The Negative Effects Of The Minimum Wage

The minimum wage was first introduced in New Zealand in 1894. It wasn’t until 1938, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first US minimum wage law called the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA sets

In the United States, the minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate that employers may legally pay to workers. It is a price floor. The forbearer to the minimum wage can be traced to medieval England. In 1348, the Black Plague decimated the English people. This caused a serious labor shortage and caused wages to sky rocket. King Edward III was inclined to set a wage ceiling contained in the Ordinance of Labourers (1349). Mihm, S. (2013, September 5). How the Black Death Spawned the Minimum Wage. The laws were eventually used to set a living wage. In the U.S., mandatory minimum wages were first introduced nationally in 1938. Department of Labor (2014, April 17) Grossman, Jonathan. "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage". Many states also have

One of the biggest political topics in today's society is the federal minimum wage and whether it should be raised or kept at where it is now at $7.25 an hour. Arguments could be made for both sides on whether it should be raised or left alone. The majority of minimum wage in today’s job market are unskilled positions. Minimum wage jobs were created for teenagers and colleges kids as a way to get into the workforce and to have a little extra money for themselves. It was not designed to be a wage for people to live on. Increasing the minimum wage would hurt the economy by hurting small businesses, a huge loss of jobs and it would increase the competition between teens and adults. Overall if the federal minimum wage is increased it will have many negative effects on the economy.

As a result of the Great Depression, in 1938, the federal minimum wage was put into effect as a part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The government established the federal minimum wage to ensure that employers were not underpaying their employees, and many states also have set other varying minimum wages as well based on the cost of living in those particular areas. According to the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “The federal minimum wage ranged from a low of $3.09 in 1948 to a high of $8.67 an hour in 1968” (Pye, “No we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage”). Also, according to the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “The historical average minimum wage was $6.60” (Pye, “No we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage”). Many supporters of raising the minimum wage want to increase our current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, which is more than double the average, more than twice the current, and almost twice as much as the all-time high minimum wage. James Sherk, Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics, concluded the following from his research: “Congress typically raises the minimum wage only

The history of the Federal minimum wage dates to 1938 when then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed “the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)” into law (History of Minimum Wage). Franklin Delano Roosevelt signing the FLSA into law made sure that no American could be paid less than the federal minimum wage. The initial minimum wage was set at twenty-five cents an hour back in 1938. However, prior to Franklin Delano Roosevelt signing the Fair Labor Standards Act into law there was not any “national minimum wage, or…legislation to protect workers from exploitation. [Due to] lack of regulation tens of thousands of workers were routinely exploited in sweatshops and factories…for pennies a week” (Minimum-Wage.org). Which made covering day to day

In America's service industry, specifically that of food, we have a tradition, if you will, of giving a certain portion of the bill as a grituity to the servers. Over the past year or so this has been a target of controversy, not of whether you should or shouldn't tip necessarily, but whether the servers themselves should get paid the federal or state minimum wage or a sub-minimum wage that is supplemented by the likelyhood of you getting tips from the people you have served. I, however, am a firm believer in the status-quo. That is, I think a sub-minimum wage is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

The federal minimum wage laws were first created on June 25, 1938 through the Department of Labor and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This enacted the first $0.25

In 1938, the first national minimum wage laws in the United States were passed as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which served as “a floor below wages,” to reduce poverty and to ensure that economic growth is shared across the workforce. Today, many people who work for companies that pay at or near the minimum wage and remain near or below the poverty level rely on government health and food security and income programs to supplement their living expenses. Since 1938, there have been many additional policies to the Fair Labor Standards Act that have changed many things, such as increasing the national minimum wage numerous times to the currently salary level, which was set in 1997. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 was a policy to change the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three additions, which began in July of 2009. (http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/posters/minwagebwp.pdf)

The federal minimum wage act was enacted on June 24, 1938 it started at twenty five cents an hour which would equal $3.50 today. The law was enacted to reduce the amount of poverty that had come about during the great depression. Looking at the past years of the wage when adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage reached

In a world governed by the rule of currency has a major effect toward the amount an individual owns. The current world economy, labor is required in order to supply services to whomever is willing to buy. The amount of money distributed and earned throughout the economy feeds the nation 's GDP, which shows the stability of the overall economy of that nation. There is an imaginary sequence that must be established in an economy in order to balance both labor and revenue to stabilize a country’s economy.

Raising the minimum wage raises worries on the middle class about their development in the future economy, while economists and small businesses are also concerned. Advocates promoting a raise to the minimum wage are reducing attainable opportunities for small and new businesses to develop. Business owners concentrate on the outcome of raising the minimum wage instead of the effect on working people. In “measuring the full impact of Minimum and Living Wage Laws,” Wicks-Lim urges wage workers that increasing the federal wage will have costly consequences on the economy. The minimum wage will force large ripple effects to take place as prices rise to cover the new wage. Moreover, “the increase in the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour will contribute to a higher unemployment rate.” (Dorn) The business community warns that ripple effects will eventually take place if the federal wage is increased, aiming at small business owners to close or lay off low-wage workers. Raising the cost of products will drive away customers and end the shopping experience by shopping online rather than paying for the services in the stores. Small businesses are already laying off low-skilled workers and investing in self-service tablets, robotics, and other labor saving devices in anticipation of a lower minimum wage.

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

In 1938, the first national minimum wage laws in the United States were passed as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which served as “a floor below wages,” to reduce poverty and to ensure that economic growth is shared across the workforce. Today, many people who work for companies that pay at or near the minimum wage and remain near or below the poverty level rely on government health and food security and income programs to supplement their living expenses. Since 1938, there have been many additional policies to the Fair Labor Standards Act that have changed many things, such as increasing the national minimum wage numerous times to the currently salary level, which was set in 1997. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, from the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, was a policy to change the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three additions, which began in July of 2009. (U.S., 2009).

They do pay a living wage. There is this gentleman named Jacob Lund Fisker. He has a blog Early Retirement Extreme (http://earlyretirementextreme.com)

Damage to the labour market: As seen in the above graph, with a minimum wage there will be an increase in labour supply and decrease in labour demand resulting in damage to the labour market as workers will not be able to find jobs. Resulting in non-price competition, such as personal connection, experience, age would replace price competition making it even tougher to find jobs.