Who are these workers that makes minimum wage? According to the official Bureau of Labor Statistics 3.3 million are making at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Among 3.3 are split into two main categories. The first category is those who are making the exact federal minimum wage which accounts for 1.5 million workers. The second category is those who are making below the federal minimum wage which accounts for 1.8 million workers. The second category includes tipped workers, full time students, and disabled workers. Majority of which are tipped workers and regardless of how much tips they received, they will at least make the federal minimum wage. About 50 percent of the minimum wage earners are under the age of 25; 20 percent of which are at teenagers between the ages of 16 to 19. Of the 3.3 million workers making at or below federal minimum wage, 1.5 million of whom are employed through the food and service related industry. The other 1.8 million are employed through industries such as sales, services, transportation, building, office and more. Those 3.3 million workers earning at or below minimum wage account for 4.3% of 75.9 million total hourly paid US workers. Those who make at or below federal minimum wage, in terms of education among the total hourly paid workers: 10 percent earned less than a high school diploma, 4 percent who earned a high school diploma, and 2 percent who are college graduates. In terms of ethnicity: 5 percent are Black, 4 percent are White and/or Hispanic, and 3 percent are Asian. Majority of those making federal minimum wage resides at Idaho and Tennessee (BLS 1). A fairly common misconception is that workers, who make at or below federal minimum wage, correlate to those who would be affe... ... middle of paper ... ...ewresearch.org. Pew Research Center, 4 Dec. 2013. Web. 9 May 2014. DOL. "History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 - 2009." Dol.gov. US Department of Labor, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. Jamieson, Dave, and Saki Knafo. "One Walmart's Low Wages Could Cost Taxpayers $900,000 Per Year, House Dems Find." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 May 2013. Web. 11 May 2014. Reich, Michael, Ken Jacobs, and Annette Bernhardt. Berkely.edu. Institute for Research Labor and Employment [IRLE], Mar. 2014. Web. 1 May 2014. Shierholz, Heidi. "Lagging Minimum Wage Is One Reason Why Most Americans' Wages Have Fallen behind Productivity." EPI.org. Economic Policy Institute, 11 July 2013. Web. 28 May 2014. White, Matha. "Fast-Food Workers Are Costing the U.S. $7 Billion a Year in Public Aid | TIME.com." Time.com. TIME, n.d. Web. 01 May 2014.
More than 4.6 million people live in poverty in the US. A question often raised when talking about minimum wage is, would raising it lower this number? The consensus is, yes, it would. If the federal minimum wage was raised, at lot of peoples’ incomes would grow, not just low wage workers. As employers shifted their pay scales upward, many incomes would grow. According to Jared Bernstein, the former chief economist of the Obama Administration, this isn’t as relevant as the impact is would have on low wage workers. He explains how, although many other people would benefit from an increase in minimum wage, most of the help would go to those who need it. He also notes, “We must be careful not to be wedded to poverty thresholds that are inadequate measures of who needs the help.” If the minimum wage was raised to $10.10 per hour, 2 million people would be lifted out of poverty (US Department of
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.
Understanding how the minimum wage level functions to affect poverty in a given society is crucial for informing policy in a number of important areas. Indeed, examining the link between poverty and the minimum wage is necessary for policy-makers working to establish sound economic policy as well as labour and social advocacy groups seeking to ensure the minimum wage is at a level sufficient to ensure workers can meet their most basic and fundamental needs. Readers should be concerned with the link between the minimum wage and levels of poverty because poverty is a particularly significant and impactful social issue. High rates of poverty can both negatively impact the economy, as well as contribute to a host of negative social issues. At the same time, there may be questions regarding the impacts to poverty associated with the minimum wage. Research which better clarifies this link is particularly important. For these reasons, investigating the link between the minimum wage and poverty is essential. This essay will provide a summary of two academic journal articles investigating the link between poverty and the minimum wage. Each summary will discuss the particular focus of researchers, the contribution of the study, the methodology employed by researchers, as well as their findings and conclusions. Finally, the essay will conclude with a brief commentary regarding the relevance of these articles to the larger topic, as well as their effectiveness in promoting learning.
In this article, James Dorn and David Cooper argue whether raising the federal minimum wage will help or hurt low-wage workers. James Dorn, Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Cato Institute, argues that raising the federal minimum wage would hurt low-wage workers by reducing job opportunities and raising prices. Dorn also states that the federal minimum wage is responsible for high unemployment among teenagers and minorities and lower productivity among low-wage workers. David Cooper, an analyst from the Economic Policy Institute, argues that the federal minimum wage is not a living wage and that raising the minimum wage doesn’t have a significant effect on employment. Cooper also states that eighty percent of low-wage workers are at least twenty years old and that eighty-five percent of small businesses already pay their employees more than the minimum
“Minimum wage increases often lead to employers replacing disadvantaged adults who need a job with suburban teenagers who do not.” says James Sherk. Currently, minimum wage earners are seven times more likely to be teenagaers instead of adults. In fact, half of the 3.8 million people employed in minimum wage jobs are under the age of twenty-five (Furchtgott-Roth). Many people use minimum wage jobs as a ...
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,
Its well-known that minimum wage can easy vary from state to state city to city and even county to county. Furthermore each minimum wage law in each state/city or county has their own set of guidelines. The disparity of minimum wages within state lines is very diverse. For example the state of California has a state minimum wage of $8.00, while in Richmond, California the minimum wage $12.30 has recently been approved (www.foxnews.com). This is the highest among any state city or county and $2.00 above San Francisco’s $10.30 minimum wage (www.foxnews.com). For Richmond, California this makes sense becaus...
U.S. Department of Labor. 2014. “History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor
"Fair Labor Standard Timeline Evolution of Fedral Minimum Wage Law." Congressional Digest. N.p., Mar. 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
Hanauer, Nick. “The Capitalist Case for a $15 minimum wage” Bloomberg News. 19 June 2013.
Minimum wage is the biggest debate that United States has to go through throughout the last century. But recently our leaders are having arguments on weather or not we should raise the minimum wage for hard working people. Oklahoma's Gov. Mary Fallin is having to the answer the question to raise the state's minimum wage higher than it is recently at with $7.25. There are many concerns that owners of businesses have about if the government is going to raise the minimum wage. As of 2014 Gov. Mary Fallin signed into a law a bill that would banned cities within Oklahoma from creating a mandatory minimum wage and employees benefits. The minimum wage issue is a microeconomics issue because it mainly effects a single individual of a household, a group of consumers, and businesses.
A while ago I was told by my parents that I got a call from (my now boss), Donald Makepeace, asking if I was still interested in a job. We played phone tag for the longest tag, but finally I was hired at the local Dairy Queen. My parents originally said that I was supposed to contribute some money to help pay for insurance, gas ,and ect. After, seeing how much money I brought back week after week, they ignored that request. The truth of the matter is, it’s hard to live on a minimum wage job. In fact, many individuals must have at least two jobs to keep the bills meet. So, President Obama is trying to get Congress to pass an increase in the minimum wage. However, Congress refuses to raise the minimum wage. I agree with Congress, that we should not raise the minimum wage because these jobs are mainly for high school students and more people wouldn’t be able to hire people.
getting harder and harder as the cost of living keeps rising. While the cost of education, housing, groceries, healthcare, and utilities continuing to cost more, the American worker is scrambling to make ends meet on low wage incomes. Marco Rubio, author, politician, and attorney of law reveals, “Today the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 a hour, and has not been raised in seven years. In reality, a person working full time at a hourly wage of $7.25 will make about $14,000 a year”. Given that, the federal government deemed that the poverty line is anyone who makes less that 17,000 a year. Imagine supporting a family on those figures. Since it is apparent that the current minimum wage earner can not make enough money to support themselves, let alone a family, the minimum wage needs to be raised.
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.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. N. pag. Print.