Minimum Wage 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. Raising the minimum wage is a temporary fix to a long term problem. The direct problem at stake is not the minimum wage itself, it’s really the incom... ... middle of paper ... ...age gap, aiming for the easy way out is just not the right way of doing this. It’s not the American way of doing things. America was built upon principles of awarding the successful and working for wealth, not upon borderline socialism. The power to keep America’s economy strong is in the hands of the citizens, and should not be given up for a raise in minimum wage. If our federal minimum wages are in fact increased to what Obama wants the to be, (10.10$/hr.) then we as a country will experience inflation, stagnant increases in unemployment, loss of small business, increase in illegal immigration, and with little to gain. However, if we can push through to not increase the minimum wage, or even abolish it, America will continue to grow on it’s own and improve. The minimum wage is not something to fall back on, it’s something to spring forward from, a stepping stone.
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 ...
These are just a few of the many awful effects that raising the minimum wage brings. When workers hear a raise in the minimum wage, all they think about is a bigger paycheck and not what will happen to low-skilled workers, the cost of living, and the added stress to unemployment rates. New workers with less skills will have a harder time finding a job. The cost of living is going to hike due to inflation. Unemployment rates will rise due to added stress on businesses. An increase in the minimum wage is great news to a high schooler saving up to buy a new phone, but terrible news to someone trying to raise a family. If the minimum wage continues to increase, these problems will get worse instead of
"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.
Minimum wage has been around for ages. Minimum wage employment was a temporary condition for people earning little payment until they moved on to a better paying job. These jobs helped build résumés, experiences, and skills for a better career. It has become the easiest way for people to receive easy pay. As years went on that idea began to demolish into a job that many families can get to survive and pay for their expenses. There have been many arguments going on, "Should minimum wage be raised or should it be lowered or eliminated altogether?" This action has its pros and cons. It can benefit many families as living cost has gone up, price for education is rising, and college students are in huge debts. It may increase poverty, but those
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.
For many people in the United States, life is no more than a regular work cycle. Members of working class usually have a High School diploma and may work in a low skilled occupation or manual labor. Most of the enjoying age of this people is spent in working, as they don’t want their new once to have a life they struggling through. Therefore, this essay will argue that minimum wage should be increased federally to $15/hour by 2017. Firstly, if taxes touches the sky, why should the minimum wage be on the ground? Increasing minimum wages would also create new opportunities for education as the students wouldn’t have to work crazy hours. Likewise, many couples won’t have to work multiple jobs in order to manage the household. Lastly, it will lift
(See Fortune) In his party, advocacy for any increase in the minimum is tantamount to heresy—like admitting to global warming—and should not even be considered as an option in as much as market forces can be trusted to determine wages, not the government in the marketplace. But Dr. Carson dared to go a step farther by proposing that the minimum wage should be indexed to account for inflation. Increases the minimum wage should be automatic so that they cannot be politicized; in which case we would never have this conversation again. The proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour languishes in Congress. However, a number of states have already committed to raising it to $15 an hour. Even some private companies have taken the initiative to increase the minimum wage on their own despite almost universal opposition to it by congressional Republicans. (See The Gazaette) How times have changed! The minimum wage, like maintaining and upgrading the infrastructure, used to be bipartisan
In this article Rex Huppke gives the argument against raising minimum wage. Huppke refers to raising minimum wage as “ like chipping away at a problem with a hammer when more precise tools are at hand.” The goal of minimum wage is to gain experience, education, and skills while first entering the workforce. The goal after that is to move up to a better paying job with the experience education, and knowledge learned. Allan Sanderson, a senior lecturer in the University of Chicago’s Department of Economics states that he would rather people have skills and improve on them. Sanderson and other economist and public policy experts are afraid of how bad the several consequences of raising minimum
When Congress created minimum wage I don’t think they were thinking in the long run. Minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate any person can make and if they receive tips it can be even less. Currently in Florida the minimum wage is $8.10 per hour and when you narrow that down, you can barely make it anywhere making $8.10 for every hour you work in a day. Education is needed in order to make a decent living but even then education is expensive and depending on what you. Not only that if you don’t get a good enough job making enough to live and pay the student loans back it almost seems like it is a waste of time.
Facts, do support the fact minimum wage should stay where they’re at because high school students are the largest portion of minimum wage. In fact, Drew Desilver states that 50.6% of the current minimum wage job employees are between 16-24 years old (par. 7). Knowing that the majority of these workers are teenagers that probably won’t keep these jobs forever makes me want to keep it as it is. Anthony Davis and James R. Harrigan from US News describes the situation being that a small portion of workers earns the minimum wage . They continue to say that the majority of these people lacks education (par. 4). So if we raised the minimum wage it would encourage many people to not further their education. Because of a minimum wage increase employers would struggle to keep their businesses open and hire people.
“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
Growing up my mom had always worked minimum wage jobs, so whenever the topic came up on how much the minimum wage should be, i would take it personally. This is what lead me on my journey of research on the topic. Even though i might have had my opinion already on the subject i never really found myself doing the research that should have followed. I started out looking for some articles on a reliable website. I was then presented with a huge amount of articles and the names were a bit blunt. I personally wanted to keep and open mind about this so i
It is well known that each year, the value of the United States currency has decreased and the price of goods has increased. This inverse relationship is what leaves many families across the United States struggling to provide for themselves with the inability to afford basic needs to live a sufficient lifestyle. There is a rate of inflation every year meaning prices go up on goods and dollar value goes down, but people working entry level jobs living on minimum wage have received the same pay for the past 7 years. With minimum wage being $7.25 since 2009, there are many families that find themselves struggling to provide. Each year that the federal minimum wage rate remains the same, prices continue to rise and the hardships for the less fortunate
For the past three decades minimum wage has been seen to rise several times. Only helping some but more than anything harming most. So who are the ones feeling the effects? Certainly not the wealthy, it never is them, mainly it would be the working poor, unskilled and teenagers. Raising minimum wage would cripple the public even more than what it would actually help.
Coming from a rural area, people complain about wages and how minimum wages need to increase. Instead of people complaining they need to work and achieve an education to receive a higher minimum wage. Johnathon Trugman is a journalist for the New York Post and he wrote, “Raising minimum wage would cost a million people their jobs” which was pros and cons of raising the minimum wage. “The minimum wage is by design an entry-level wage; it is not supposed to be permanent, and it is not supposed to be enough on which to raise a family” ( Trugman, 2015). Higher education allows people opportunities. The people who put in time and effort should be receiving a higher wages. Higher education is expensive and time-consuming. So, there should be a paid difference between the wages. People often overlook higher education because it takes to much time and money, but higher education is working for jobs which have a better salary pay. It is hard to justify people who are working at a fast food restaurant are getting paid the same as a doctor. Instead of increasing the minimum wage there should be more of a value on higher education. It does takes time and money, but the end result is rewarding. By not making the minimum wage higher and helping the people get the skills and education they will be financially better