Minimum wage is set at $7.25 at the National level. Each state can delegate how much their minimum wage will be inside their lines of power. From January 1st, 2015 29 states have raised their minimum wage above the federal level. This raise in minimum wage would benefit over 28 million Americans, the price of living is getting higher and higher, and with it so should the minimum wage. Minimum wage is considered a pressing issue because of its effects on society. The people effected by minimum wage are not mostly teenagers working a part time job after school but mostly women and mostly women who are supporting a family. Raising Minimum wage would not only help the working people at these low wage jobs but help their families prosper and help them socially by helping them financially. A solution to this problem would be to correlate the minimum wage to the lowest price of living responsible. There are a great number of Americans that are not teenagers working a part time job but adults providing for their families that work full time at minimum wage jobs. They have to live, they have to support and As for the 29 states that already have higher minimum wage then the federal set minimum wage, wages will be raised and benefit over 38 million low wage workers nationwide including those in the already high wage states. Some conflicts of this policy would give low to unskilled workers a higher wage then what they deserve. As the minimum wage has not been adjusted for inflation these workers deserve these wages that could in turn positively affect their lives to the point that they might be able to spend more time with family or get an education to become more skilled. These criticisms are easily brought down because raising minimum wage helps in all the areas that are criticized. Raising the minimum wage to correlate with the price of living will help jobs and the
Most people do not dream of working the rest of their lives on minimum wage, but this is the harsh reality for many Americans. Minimum wage was set for workers, so they will not get under paid. Over the recent years, people are wanting to increase the minimum wage to put more money in their budget. That it will help bring people out of poverty and into a middle class citizen. Thus, this might be possible, but many say not without some serious consideration. There will be many consequences with increasing minimum wage. Although increasing minimum wage will give workers more money, minimum wage should not be increased because it will increase prices, cut jobs, and hurt national budget.
The United States minimum wage is not indexed to inflation. Due to this fact, the purchasing power of minimum wage falls as the price of consumer goods increases. The current hourly minimum wage is set at $7.25, however many states do pay above this rate. One example of this is in Michigan, the current hourly minimum wage is $7.40. The last time a change occurred to raise minimum wage was in 2009. President Obama has put out a proposal that is designed to raise the federally required hourly minimum wage to $10.10 in 2015. The public opinion of this proposal is all over the board ranging from a positive outlook to a negative one. Some of the negative remarks are that it would dampen the economy and shrink the hiring done by small businesses. “The Household Survival Budget for the average New Jersey family of four is $58,500 and for a single adult is $25,368 in 2010. These numbers highl...
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,
Nowadays, many employees have to face the crisis of working hard for a very low paying job. They are stuck between two rocks of either choosing to work their blood, sweat and tears into a job to receive little to no pay or living in the streets with no food to feed their kids. For a profound amount of families, they are still in poverty, even though all the family members seems to go to a low paying job. By raising the minimum wage, we can help the family to get out of poverty and reduce the poverty rates. A worker need to make at $15.50 to afford an average one bedroom apartment. Since each state varies, take California for example. In California a worker needs to work 92 hours at $9 an hour to rent a one bedroom apartment. ("Minimum Wage - ProCon.org.")The raise in minimum wage would help students and thus increase school attendance rather than working all day. One of the main reason for school dropout is that families don 't make enough money, so they send their kids to go and work. If we can increase the wage, families would keep kids in school and it would result in a better
Raising the minimum will end up hurting Americans more than helping them. The people that are for raising minimum wage are people who believe that increasing minimum wage can help those people who are unskilled and need an income they can live on. Yet, raising minimum wage would do the opposite and make employers have to fire people who earn minimum wage, because they can't afford the higher wages. People need to realize that increasing the minimum wage would hurt people more than help them. In the end increasing minimum wage would result in some people being let go, for the reason, businesses can't afford paying them minimum wage anymore.
Over the years the cost of living has been on the rise. Therefore, it is only right for minimum wage to increase as the cost of living increases. Many states and even some individual cities have taken the first steps toward raising the minimum wage. States like Washington and cities like San Francisco have already raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum wage. This is a very good start as it is becoming harder and harder for Americans to start and take care of their families. We need more states and cities to follow their lead some more Americans can feel more financially stable. This will make a better America for us all.
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 ...
Some people say “It is impossible to live on minimum wage! It should be raised!” Minimum wage is not meant to live on for the rest of one’s life. In modern days, it exists to help high school and college students, or people who had economic issues and need to get back on their feet.
A raise in the minimum wage is only a temporary solution to fixing the problems in the United States. The federal minimum wage was introduced in 1938, during the Great Depression, and has already been increased 22 times. There are already 19 states that pay their employees well over the federal minimum wage. The highest minimum wage in the United States is in Seattle, Washington, and is set at fifteen dollars an hour. Interestingly enough, if minimum wage followed inflation, then it would be set at $4.24 an hour, which means it is already $3.01 over that amount that it should technically be (James Sherk 2013). Continued increases of the minimum wage in the United States need to be stopped as it will result in devastating impacts on low-skilled
About eight million Americans go to work every day, yet they are still living below the poverty line (Camden and Stern). More than one million of them are retail workers. If the minimum wage was to escalate, 734,075 people would be lifted out of poverty. Also the 769,191 people that are living on or near the poverty line would see their incomes go above it by 150 percent. These workers are struggling to provide basic necessities for their family and themselves. If minimum wage was increased poverty could be reduced. Most families are relying on government assistance to provide things such as food by using an EBT food stamp card and Medicaid because they are making minimum wage. Also if a minimum wage worker is only making $5.15 per hour, it will be impossible trying to afford health insurance. Sometimes the benefits workers receive don’t always cov...
Minimum wage is a difficult number to decide on because it affects different income earning citizens in different ways. According to Principles of Microeconomics, by N. Gregory Mankiw, minimum wage is a law that establishes the lowest price for labor that and employer may pay (Mankiw 6-1b). Currently, the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour. For many years politicians and citizens have argued on what should be the minimum wage that would benefit the economy and society in general. A minimum wage was first established in 1938 to increase the standard of living of lower class workers. To discuss what is better for the country and its citizens, people have to understand what is a minimum wage and what are its effects.
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).
"Raising the minimum wage will benefit about 28 million workers across the country. And it will help businesses, too - raising the wage will put more money in people's pockets, which they will pump back into the economy by spending it on goods and services in their communities." -- President Obama
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.
Minimum wage has been a topic that has divided our nation for a while now. Some say there should be an increase in the minimum wage while others say the should not be. In my Argument today, I will be in support for the raising of the minimum wage. If the minimum wage is to be increased, it will provide low-income family with money to spend. 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.