Raise Minimum Pay

The majority of America would like to see the minimum wage raise from $7.25 an hour, to $10.10 which is almost a forty percent increase in hourly rate. A decision this big that will affect the entire country must be intensively discussed and debated before it is put into action. In an economy consisting of unemployment rates at their highest in decades, one would think that this would be a good action to take, but the consequences of doing so show otherwise.

President Obama and the Democratic party are lead supporters of the idea to raise the minimum wage to help out those families living below the poverty line, but it will do as much harm as it will do good. "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. People will struggle even more to provide for their loved ones and resort to alternatives to provide for them. Even though increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 will help 900,000 people tremendously, It will severely devastate those citizens and their families who lose their job to help pay for the increased wages.

This is not the first time that the federal minimum wage has been proposed to be increased. From 2007 to 2009, the minimum wage increased from $5.15 to $7.25, where is still ...

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...ect all Americans, those making minimum wage and those with salaried jobs making above the bare minimum. Even though people are making more money, they will be spending more money on the necessities for life.

Raising the minimum wage to the proposed level would be crippling to the American economy. Research shows that it would help many people greatly, but rid many more Americans of a job entirely leaving them no way to support themselves and their families. The same scenario would reoccur just as it did when the minimum wage was raised before: jobs would be lost. Prices would rise greatly, citizens would lose jobs, and more people will become reliant upon the government if the minimum wage is increased. None of these things are good for an economy, especially one that is already struggling. The consequences of raising the minimum wage rate are very severe.