The Pros and Cons of Minimum Wage

Based on 2004’s Current Population Survey of America, today two million workers earn at or below minimum wage out of 73.9 million American workers who are paid at hourly rates (Characteristics). In 1996, the minimum wage raised to $5.15 per hour. Some people argue that this federal legislation helped low-wage workers a lot. Nevertheless, low-wage people are still suffering from hardship because of the big gap between their incomes and expenditures. In 1998, the minimum-wage was “$2,500 below the poverty line for a three-person family” if a worker works 40 hours a week without vacations (Rothman).

That was back in 1998, 16 years ago, the amount is probably even more far apart now and the past shows it that the distribution of wealth is getting more and more uneven. If we raised the minimum wage, it would help many people and families who earn minimum wage get them above poverty level. Right now, earning minimum wage will not even allow one two person family of one parent and one child to be out of poverty. Raising the minimum wage will help 30 million workers and about a quarter of the workers have children (Cooper, Hall.) Rais... ... middle of paper ... ...n an increase in food by only 4% and the general overall prices by 0.4%, both percentages are less than the 10% increase in minimum wage, so it would help out some of the people who are making less.

The first minimum wage was created by Congress in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act; it was twenty-five cents an hour. Since then, it has varied over the years, the highest being in 1968, but today it stands at $7.25 (Sherk). At the moment, Congress is contemplating the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would, over two years, raise the minimum wage to $10.10 (GovTrack). However, raising the minimum wage is a bad idea because a majority of minimum wage jobs belong to teenagers who will not stay in the job very long and do not need to support a family, raising minimum wage will lessen the availability of jobs for the poor, and it is pointless since many of the impoverished that the raising of the minimum wage is targeted to help, will not be able to benefit. “Minimum wage increases often lead to employers replacing disadvantaged adults who need a job with suburban teenagers who do not.” says James Sherk.

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.

At this rate, a full time employee would earn an annual salary of $15,080, meaning that a family of two people, for example a single working mother with one child, working a full time minimum wage job, would sit below the federal poverty line of $15,730 for two people (2014 Poverty Guidelines). While it is true that there are tax breaks such as those for children, and the Earned Income Tax that exist to help such people living in poverty, the fact exists that the wages in the US have not kept up with inflation and the cost of living. While the value of the federal minimum wage has risen 21% since 1990, the cost of living itself has risen 67% (Gilson). Opponents are quick to argue that only unskilled workers are paid minimum wag... ... middle of paper ... ...4. Lowery, Wesley.

That would mean that someone working in fast food would be making about 30,000 dollars a year, nearly double what they 're making now. Politicians and activist claim that you still live in “poverty” if you worked forty hours a week, and make minimum wage. When in fact the national minimum wage average is 7.25 or 15,080 per year and the poverty line is at 11,945 dollars. Thats half of what activist and politicians are wanting. According to William Dunkelberg from Forbes, “Raising the minimum wage is like killing flies with a shotgun, not very well targeted.

In this day in age many United States citizens struggle just to get some bills paid, feed their kids, and even enjoy their own money. Of course with most of them wanting to quit their jobs but know they can’t because no one else will hire them. Basically having to maintain with minimum wage is what they’ve had to deal with probably for their entire life. All they ask for is a bit of a higher pay just enough to be able to get things done and not have to stress so much over the smaller things. Raising minimum wage can positively impact a younger person in society financially by giving them the change to cause a positive ripple in the economy, produce more jobs for others, help slow down the use of government programs, and it can even help decrease

In brief, people work and dies to pay the circle of education, work and taxes. The increase in minimum wage will indeed decrease a huge stone of stress of working enormous hours. The federal poverty line guideline for a family of four is 24,250 according to 2015 census. (Obamacarefact). Accordingly, a person will have to work 50 hours a week in order to fulfill the guideline.

The annual salary of a full-time American worker employed is $15,080 less than the official federal government poverty level for a family of two. Desperate workers in low wage establishments, such as Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Jack in the Box, began taking matters into their own hands,. Over the past several months workers have begun staging strikes, demanding higher wages. This past year workers across the country staged walkouts at nearly 1,000 fast-food restaurants, convenient stores and malls in more than fifty cities, demanding fifteen dollars per hour. Minimum wage is the lowest wage that employers are allowed to pay, determined by contract or by law.

Teens usually take these jobs as a summer job, and paying them fifteen dollars an hour would be too much for a summer job. However, This is not true. According to census data, around 89 percent of low wage workers are people 20 years or older (“Data Tables”). Minimum wage jobs were originally designed for people who didn’t have a college degree and were right out of high school, or high school students themselves. But because of the recession we had, older and experienced people have had to take minimum wage jobs.