One of the most controversial topics in today decades is our minimum wage in the United States. Recently, in the past decades minimum wage has either been rising, decreasing or staying elevated. The minimum wage is defined as the lowest amount that employers can legally pay their workers per hour of labor. Minimum wage was initially established to reduce poverty and was established in the year 1938. Many supporters of minimum wage say that it increases the standard of living and keeps people out of poverty. Those who are opposed to it tend to believe that it increases unemployment and could potentially harm the lower class people. The minimum wage should not be raised to fifteen dollars in hour because it could resolute in fewer jobs, raise taxes, poverty and expensive living standards. Although the raise in
In occupations where most work is repetitive, it is cost-effective for an employer to respond to higher labor costs by substituting technology for employees. An employee should not be getting paid fifteen the hour to baby sit a computer that does its work for you. According to William waschcer, “Companies are increasingly looking for ways to sell more products with fewer employees. ATM machines reduce the need for bank tellers, virtual assistants can answer the phone 24 hours a day, and self-service machines are reducing the need for checkout clerks” (78).
If fewer jobs are going to be provided, lower class people won’t benefit it from these acts anyway. Raising the wage isn’t going to improve the lives of the lower class people if they are not going to be provided with a job. If it puts on a strain on businesses and forces them to fire employees, it would actually put more people into
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.
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.
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.
Throughout the decade, a continuous firing debate still remains, whether to raise the minimum wage or keep as it is. People believe that raising the minimum wage can hurt the economy. More will lose jobs than gain. Though all are true, the amount of poverty shown throughout the decades are jaw dropping. That is in fact one of the leading factors. As there is yin and yang, the demand for a higher minimum wage is no coincidence or selfishness as others perceive as is. The poverty shown throughout the decade is deadly prominent. Minimum wage should be raised as people are not gaining enough money compared to the past, despite with more education, too many low quality jobs, “in active” unemployment are outcasted from the statistics, and finding jobs is more difficult than it was decades ago.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour has been extensively debated over the last year or so. Minimum wage is the undermost wage allowed by law to be given to an employee for their services. Introduced in 1939, its purpose was to stabilize the economy, which was healing from the Great Depression. Most importantly, it was designed to protect the health and welling-being of employees. Currently, the Federal Government 's minimum is $7.25 per hour ($14,500 per year). The ones in favor of the increase are saying that it used to be a living wage; however, now it is not and it now needs to be line with changes to the cost of living. In addition, an increase in minimum wage can increase the productivity and decrease income inequality and poverty. On the other spectrum, the ones who are against the increase are saying that the increased labor cost will drive up unemployment, affect small businesses negatively, and cause other workers from different
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,
In recent years the minimum wage has been a heated topic. People want to hike it up to 15 dollars an hour which they call a living wage, while others just want to keep it the same. There are also others that suggest to bring the minimum wage to around $10.78 an hour, which should be around the minimum wage now if we account for inflation from the 1960’s. I agree with that to a certain point. We as a nation need to bring up the minimum wage only up to ten dollars so that less people are living in poverty, and not any higher so that states with smaller economies don 't crash and burn.
Let’s just say you have t wo children, you are a single parent and are reliable for everything in the household but only making minimum wage. Do you think you would be able to handle the pressure put on you and provide? Well, there are many single parents out there with children and a lot of those families are living in poverty because of the lack of money reachable to them. With wages being as low as they are it makes it harder on those parents because money just do not grow on trees. The minimum wage should be raised due to the many people in poverty already and not all people get paid what they deserve.
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.
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.
Nowadays, any parent with children could not sustain a decent life working at $7.25 an hour. However, it is the individual’s skills, determination, and education which determinates to whether that individual would have a low-income job or not. The minimum wage is the first steps of any person who begins climbing toward the top of the economic ladder obtaining experience, knowledge, and motivation in the process. Nowadays, groups and unions of employees are demanding an increase to the minimum wage. To them, their lives are packed of struggles fronting poverty; however, several of them are unskilled individuals that are lacking of professional educational knowledge. On this paper, it will be shown four important keys about minimum wage jobs.
In the United States, there has been a big debate on minimum wage between the two main parties known as the democratic and republican parties. First of all, the main concern since 2009 is that the minimum wage has been of $9.00 dollars and many liberals and a few republicans believe that it should be raised to $15 dollars. In the last couple years, it has been argued that the minimum wage is not enough to meet ends meet in the United States. This topic regarding the raise of the minimum wage is important for a few reasons. First, democrats believe that the minimum wage today is no enough to help people with their bills, or to help them have a better life. Therefore, they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars in order to help these people
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.
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.
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.