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Positive effects of raising the minimum wage
Positive effects of raising the minimum wage
Positive effects of raising the minimum wage
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A family of four is on government welfare, has no health or car insurance, and lives from paycheck to paycheck because both parents make minimum wage. Parents cannot provide for a family because they barely make enough money to pay the bills. According to Driscoll, it is proven that a “family of three all making minimum wage, still falls below the poverty level.” President Obama has proposed raising the minimum wage to $9.00 but no actions have been made on his behalf. So congress needs to raise the minimum wage in order to help the general well being of the people.
Minimum wage is the least amount of money than an employer can pay its workers per hour. For example, the minimum wage in Virginia is $7.25 per hour. Ford points out in his article on raising the minimum wage, “The minimum wage rose to $5.85 in the summer of 2007 and to $6.55 in the summer of 2008 with plans for a final value of $7.25 in the summer of 2009.” However, different states have different minimum wages. For instance, Washington has the highest minimum wage at $9.19 per hour and Georgia has the lowest rate with $5.15 per hour. But according to the National Employment Wage Project, “if the United States would have kept up with inflation over the past 40 years, the minimum wage would be $10.74 an hour.” That is $3.49 more than the minimum wage is now, which would be $7,259.20 more a year (before taxes).
By raising the minimum wage, it would stimulate the economy in many ways. It would “increase the purchasing power of many workers whose wages would also go up” according to the article Raising the minimum wage: Guide to Critical Analysis. Another way that it would help the economy is that it would decrease the amount of people that would need government welfar...
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Jacobs, W.E.Hoagland, Steve. "Counterpoint: Minimum Wages Are Unwarranted Economic Interference." Points Of View: Raising The Minimum Wage (2013): 2. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
Jacobs, W.E.Hoagland, Steve. "Counterpoint: Minimum Wages Are Unwarranted Economic Interference." Points Of View: Raising The Minimum Wage (2013): 2. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
"Raising The Minimum Wage: Guide To Critical Analysis." Points Of View: Raising The Minimum Wage (2013): 4.Points of View Reference Center. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
"Rebuilding an Economy That Works for All of Us." Facts. NELP, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Sperling, Gene, and Alan Krueger. "The White House Blog." Raising the Minimum Wage Is Good for the Economy. The White House, 24 July 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
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.
Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. From “Raise the Minimum Wage to $10 in 2010.” Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Minimum wage is a topic that has been popping up since the 1980s. From whether we should lower it, or even raise it, but now in the 2000s minimum wage has been the center of attention more than ever. There are two sides to this topic of minimum wage; whether it creates more jobs or does not create jobs. Those who argue that raising minimum wage will create more jobs will have a rebuttal which is that it does not only cause the loss of jobs but that it would make things much worse and vice versa for those arguing raising minimum wage will cause loss of jobs. There will be two authors representing opposite views, Nicholas Johnson supporting minimum wage will not cost jobs with his article “ Evidence Shows Raising Minimum Wage Hasn’t Cost Jobs”
Many people against raising the minimum wage create arguments such as, “it will cause inflation”, or, “ it will result in job loss.” Not only are these arguments terribly untrue, they also cause a sense of panic towards the majority working-class. Since 1938, the federal minimum wage has been increased 22 times. For more than 75 years, real GDP per capita has consistently increased, even when the wage has been
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.
Obviously minimum wage has increased significantly since 1968 where it was at $1.60 but, how much has it really increased in connection with inflation and rising prices of things such as food, gas, land and etc? That is what's really lost in the whole conversation of increasing minimum wage to give people more money doesn't necessarily mean you can buy more. Senator Tom Harkin made a great statement regarding inflation senator Harkin said "today, tens of millions of hardworking Americans who are earning at or near the minimum wage can’t even aspire to live a middle-class life or achieve the American Dream. Instead, they are falling further and further behind" (Harkin). This is because of inflation, although minimum wage has increased from $1.60 in 1968 to $ 7.25 in 2013 we actually have less buying power. What that means is that $1.60 in 1968 would get us more food than $7.25 would in 2013. People are tricked into thinking that small incremental increases are good because we are making more, guess what we're actually making less. If we kept that $1.60 wage today and indexed it to account for inflation minimum wage should be at $10.56 in 2013.
Gitterman, Daniel P. “Remaking A Bargain: The Political Logic Of The Minimum Wage In The United States.” Poverty And Public Policy 5.1 (2013): 3-36. EconLit. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
"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
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,
Linda Gorman. "Minimum Wages." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved April 24, 2014 from the World Wide Web: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MinimumWages.html
"Bill Gates: Raising Minimum Wage Can Destroy Jobs." The Foundry Conservative Policy News from The Heritage Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
On the other side of the argument Americans believe that with the increase of minimum wages it would help Americans out a lot more. One possible way that the increase in minimum wage may help an individual out is in the article Minimum wage Pros and Cons, “The Economic Policy Institute stated that a minimum wage increase from the current rate of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 would inject $22.1 billion net into the economy and create about 85,000 new jobs over a three-year phase-in period. Though this may be true, one problem
Since its inception, the minimum wage has been a hotbed for debate. If today’s leaders could manage to increase minimum wage, millions of families would benefit.
Harrigan, James R., and Antony Davies. "Raising the Minimum Wage Is No Free Lunch." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 May 2014.
Bernstein, Jared. “Would Raising the Minimum Wage Harm the Economy?” The CQ Researcher 16 Dec. 2005:1069.