By Matt Wendelberger
Many people at a young age and political stand point would think raising the minimum wage would be a great way for “everyone” to make more money than jobs can be created. Currently in Wisconsin the minimum wage is $7.25 and most of the Democratic Party wants to raise the minimum wage to $8.20 an hour then after two years would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. A recent Gallup poll shows that in America 76 percent of Americans want to raise the minimum wage to at least $9 an hour. The reason why this isn’t the best idea is that it really puts at risk those who are the lower wage workers in terms of certainly teenagers, the disabled, anybody who is really trying to break into an employment work experience that “hopefully” will set them up for success down the road. Just think about if you went to Wendy’s for a cheese burger and a frosty during lunch hour there would only be a couple of people on the job because Wendy’s can’t pay more than those couple of workers for that day. The teenagers in the “workforce” today if this bill is to pass would most likely be out of a job because they want to pay a employee that they can have work longer shifts and better knowledge of that job. More problems with rising the minimum wage is the companies will be earning more than they can spend. Workers must produce more than they are paid. As government raises the minimum wage, it prices people out of the market. What the president thinks is going to fix the economy is that more money will be in people’s pockets and will be able to spend more and that will bring more jobs to the American people. WRONG! Businesses will still need to pay their employees at a high rate and won’t be able to make enough money to support their employees. Don’t get me wrong people will have money in their pockets but the amount of people having money in their pocket will be the hard thing to imagine. As of now Wisconsin should just stay where we are we are having tremendous growth since governor Scott Walker has been in the Capital and we wouldn’t want to hit the wall and stop out growth.
The video bellow is by fox 11 that shows protestor in the state capital and the second link shows why Wisconsin and America should not raise minimum wage.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/raising-minimum-wage-will-hurt-more-help
When it comes down to minimum wage, it is a very debatable argument. The reason why this topic is so controversial is because there are several pros and cons when it comes to increasing minimum wage. I actually found it to be very shocking to find out that Wisconsin citizens were head strong on the concept of increasing minimum wage. The reason why I say this is because if we were to increase the minimum wage, prices in retail stores as well as local markets in the area would increase as well. This could result in a negative effect for several consumers because for those who are set on a limited salary may endure a state of shock when their grocery bill goes up a hundred dollars or more. With this being said, I understand that increasing the minimum wage may help that few percent that is extremely poor, but when it comes down to aiding the entire economy as a whole, minimum wage should not be lowered. With that being said, I am still extremely surprised by what our state feels about minimum wage because in the end result, it could harm our economy.
ReplyDeleteI think that the minimum wage rate should stay where it is. $7.25 an hour is a perfect amount of money for the kids who work multiple hours a week.Once the hours begin to add up, the money will begin to add up. If the government would raise the rate, businesses would struggle to stay up and running, because they would lose lots of customers. The prices would have to increase in result of the rate increasing, and the demand for products would be minimal. Also, jobs would have to lay off many people in result of this, leaving many teenagers jobless. This could ruin their motivation for going to college and getting a good career. If this were the case, they couldn't be able to make a decent living. As you can see, raising the minimum wage rate would cause more harm than benefit. Minimum wage should stay as it is, because the economy is running just fine at the level its at.
ReplyDeleteEven as a teenager who would directly benefit from this raise in minimum wage, I don't think this is a good idea. With higher minimum wages, businesses would have to charge more for their products, so people would have to pay more for each product, resulting in our dollar being worth less than before. This would be terrible for the economy, so basically raising the minimum wage would be too. If the reason they are hoping to raise the wage is for the people that live off a minimum wage salary, it still doesn't really make sense because the government offers programs to help people that are not making enough money to support their life. I can understand people's argument for the raise, but economically, I don't think it would help anyone.
ReplyDeleteRaising minimum wage speeds up the process of inflation rates. My opinion on minimum wage is that is should be non-existent as we are a capitalism driven nation and that it should be left to the business owner to create wages for the business in which they control/operate.
ReplyDeleteAs the economy gets worse, prices rise and it is harder for people to spend money. People will eat out less and buy the things that they need, don't want. And for the business that employ workers at minimum wage, won't make enough money to pay the employees and will have to make cuts. If the minimum wage increases, unemployment can rise if businesses can't afford to keep their employees employed. Even though it is hard for people to live off of minimum wage, it could get worse if they increase minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteWhile increasing minimum wage would benefit a small people group, the negative impact it would have on the economy as a whole would be devastating. Creating an even higher floor for wage causes a domino effect. Companies are in turn able to hire a fewer number of workers due to the higher cost per worker creating a surplus of workers. These now unemployed minimum wage workers are now experiencing the negative consequence of raising minimum wage. The companies' inability to hire the appropriate number of workers would result in a decline in the quality of service. The marginal benefit of an additional worker equaling the new marginal cost would cause a significant shift of the equilibrium point. Consumers needs overall would be under met--a negative externality to the raise in minimum wage. Regardless of the immediate effect a raise in minimum wage would have on any given person in the long term it would negatively effect them and they wouldn't be receiving the benefits. Therefore minimum wage should not be increased as it creates negative consequences for the entire economy and causes a negative externality.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that minimum wage should stay where it is currently at. Yes, nobody likes to earn minimum wage, but it's part of entering the workforce. Not everything will always go in the employees' favor, and earning some money is better than earning none. I've seen protest signs that say things like "I can't live off of $7.25 an hour." Realistically, though, could that person live comfortably off of $9 an hour? Or even $10? I feel as if no matter how high minimum wage is raised, there will always be reason to complain. What's more important is to protect the businesses and employment levels, so there are more opportunities for a larger percentage of the population including teenagers to earn some income no matter how small the value.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that raising the rate of minimum wage would be a good thing. Most of the people who have a minimum wage job are people who are in high school, so they don't need to make a lot of money at the moment, and people who don't have a lot of experience when it comes to school, so those people shouldn't expect to get a lot of money in the first place. It also would be harder for businesses to keep up with paying their employees. They would have to raise their prices in the stores and customers wouldn't be too happy. It's good if you get a pay raise but I don't think it would be such a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, raising the minimum rate would not has as adverse of an affect as indicated. The majority of companies that employ minimum wage employees have a large number of people making more than minimum. This means that although there would be an increase in their cost, it would no be enough to drive the company out of a profit. An alarming number of large companies cheat the tax system and pay little to no income tax. With all that money they make raising minimum wage shouldn't be a problem and would put the money that simple sits overseas, into americans pockets.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI think raising the minimum wage would have way more problems than positive outcomes. If the minimum wage was raised a lot of the prices of fast food would raise, and we would be paying more for less quality.
ReplyDeleteI think that raising minimum wage is not going to solve any financial crises, if anything it will only cause more inflation in our economy.
ReplyDeleteI really like the facts that have been said, however if more money were distributed to workers wouldn't it just make sense that the government and other employers of their companies sale just increase the value of their items as well? It would be nice to have extra money but it wouldn't make much use or much sense anyway.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is called minimum wage for a reason. If you get a good education and work hard you are not supposed to make minimum wage your entire life. If the minimum wage is increased companies will have to lay off workers.
ReplyDeleteI think that if you are making minimum wage there is a reason for that. If you went to school and got a better job than you wouldn't make minimum wage. It could get to the point when going to college isn't any good because when you get out you will make minimum wage any way so why go? I think that it shouldn't be raised much higher because it is an incentive to go to school and get a better job where you will be making more money in a job you like better anyway. Also if everyone starts to have more money then everything else will be more expensive in the long run.
ReplyDelete