Effects of Increasing Minimum Wage

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The idea of having a federal minimum wage is a good one. The idea is to protect low and unskilled workers from discrimination and allow all workers to earn a living wage. The recent debate on the floor, though, is whether or not to raise the minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour up to $10.10 per hour. President Barack Obama made this proposal during his annual State of the Union Address on January 28, and following this there were many hot debates about it. The debates focused not only on the advantages and the disadvantages of increasing the minimum wage, but also the alternatives to increasing it. There are many advantages to increasing the minimum wage, most of which are simple enough to understand, and make someone think that there is no reason not to increase the minimum wage. The first, and most important, benefit of increasing the minimum wage is that most workers would be able to work to earn a living wage, a wage that is high enough that workers are able to maintain a normal standard of living. This is very important, because more people being able to maintain a normal standard of living means that there are less people living at or below the poverty line. Going off that point, increasing the minimum wage, thus raising the number of workers able to earn a living wage, will reduce the need for social programs, such as unemployment, welfare, SNAP, etc., because there will be fewer people living at or below the poverty line that qualify for these programs. Next in line is that a higher minimum wage will increase workers incentive to work, and also increase the incentive of the population not in the labor force to join the labor force and seek jobs. Adding more people to the labor force means that firms have a bigger ... ... middle of paper ... ...or a Higher Minimum Wage." The New York Times 8 Feb. 2014: SR10. Print. Henderson, David R.. "Most of the Benefits of a Minimum Wage Increase Would Not Go to Poor Households." Most of the Benefits of a Minimum Wage Increase Would Not Go to Poor Households. National Center for Policy Analysis, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. . "Minimum Wage Laws in the States - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S. Department of Labor." Minimum Wage Laws in the States - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S. Department of Labor. Department of Labor, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . Barro, Josh. "A Smarter Alternative to Raising the Minimum Wage." BloombergView.com. Bloomberg LP, 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .

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