. … And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.” –President Obama, State of the Union address, Jan. 20, 2014 In the 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and soon after signed an Executive Order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for the individuals working on new federal service contracts. An increase in the minimum wage has been a topic of discussion for many years now, and it looks like this year will finally see the first increase of minimum wage in 10 years. Not everyone agrees that there should be an increase, but many states have already raised their minimum wage rates because of the federal government’s inaction. Iowa raised the state’s wage, and it will rise again in 2016. Clearly there are benefits to a higher minimum wage; the current minimum wage in the United States should be raised because it helps the economy by increasing employment, and it is now at the lowest value it has been in more than 50 years, causing hardship for earners of minimum wage. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country...” -- President Franklin Roosevelt Works Cited Batra, Ravi. Greenspan's Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Bernstein, Jared. “Would Raising the Minimum Wage Harm the Economy?” The CQ Researcher 16 Dec. 2005:1069. Chasanov, Amy. “No Longer Getting By.” 11 May 2004. Economic Policy Institute. 6 May 2007. . Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2001. Katel, Peter. “Minimum Wage.” The CQ Researcher 16 Dec. 2005: 1055-1072. The Value of the Minimum Wage. Economic Policy Institute.6 May 2007. .

Show More
Related

  • Appropriate Humor in Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001. Print.

    Read More

  • Barbara Ehrenreich's Research and Economic Findings in Nickel and Dimed

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ehrenreich, B. (2011). Nicke and dimed: On (not) getting by in america. New York, NY: Picador.

    Read More

  • Nickel And Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America By Barbara Ehrenreich

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, takes on an experiment where she leaves her job as a highly acclaimed writer and decides to become part of the working class in order to better understand them and their continuous strains and worries. Throughout the novel, the author cleverly utilizes statistical data, her own personal experiences and the previously untold experiences of others to bring to light the harsh reality facing many Americans who, despite their daily hard work and effort, are shockingly close to poverty.

    Read More

  • Nickel And Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, worked at minimum wage paying jobs and reported the hardships that people had to go through on a day-to-day basis. A critic responded by saying, “This is simply the case of an academic who is forced to get a real job.” Ehrenriech’s reasoning for joining the working-class is to report why people who must be on welfare, continue to stay on welfare. Her reports show there are many hardships that go along with minimum wage jobs, in the areas of drug abuse, fatigue, the idea of invisibility, education and the American Dream. A big disadvantage that the lower class has compared to the wealthy is a lack of quality education.

    Read More

  • Comparison of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story of “Winter Dreams” was written around the same time that Fitzgerald was developing ideas for a story to turn into a novel. While The Great Gatsby wasn’t published until 1925, “Winter Dreams” débuted in 1922 and the similarities between the novel and short story were done on purpose. “Winter Dreams” became a short draft which Fitzgerald paralleled The Great Gatsby after, but also differentiated the two in specific ways (“Winter Dreams” 217). The main characters are both men, Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green, who desire for the American dream, not necessarily for themselves, but in order to lure back the women they idealize. In The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s constant theme is shown through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green, both similar in the way they pursue the American dream of wealth and social status in order to try and win back the women they love, but also different in specific ways.

    Read More

  • Nickel And Dimed Reflection

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ehrenreich, Barbara (2001). Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America. Published- New York, New York.

    Read More

  • Raise the Minimum Wage

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    This article gives you a yes and no opinion on whether or not the F...

    Read More

  • School Lunches Are Unhealthy

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.

    Read More

  • The Minimum Wage Must be Raised

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    "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

    Read More

  • Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America by Ehrenreich

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America by Ehrenreich. In the book Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America, the author Ehrenreich, goes under cover as a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich’s primary reason for seriously getting low paying jobs is to see if she can “match income to expenses as the truly poor attempt to do everyday. ”(Ehrenreich 6)

    Read More

  • Essay On School Lunches In America

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    We have definitely improved school lunches in America, however they still leave something to be desired. This is something that seems so simple to fix, but why is this problem so prevalent in our society? Mark Bittman explores this issue in an article “Serving up School Lunches of Tomorrow.” Bittman builds credibility by “joining forces with researchers from the Department of Agriculture and the University of California, Berkley’s School of Public Health to evaluate a program to increase school lunch participation, improve nutrition, reduce waste, and ultimately counter tendencies towards obesity.”(Bittman par1) And what they are doing to improve school lunches for their students. This article makes the claim that America needs to make an effort to make school lunches healthier and a lot more accessible for all of its students.

    Read More

  • The Minimum Wage Should Be Increased

    1846 Words  | 4 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity

    1422 Words  | 3 Pages

    The lack of health standards for lunches and other foods in schools are a leading cause of obesity in children. According to studies, children who eat school lunches consume forty more calories each day compared to those who bring their own lunches (Schanzenbach 703). Elizabeth Jackson, a medical doctor at the University of Michigan Health System, reported that children who eat school lunches are over two times more likely to eat fattier foods and more sugary drinks (“Children”). In the past decades, the government has attempted to develop effective lunch programs that limit the intake of unhealthy foods that children eat. The 1995 policy, “School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children,” required school lunches to meet one-third of the recommended number of calories, protein, and certain vitamins and minerals (Schanzenbach 686). Although this policy has been put into place, the government has not enforced it well enough. According to a recent study, only six percent of U.S. schoo...

    Read More

  • Globalization and Diversity in the Workplace

    667 Words  | 2 Pages

    Diversity is a highly important issue in today’s business, especially in a globalized company. Workplace diversity helps to get better solutions to business problems (Schawbel, 2012). When you have a group of individ...

    Read More

  • The Similarities Between The Old Media And The New Media

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Newspapers have been around since the early 18th century, gaining prominence after 1790 during the colonial era. Magazines followed right behind newspapers and gained popularity as well, television followed last, booming with popularity in the 1960’s. Television is still the most often used source for news and other information such as the weather. But new forms of mass media are on the rise, such as channels, blogs and podcasts, which have been around since the early 2000’s but are now picking up momentum and gaining prominence as a news source. There are similarities as well as differences between the old media and the new media, and while the new media is more modern and accessible it does not have to push old media out of the picture, the two can be combined for the benefit of the consumers and

    Read More

More about The Minimum Wage Must Be Increased

Open Document