Meaning that a raise would be extremely important and life changing for many. Even though 15 million does not seem like a lot compared to the 318.9 million people that live in the United States, there would still be a dramatic difference for all of these workers living off of a lot less. However, not everyone working makes minimum wage, but some make close to it. Even if some people do make a little more than $7.25 an hour, they are probably still living similarly to the others that do. Increasing the minimum amount being paid by a minimal amount, would not support these individuals enough to make a difference. President Obama addressed this issue again, one year later and made the point, that not only would people working in fast food, retail, …show more content…
By adjusting every employees pay to $9.00 or even $10.10 an hour, could cause businesses to shut down, for the simple fact that they cannot afford to pay their employees bare minimum. Large companies such as, Walmart, Target, McDonald’s, etc, could easily pay their employees higher. But, smaller family owned businesses may have a more difficult time finding the money to support all their workers. Research has shown that, thousands, if not millions of job opportunities may be taken away because of the burden of a possible raise in pay. Which may be a possibility of why it has yet to …show more content…
For many, this much of an increase in pay, could result in job loss because of the lack of money the business is bringing in, comparing to the amount needed to pay the employees. Meaning that, raising minimum wage does not all come with positive effects. Some businesses would more than likely shut down because they are unable to continue paying their employees what is now required, this means costing people there jobs. Increasing minimum wage may have a negative effect because by raising the base pay for a lot of people, would help them tremendously. But, some may not be as lucky and it could cost them their
Well, raising the minimum wage has both the pros and cons. Still, the fact that increasing the minimum wage nationwide would increase millions of workers’ earnings is deniable. I suppose that’s why some people advocate raising the minimum wage will grow the economy for everyone. In 2014, the president of the United States, Obama, called on the current Congress to raise the national minimum wage, which proves that Obama actually supports raising the minimum wage. ‘February 2014 Congressional Budget Office Report The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income is the latest attempt to do so, in this response to Members of Congress with respect to an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour.’
Many people who are against the raising are being paid a good amount of money and have no idea how life is being born in a poor family and then bearing another child into poverty. This is stressful for them already and the least we can do for these people is to raise the wage so they can live an easier life. The myths have been debunked involving the rise, and now we can get to
In the 2013 State of the Union, President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $9.00 by 2015. This has caused arguments between the rich, small businesses, minimum wage workers, and the unemployed because it affects each of them differently. Obama’s plan is to bind the minimum wage to the cost of living, which ensures that minimum wage goes up with inflation. In general, this benefits minimum wage workers by improving their standard of living.
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 ...
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,
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
America is currently working on the issue of whether the minimum wage should be increased from $7.25 to $10.10 and economists are studying the effects of the possible increase. Minimum wage workers deal with struggles such as affording health care, paying for education, providing food for their families, putting many hours of work in while making little income and paying their bills. America’s decision to raise the minimum wage would help low wage workers to make higher incomes and would overall strengthen the economy, pulling Americans out of poverty. Americans may hold a minimum wage job if they do not have money to attend a college or university to obtain a degree in order to find a career.
It is very difficult to live in America if you are living off of minimum wage, and many Americans are living off of it today. Raising minimum wages has its benefits like gaining more money to live better, but people do not see the down side of the increases in wages. With the increase in minimum wage, it also causes the cost of living to increase. How can this help the economy or help people? Minimum wages in America should not be increased because it will cause cost of living to increase, reduce employment, and cause businesses to lose money and workers.
Today the federal minimum wage is $5.15, but should be about $8.50 if Congress had adjusted it for inflation over the past 35 years. While $5.15 may not seen that bad, when factoring in such variables as sky rocketing gas prices, budgets can get pretty tight. David Shepard, a sophomore at Wayne State University, worked at a Meijer Retail and Grocery Superstore for over two years while in high school. At the time Shepard lived with his parents and didn’t have to worry about paying rent or buying groceries, all that he had to pay for was filling up his gas tank and paying for his car insurance. Shepard recalled, “It was all I could do to pay for the basics like gas and bill’s, I barely had any money to have fun on the weekends”. This is only an example of a high school student that can nearly slip by on minimum wage with only a few expenses. There are 1.8 million people in America with children under the age of 18 that would benefit from an increase in minimum wage (Minimum).
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.
Furthermore, while Janice Steele says “A 2014 report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the minimum wage were raised $1.75 more than 100,000 jobs.” This is a small amount of jobs compared to the amount of people’s lives that improve. As seen in Ira Knights research “A 2014 study from the Center for America showing that 3.5 million people would be able to get off of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” Hence, from just a minimum wage increase a large number of lives have been improved from such a small change.
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
The discussion of raising minimum wage to $15 an hour is a very big topic. Some people think it should be raised so they can try to live off of it. Raising minimum wage would help some areas in the U.S., but it will also hurt other areas that are smaller and do not have as high of a price of living. It could very seriously hurt the nation's economy. In some states a raise could help, but raising the federal minimum wage would be a very bad thing. Minimum wage should not be raised to $15.00 dollars an hour because it is not meant to be a living wage; if there is a raise to minimum wage, then there would be an increase in the cost of goods as well as a raise in the unemployment rate.
The living wage is more and more being called a movement because the current federal minimum wage laws does not provide enough money for an individual that works a full time job to be able to support a family. Making them feel like they should not have to raise a family in poverty. Across the United States there are efforts to provide what is called living wages for workers which began with requiring all employers to pay at least the minimum wage to its workers that is equal to the living wage for the area (City/State) they are working in. The current minimum wage is set, depending on where you are living it can be up to several dollars short of what should be the living wage. The living wage movement is very active in full force forward
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.