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 current U.S. federal minimum wage for untipped workers is currently $7.25 an hour, as it has been since 2009. At this rate, a full time employee would earn an annual salary of $15,080, meaning that a family of two people, for example a single working mother with one child, working a full time minimum wage job, would sit below the federal poverty line of $15,730 for two people (2014 Poverty Guidelines). While it is true that there are tax breaks such as those for children, and the Earned Income Tax that exist to help such people living in poverty, the fact exists that the wages in the US have not kept up with inflation and the cost of living. While the value of the federal minimum wage has risen 21% since 1990, the cost of living itself has risen 67% (Gilson). Opponents are quick to argue that only unskilled workers are paid minimum wag...
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
In “Why raising the minimum wage is good economics”, John Komlos uses his knowledge and experience in the field of economics to explain why Congress should raise the federal minimum wage. He makes his case by comparing low-wage workers to Russian serfs and relating the hardships of the working poor. According to Komlos, a person working full-time at a minimum wage job makes about $12,000 a year after taxes, just above the poverty line for a single person. He also points out that America’s federal minimum wage is well below that of other industrialized countries.
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.
Raising the minimum wage will have a positive effect on business. An abundant amount of companies believe that increasing the minimum wage would decrease gender inequality in the work area. As supported by Jason Furman, ("Minimum Wage - ProCon.org."), “ [it] is one of the important [reasons]... for inequality at the bottom.” Another reason it would aid business is that it will decrease turnover and increase productivity in the workarea. Researches have concluded that increasing the minimum wage will make employees work harder to keep their job. For example, in the fashion industry, if workers were paid more, it would result in a faster increase in production. Right now fashion is changing at a rate faster than what the companies can provide. By increasing the minimum wage, it would help companies to keep up with the fast pace
Americans are not wrong in thinking that increasing the minimum wage will increase low-wage working families’ incomes, and some of these families will rise above the national poverty threshold. While increasing the minimum wage might benefit some American families, it will hurt others. Increasing the minimum wage will eliminate many low wage jobs, which would then result in many people jobless and therefore, a substantial drop in those individuals’ household incomes (“The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income”). . “Raising the country’s minimum wage could boost the incomes of millions of Americans, but it could also potentially cut total employment by hundreds of thousands of workers” (Kurtzleben). An increase in the minimum wage lowers employment, which makes it harder for these workers with minimal skills to find a job. Congress then explains that low income families will actually not bring in any benefits from an increase of the minimum wage (“Would an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage Help or Hinder Small Business” 2-3). While increasing the minimum wage might raise the standards of living for some low wage workers and families, if the increase in minimum wage reduces employment rates, there is no certain answer on what
"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.
The United States is home to nearly 317 million people to this date, with nearly 50 percent of them working on minimum wage jobs. That’s a lot of people working long hours every day for jobs that do not or barely pay them enough to feed themselves and their families. However, the rise of minimum wage would make plenty of jobs. The current unemployment rate in the U.S is 6.7 percent; the lowest it has been since president Obama took office. Most of this 6.7 percent is made up of teenagers and the middle aged who are looking for a second job to support their families. This is a demographic that would not settle for 7.50 an hour, even for part-time jobs, and the small pay discourages other groups of new workers to stay away from those jobs. Some of thes...
Another argument for raising the minimum wage is that it would provide a “living wage”. The problem with this argument is that employers are willing to pay their workers for their production or the perceived value of productivity. Minimum wage jobs were never meant to be careers and in fact are mostly viewed as entry-level jobs. Minimum wage jobs were never meant for professors or doctors. Instead, they are meant to help low-skilled workers gain experience and job
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 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 ...
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.
There are so many benefits to be had with a higher minimum wage. Not only does it affect the one receiving it, but the community and government as a whole. The government should increase the minimum wage because the current minimum wage is not enough for living expenses, it helps to reduce the number of those on government assistance, and it would help boost the economy. Doing so gives those earning minimum wage not only the ability to support themselves and their loved ones, as well as allowing them the dignity in doing so.
On the other side of the argument Americans believe that with the increase of minimum wages it would help Americans out a lot more. One possible way that the increase in minimum wage may help an individual out is in the article Minimum wage Pros and Cons, “The Economic Policy Institute stated that a minimum wage increase from the current rate of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 would inject $22.1 billion net into the economy and create about 85,000 new jobs over a three-year phase-in period. Though this may be true, one problem