Introduction This report is an economic overview of the United States minimum wage. It’s presented in three perspectives on how consumers, corporations and the community are affected by new minimum wage laws. The purpose of this report is to provide imperative information that examines how an increase in minimum wage attributes to multiple effects. This report will also explain the advantages and disadvantages that many people face when the government intervenes to pass a new minimum wage law in the United States. This report focuses on the state of California and it emphasises on the city of San Jose. This report incorporates how the city of San Jose was affected by Measure D. a new minimum wage that was imposed in the beginning of the year. Towards the end of this report, recommendations are given to better the problems of minimum wage. Minimum wage is a government-enforced law in the labor market that does not allow employers to pay their employees below a certain wage. It is also known as the wage a worker is willing to sell their labor in return a good hourly wage. Minimum wages guard employees from being exploited and underpaid. These laws are set and regulated by the federal and state governments. Minimum wage was set in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 by President Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2011 the United States minimum wage was set by the federal government at $7.25. Each state is allowed to set their minimum wage laws according to living cost and other factors, as long as the wage is never below the federal minimum wage. For the state of California, the federal state minimum wage is at $8.00 an hour. According to Bernstein (2013) she states “California has become ... ... middle of paper ... ...a surplus of labors (Mankiw Ch.6). Many people in San Jose now find it harder to find a job because not many positions are available. These positions are no longer available because employers are not willing to lose profit. Economist Henry Hazlitt, believes that the government tries to stabilize commodities by trying to help the low income and unskilled workers by adjusting minimum wage laws. Hazlitt states “[t]he government attempts to help [a] large number of workers […], and the more it attempts to raise their wages, the more […] harmful it is […] to exceed any possible good effects” (Hazlitt 2010). This means that the government tries to make a better living for everyone but in the end, it ends up hurting workers who are no longer worth the minimum wage pay. This hurts the community because less jobs are available to people trying to get a better paying job.
“Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 impassioned speech calling on Congress to help the one-third of Americans who were “ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished” heralded in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and with it a national minimum wage. Echoes of that speech are still heard today. Senator Edward Kennedy (1989: S14707), in his criticism of the most recent increases in the minimum wage, declared:
Understanding the basic concept of minimum wage is important for every single individual. We all live in this world together and it is obvious that there is an order. In order to continue our lives and afford our basic needs, we all need to work and gain wealth. As the old adage says ‘‘There ain’t a such a thing as a free lunch.’’ We need to give up on something that we like to get something else that we like. That’s why, every single individual in the society face trade-offs. However, people have different status. Some people work as employees and some work as employers. In that case of minimum wage the trade off is between employees and employers. Employees work for employers in order to gain money and afford their minimal living expenses whereas employers give up on their money and pay for employees because employers take care of their need of labor. Employers pay for their workers who we call employees and employees gain hourly money. The calculated minimum money that they gain in an hour base called minimum wages. Besides, there is this cycle that everyone actually works
Not everyone can go to college and get a high paying job. Sometimes people end up having families early and have to start working immediately. Most jobs that are available to anyone are minimum wage jobs. When people are struggling to make ends meet sometimes they’ll end up doing things that are illegal just to survive. People start stealing if they become desperate for food, especially if they have children to feed. This leads to business losing money and stock. People can also start selling drugs or sex for money. This increases crime rates and makes neighborhoods become bad places to live. If minimum wage was raised people would be more likely to take legal jobs and stay out of illegal activity.
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
What is minimum wage? Minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate (dollars per hour) that employers can pay their employees. According to minimumwage.com Minnesota’s minnimum wage is $7.25 per hour but will be getting raised to $9.00 per hour. Minnesota’s minimum wage is a common rate among many states such as Texas, South Dakota, and Iowa. Oregon and Washington are states that currently have their minimum wage rate set at or above $9.00 per hour. For both of these states, raising minimum wage has not necessarily decreased the poverty line. Both Oregon and Washington are still among the top 20 states for high poverty rates while New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate and also has minimum wage set at $7.25 per hour.
Minimum wage is a difficult number to decide on because it affects different income earning citizens in different ways. According to Principles of Microeconomics, by N. Gregory Mankiw, minimum wage is a law that establishes the lowest price for labor that and employer may pay (Mankiw 6-1b). Currently, the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour. For many years politicians and citizens have argued on what should be the minimum wage that would benefit the economy and society in general. A minimum wage was first established in 1938 to increase the standard of living of lower class workers. To discuss what is better for the country and its citizens, people have to understand what is a minimum wage and what are its effects.
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.
Minimum wage was established state wide in 1938 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt; at that time it was only 25 cents which is equivalent to 4 dollars in today’s world. It was established as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act which covered youth, government and overtime pay. Massachusetts was actually the first state before Franklin’s statewide acknowledgement, and it only covered woman and children without overtime. There are lot of issues with minimum wage now such as setting a statewide minimum wage to $10.10, which does not benefit places were living is expensive such as in New York. It leads to an imbalance in different states’ economies, and the government setting price controls in wage has some issues.
On April 4, 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that would significantly raise the minimum wage for California workers. By 2022, California 's workers will receive a minimum wage of $15 per hour (Kurzweil, Anthony, Sara Welch, and Kareen Wynter). Brown signed this bill because employees cannot live above the poverty line if their minimum wage is not proportional to the cost of living (Scheiber, Noam, and Ian Lovett). The purpose of the minimum wage is to ensure that workers can provide essential amenities for themselves and their families. Many economists have been in a debate about this topic with mixed feelings, whether increasing the minimum wage would be a reasonable legislation or not. For most average American workers, at first, the idea of raising their salaries might make them feel thrilled and optimistic. However, increasing the minimum wage will have its pros and cons effect on the economy. Despite numerous of arguments from both sides, a compromise can be met regarding minimum wage.
The United States hasn't always had a minimum wage. Before the minimum wage was introduced during the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was no national minimum wage, or indeed any legislation to protect workers from exploitation. Due to this lack of regulation, tens of thousands of workers were routinely subjugated in sweatshops and factories, forced to work in horrible conditions, and for only pennies a week. Early attempts by labor unions to create a mandatory minimum wage were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that they “restricted the worker's right to set the price for his own labor.” This allowed employers to continue abusing their workers through the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the incredible demand for jobs caused wages to drop even further to an all-time low.
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,
The definition of Minimum Wage is “an amount of money that is the least amount of money per hour that workers must be paid according to the law” (Minimum wage). Minimum wage, like other laws, are used to keep the economy in line. Minimum wage laws were invented in Australia and New Zealand with the purpose of guaranteeing a minimum standard of living for unskilled workers. (Linda Gorman) Minimum wage puts a price on the services one offers. Many different principles can be used to explain Minimum wage and explore the different aspects of it. Including what minimum wage does for our economy and the current status of it.
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
Having minimum wage causes many people to become jobless all so a certain amount of people could live comfortably. Cooper believes that today’s workers are “stuck in jobs that pay so little they struggle to afford basic necessities.” Yes, some people may have trouble affording basic necessities, but at least they have some money that will help them out even if it’s just a little. A low paying job can make a difference between having nothing to eat at all or three small meals every day. If minimum wage increases, than the lives of many people would become even more difficult, and unbearable. A job that pays a little money is better than no job at all.
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?