Raising The Minimum Wage

According to a study done by Perdue University, “…paying fast-food restaurant employees $15 an hour could lead to higher prices. Prices at those businesses could increase by an estimated 4.3%, according to the report” (Wihbey, Effects of raising the minimum wage: Research and critical lessons”). With a higher minimum wage, businesses must then pay their employees more, and to pay these additional expenses; they are coerced to charge more for their products, which impacts everybody, making it more difficult for people to provide for their families. The Cato Institute stated, “According to a review of more than 20 minimum wage studies observing price effects found that a 10 percent increase in the US minimum wage raises food prices by up to 4 percent” (Wilson, “Four Reasons Not to Raise the Minimum Wage”). If the federal minimum wage increases from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, it is being increased by slightly more than 206%, which, according to this study, could lead to almost an 84% growth in food prices. According to another study on the effects of an increase in the federal minimum wage on consumer prices in the Reason magazine, “Raising the minimum wage to $15 could increase the cost of food by 43%” (47: 10). After a significant increase in the federal minimum wage, the employees who did not lose their jobs would then be receiving

By raising the minimum wage some people will no longer live below the poverty line, the amount of consumer spending will increase and more people will be in better health.

One of the biggest negative effects of raising the minimum wage is that it would severely hurt small businesses. If the minimum wage were to be raised it would force the owners to pay their employees more money that they might not have. In order to pay the employees the newly raised minimum wage they are gonna have to raise the prices which will lead to the loss of consumers, and might eventually lead to the store going out of business. According to a Gallup poll done in 2013, 60 percent of small-business owners said that raising minimum wage will “hurt small business owners. James Richardson, MBA, Vice President of the fast food chain White Castle, said that the company would be forced to close

Previously when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour, only 15% of the poverty-stricken population received any sort of benefit from the rise. According to the research done by CATO Institute, if the federal minimum equilibrium were to be increased from the current $7.25/hour to $9.50/hour, a maximum 11% of the population affected by poverty would receive any benefit from the demand of a higher minimum wage. “One recent academic study found that both state and federal minimum wage increases between 2003 and 2007 had no effect on state poverty rates” (Wilson, 9). Receiving $15.00/hour for flipping burger patties sounds like a job with major benefits, but in reality, it is doing

Raise the minimum wage: In the United States, studies show that women tend to make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers. In the field of education, men tends to go more to STEM than women and that also leads to high paying jobs for men. If we raise the minimum wage, this will help hardworking women to support their families. Approximately, women made up two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers in 2012. With the current federal minimum wage i.e. $7.25 per hour, someone working full time, only earn $15,080 a year round. People working full time with minimum wage is still below the poverty threshold for any family with children and single person is also not far above the poverty line. So, increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would help increase the wages for about 15 million women, which will help close the gender wage gap.

There will be inflation or rising costs for basic necessities such as housing, food, utilities, transportation and child care. Because of inflation, the minimum wage forces most of the people into poverty. If a person works full-time and his minimum wage is only $14500, and if he has two children this income is more than $4000 below the poverty line. So, increasing the minimum wage would rise almost a million people above the poverty line. But if minimum wages increases, it would result in the loss of jobs because employers would lay off workers to offset the additional labor cost. But, raising the minimum wage has multiple benefits. As an increase to minimum wage moves families above the poverty threshold, their need for public assistance

Minimum wage jobs are known as the type of job to have as a teenager. Nowadays, minimum wage jobs are also common among single mothers and immigrants. Those struggling families need help from the government because their income is not enough to buy groceries and necessities for their families. Those people who work at the minimum wage salaries only get a little amount of money this is a problem for their families. The minimum wage has not kept up with the inflation in the economy. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 will help people in poverty to have a better income and lifestyle to those who need it.

Political analyst and civil rights activist Benjamin Todd once said: “No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.” Today, I have chosen to speak on the controversial topic of whether or not the United States should raise the federal minimum wage.

Raising the minimum wage price would skyrocket school attendance levels and decrease high school dropout rates. A 2014 study found that raising the California minimum wage to $13 an hour would cause the incomes of 7.5 million families to increase, meaning fewer families would live in poverty. This means that teens who live in poverty are two times more likely to miss three-plus days of school per month compared to those who do not miss school. So overall, because of the rise of the minimum wage, it caused families to come out of poverty. This also means that there would be a lower amount of children missing/skipping school. Studies also found that "recent experimental studies show that increasing income can improve school performance." This

Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim that if the minimum wage was raised, then many economic and social problems would be alleviated. This contention is at odds both with economic principles and years of creditable research. The effect of raising or even having a minimum wage has been studied extensively and the majority of studies have proven that raising a minimum wage does not have the desired effect. Both micro and macroeconomic forces affect the results of raising the minimum wage. The secondary effects of raising the minimum wage are bad both for

Imagine standing over a scorching grill for hours, taking care of the elderly, both lifting and transporting heavy loads, basically doing back breaking work; only to be making less than $8 and hour. That is the reality for millions of people in the work force who are earning minimum wage. Whether or not minimum wage should be raised has been a question many people have been discussing for years and has become quite controversial. Those opposed to increased minimum wages would argue that a minimum wage salary is already sufficient enough, or in some cases even “too high”. In spite of the opposing sides, it is almost certain that a rise in minimum wage will either positively or negatively affect several aspects of the country. For one, an increase in minimum wage could result in an economic shift. Furthermore, the current poverty level within the country, with the help of a higher minimum wage, would either decrease or as a result. Thirdly, a change in poverty levels caused by a higher minimum wage would ultimately change the amount of government spending and those who receive it. Minimum wage being raised would definitely be impactful not only the people receiving those minimum waged salaries, but also the economy, their families, and even the government funding.

Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would cost the economy between 500,000 and 1 million jobs and an increase in $15.00 per hour would cost 6 million jobs. In 1938, Congress first enacted minimum wage that started as $0.25 per hour as a part of FDRś New Deal during the Great Depression. Today, 21 states have a minimum wage that is higher than the Federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage should not be raised because there will be drastic and negative effects on society.

The most affected segment of the economy by raising the minimum wage is small businesses. Small businesses will quickly dwindle away as a result of raising of the national minimum wage. As an example consider a small pizza shop. An increase in the minimum wage of 1 dollar an hour adds $16,000 to labor costs. Going to 15 dollars an hour adds $128,000 to labor costs, almost 3 times the take-home pay of the owners. This money could be money that is going to be taken straight out of the owner's pocket, affecting their family, business, and livelihood. Ask yourself how one of the 5 million small businesses with fewer than 10 workers would handle this, they can’t. More realistically the owners won’t absorb the increase, the increase will cause people to get laid off. If a pizza shop has 17 employees who all work two to three days a week. These businesses can easily decrease to ten or eleven people who have to work harder and more frequently. This will cause people to lose their jobs which

Increasing the minimum wage will progress the economy in many ways such as, increased buying power, faster rates of job growth, and decreasing the need for taxpayer-funded assistance. When consumers have more on-hand cash to spend, they are able to spend money on retail goods and services. Greater demand and sales for these businesses is likely to cause the need for more workers over time. Studies done by Paul Sonn and Yannet Lathrop show that in a majority of instances an increase in the federal

The federal minimum wage has not kept up with inflation. More specifically, as inflation prices increase, the wages of minimum wage workers have stayed constant. If the minimum wage had kept paced with inflation, workers would have been earning $11.16 per hour in 2016 (“Should the Federal”). This is a significant difference compared to today’s standard minimum wage of $7.50. If minimum wage was approximately $11.16, workers would have more discretionary income, more money for paying bills, and more money for purchasing food. As a result of not keeping up with inflation, minimum wage workers have lost 8.1% of their purchasing power (“Should the Federal”). Inflation has caused the prices of goods to increase but the wages have not increased. Logically, this means people cannot buy as many goods. By raising the minimum wage, workers will be able to adapt to economy. For these reasons, the government must