Minimun Wage and Poverty in the United States

"President Obama's call to raise the federal minimum wage could help lift 900,000 workers out of poverty, but at a cost of as many as 500,000 jobs" (Davis). Research has shown that raising the minimum wage will help those who keep their jobs greatly, but at a huge cost of loosing half a million jobs. This will cause more people to become dependent upon the government to provide for their daily needs. Since the government is already severely in debt, this is the last thing we need as a country. More citizens will resort to crime to provide for their families in times of great need.

The national minimum wage in the United States is $7.25. Employees and lawmakers feel that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 will help boost the economy. The increase of minimum wage will bring people out of poverty and will be able to stimulate the economy by buying more items. This will help the nation pay back more debt and bring in more revenue for the country. Besides a positive effect with the nation as a whole, it will help workers financially.

Non-supporters feel that raising the minimum wage will create many job losses. According to Economic Policy Institute, “Across the phase-in period of the increase, GDP would grow by about $22 billion, resulting in the creation of roughly 85,000 net new jobs over that period.”(David Cooper). If a family owned business has to raise the wage rate they pay, it is possible they will not hire as many people as they usually do. Businesses across the nation would be impacted by raising the minimum wage. According to the CNBC, “The great division among businesses and economists over the impact of raising... ... middle of paper ... .... "Raising Minimum Wage Will Hurt More than Help."

Government should not only increase the price of the goods and services but it should focus on how to balance the economy equally, that is either increasing the price for everything including the minimum wages or decreasing the prices of everything. As seen in past few years, the prices for everything has gone up except the minimum wage, so, now it’s time to raise the minimum wage for the people of the country to increase the standard of their life.

In the article “How Can the Poor Be Helped?” They talked about raising minimum wage, and how important it will be for many people who are in poverty, and how it can reduce this number. By raising minimum wage, this would cause more people to work and companies to get plenty of business because people would have more money to spend on supplies now. This process will create more job opportunity, and will help the economy. “Raising minimum wage will help women - and the economy,” helps us get a better view of how minimum wage can and will help the economy as well as single women. “Other economists have gone further, concluding that a wage increase would stimulate the economy”.

President Obama has approved a plan to increase the Federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016. There are those that believe raising the minimum wage will benefit low wage earners and boost their families over the federal poverty line. However, others believe that it will negatively affect the same group of people it is proposed to help. Many believe unemployment will increase due to less job opportunities and employees being let go, and businesses will be put in danger. Small businesses will be in more danger than large business will be.

Furthermore, the more people spend, the better the economy so raising the minimum wage will boost our economy. And finally, raising the minimum wage will reduce the gab between the rich and the poor, which is also an issue in our nation. In America, the average salary of a middle class ranges from about $34,000 to about $64,000 per year. Raising the minimum wage will add more money to the middle class who work very hard but just for a little pay. If worker earn more money they will meet their family needs.

There are a couple explanations making a connection between increasing the minimum wage will create job opportunities in the united states. The key is that “poor and middle class families tend to spend more of their income than the wealthy, since they 're often struggling to meet basic needs” (Jordan Weissmann n.pag). So by taking money from businesses and giving it to their worst paid employees, raising the minimum wage might, in theory, increase consumer spending,which in turn boosts the economy and creates more jobs opportunities. According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour “should increase wages by $35 billion and boost economic activity by $22 billion—which by their account is enough to create those 85,000 jobs” (Jordan Weissmann

The problem is increasing numbers of workers and their families live in poverty.Which Pathe stated “with a higher wage, and these compensatory measures in place, employment won’t decline, but it will grow more slowly because of decreased sale volume, at least for the first few years the new wage is implemented” (Pathe). A better way of raising the minimum wage without killing jobs is they could cut wages for higher-paid workers. Which would help the low wage workers at the expense of better paid workers. Also companies can raise their prices in response. when increasing the minimum wage with businesses it boost consumer demand, growing our economy and helping communities thrive.Bernstein argues that “It estimates that the increase in the wage would reduce employment by about 500,000, and 8 million low wage workers would be benefited from the change” (Bernstein).

Raising The Minimum Wage There has always been controversy about raising or lowering the minimum wage. The minimum wage should be raised. Raising the minimum wage has the benefits of raising family incomes, may get the economy back on track and allows families to pay their debts; however lowering the minimum wage has a downside, because families don't have enough money, it has not kept pace with cost of living and families earning minimum wage still need government assistance to survive. The first benefit of raising the minimum wage is that it will raise family incomes. Raising the minimum wage will really help many families financially (Averback 1).