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economic effects of raising minimum wage
debate over minimum wage
economic effects of raising minimum wage
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Life is a struggle and finding a job and paying your bills is not always easy in this world today. A major debate that has been an issue is whether there should be a law to raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage is the lowest hourly salary an employer can pay an employee for their work. According to Williams (2013), “The minimum wage was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938”. The first minimum wage was 25 cents per hour. Since then, the minimum wage has been increasing as the last increase of Florida's minimum wage was an increase of 14 cents on Jan. 1, 2014. This federal increase makes it 68 cents higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Gibson (2014) states “Obama, who last year called for an increase in the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour, now plans to rally public support behind a bill in the U.S. Senate that would gradually boost it to $10.10 over the next two years”. After researching this topic very thoroughly, I have found that raising the minimum wage does have its pros and cons. An increase in the minimum wage has many benefits for the people of the U.S. Increasing the minimum wage would advance the average living for many families already living under the poverty line. According to Jamieson (2011), “Jacking the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 would give a raise to 10 million workers”. A minimum amount of income is extensive for workers in order to survive and pay the necessary bills to live. A regular full-time job is working 40 hours per week and with getting paid as little as minimum wage per hour, an average person will make about $1000 per month after taxes and such are deducted. With such high prices of living, rent by itself can take almost the whole paycheck if not more. H... ... middle of paper ... ...types of positions, there are types of taxes withdrawn. Consequently, tax revenues for the country are condensed. If the minimum wage was eliminated, the revenues would go up. Moreover, with smaller quantity of jobs accessible for illegals, they will not be as motivated to come into the country to begin with. The minimum wage law has its advantages and disadvantages. In a sense it will help those less educated/skilled support their families and be able to afford the costs of life. The minimum wage keeps employees guaranteed to make the bare minimum. Without minimum wage, employers could put any price they wanted on labor. Nevertheless, minimum wage does hurt business owners and keeps there business from running effectively because they have a certain budget they must pay their employees. Like anything else, the minimum wage law has its benefits and difficulties.
The shockingly low minimum wage in America is borderline unethical. Since the minimum wage was established in 1938, there’s been controversy about how much it should be. It was originally set at an amount that would allow workers to maintain a minimal standard of living (30 Days). Since then, the minimum wage has been raised 22 times, but this hasn’t been enough to support the same goal. Not only has inflation made minimum wage worth significantly less, but the cost of living has gone up. Two thirds of American citizens support raising minimum wage again (Mantel, 76), but some still oppose it, saying it would hurt jobs and the economy. Although raising the federal minimum wage would most likely cause some jobs to be lost, it should be raised because of the positive effect it would have on poverty rates, the economy, and the individuals living on it.
While some may feel increasing wage will create additional financial issues, others feel that increasing minimum wage will give workers more money. 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. For example, by working thirty years with earning only minimum wage, some workers will benefit from increasing minimum wage. They can finally pay off old debts and loans since they will have more money in their pocket. Also, they will be able to pay bills on time and not have to pay a late fee. An increase in minimum wage will allow them to have additional money to buy items they need. Another way increasing minimum will help people is more independence ...
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.
One way raising minimum wage will be beneficial is that it could lift many Americans out of poverty. Raising the minimum wage in Illinois, would help the families of more than 1.1 million workers who work to meet their children’s basic needs and “reduce the adverse effects of poverty on a child’s well-being” (Fiscal Policy Center). Studies have shown that raising the minimum wage would help 1 in 5 Illinois families who are in poverty. By raising the minimum wage in Illinois, it would help workers with families spend money on food, housing, gas, and other needs without going into poverty. Along with puling Americans out of poverty, raising the minimum wage could also stimulate economic growth. Raising the minimum wage, is stimulating economic growth by worsening the income inequality and substantially reducing the employee turnover for the business. Increasing a person’s income would raise their yearly earnings by $3,640 and “Improve the economic security and reduce the economies poverty rate” (Fiscal Policy Center). Low-wage workers spend most of what they earn on their basic needs, which is quickly spent and does not leave the worker with much money left to spend on other needs. This boost in the minimum wage will stimulate the economy and help create opportunities for more people, by hiring more workers to keep up with the
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
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 ...
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.
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.
People argue to increase the minimum wage in order for them to have enough money for food, housing, and everyday essentials. Minimum wage is not intended for a single parent nor a single person to live off of as the only income. The actual reason of minimum wage being established was to ensure fair wages for work. These wages were set for people who could not obtain a higher paying job due to their skills. These people were usually ones with low intellectual capabilities, young people, or high schoolers. Most of the workers earning minimum wage now are young adults who only work part-time. The older workers earning minimum wage are, also, usually work part-time. They are working for additional money along with their salary from a full-time job. Along these lines, one is able to use minimum wage to aide with living expenses but not live solely off of that amount of
Articles and interviews inform the public that “raising the minimum wage will help the lower class” (Neumark). People that currently earn minimum wage want to increase the minimum wage level because it has been raised in the past; “the states have raised the minimum wage level 91 times since 1987”(Cap). Some lower level workers are also relying on food stamps to feed their families. The media says that raising minimum wage will increase job opportunities because people will be more willing to spend money if they earn more per hour. The protesters say that they cannot support their families with only minimum wage amount. They need more money to keep their family off the streets. Raising the minimum wage is not a bad thing to do, but raising it to $15.00 would have a dramatic effect on our economy where as “raising the minimum wage amount to around $10.00 would then have a less dramatic effect on the economy”
In conclusion, minimum wage workers need an increase in their incomes. They need more money to provide food, shelter, and other necessities for their family and themselves. Minimum wage should be increased because poverty will be reduced, it will be good for the economy, and provide more for families. Raising the minimum wage is also about reducing the inequality of it.
A minimum wage is an hourly wage that is established by the government which represents the minimum amount an individual receives per hour. The federal minimum wage was established in 1938 under the “Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt” (Henderson). Currently, majority of the states have their minimum wage less than $10. However, the federal government wants to increase the minimum wage to $12 across the United States. The federal government believes that increasing the minimum wage will assist numerous people in the United States as most individuals are working in a minimum wage job to support their families. About “75.3 million people ages sixteen and over worked for hourly wages in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics” (“Minimum Wage”). Meaning almost a quarter of the workforce of this nation are working a minimum wage job. Numerous people believe that these workers are not able to make their ends meet, and increasing the minimum wage will help these individuals substantially. Even though people believe that increasing the minimum wage will benefit the society, they tend to overlook the drawbacks of increasing the minimum wage, and how it will prove to be detrimental for the society.
In the 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and soon after signed an Executive Order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for the individuals working on new federal service contracts. An increase in the minimum wage has been a topic of discussion for many years now, and it looks like this year will finally see the first increase of minimum wage in 10 years. Not everyone agrees that there should be an increase, but many states have already raised their minimum wage rates because of the federal government’s inaction. Iowa raised the state’s wage, and it will rise again in 2016. Clearly there are benefits to a higher minimum wage; the current minimum wage in the United States should be raised because it helps the economy by increasing employment, and it is now at the lowest value it has been in more than 50 years, causing hardship for earners of minimum wage.
...se small businesses wouldn’t be able to afford to pay as many employees. By raising the minimum wage many teenagers and others who rely on these jobs as their only source of income could potentially be put out of a job. These people would no longer be able to afford the items they want or need. Businesses would have to raise the price of consumer goods to compensate for the higher cost of employees. Businesses could potentially lose customers that have been put out of a job and are unable to afford the company’s services. Raising the minimum wage would have a domino effect on the economy leading from one negative thing to the next.