In 1938 when minimum wage was first introduced at $0.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage has increased 22 times. The minimum wage is the salary floor or the lowest possible rate that employers can pay employees.
The most recent update to the federal minimum wage was in 2009, when it was raised to $7.25 an hour. So should minimum wage be raised and to what hourly rate?
Yes, there are many things that could be done if we raised the minimum wage. The minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation. As a result, the pay of many workers those with families of three or more people are now well below the poverty level. An increase in the minimum wage can raise the standard of living for these impoverished workers and their families. Additional income would be spent by consumers if raised, any kind of entertainment sense more people would able to afford more expensive luxuries and would ripple through the economy. Increasing the minimum wage could also help reduce gender and race based income inequality, with everyone being paid at least a decent amount that way not one race or gender is being paid more than others. Government expenses for social programs aimed at the poor would potentially be reduced because everyone would be getting paid more and wouldn’t need as much support from the government anymore. This could also result in slightly lower taxes for other Americans.
So with that I think the question isn’t “Why should we raise minimum wage?” It should actually be “why haven’t we raised minimum wage yet?”.
Works cited
“Minimum Wage - ProCon.org.” Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased?, minimum-wage.procon.org/.
Doyle, Alison. “Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised?” The Balance Careers, The Balance Careers, www.thebalancecareers.com/pros-and-cons-of-raising-the-minimum-wage-2062521.
I believe that minimum wage should not be raised from 7.25$ and hour because the whole reason for minimum wage is to have young people who are just about to get their feet wet into the whole world is to help them get a good start in terms of money. I get the whole part about how it well help lower income families but when you raise the minimum wage you are just allowing people who are already doing a easy job to get more money for that job. If you are a hard worker and want to make a good effort to support your family there is no doubt about it that you can obtain a job that pays a lot more than minimum wage and you don’t even need a college degree. My dad didn’t go to college and right now he works with buying supplies with a big company. He has been telling me over the years is that “working hard really does pay off”. Now to the question about should minimum wage be raised? I wholeheartedly believe that raising minimum wage would not provide a good outcome because then you are giving more money to people who don’t want to work as hard. The whole reason for minimum wage is for young people to get a start in life not to have that start be what they do for the rest of their life.
ReplyDeleteWhile in Pewaukee, a community with more money than most, having a job that pays minimum wage is extremely easy to find, in much more poorer communities, getting these jobs can be hard. Wisconsin is estimated to have a 13.2% poverty rate. If these people could easily find jobs at minimum wage, I would like to think many of them would be living above the poverty line. People who are working at minimum wage still work hard at their jobs, they just lack the education, or the tools necessary to work higher paying jobs.
DeleteRaising minimum wage might only adjust inflation rates a little bit, but in terms of outside inflation on the US Dollar, minimum wage isn’t keeping up. According to NBC, PewResearch, and other companies, the inflation rate has gone nothing but down since 2010. The USD actually has less buying power now than it did in 1968.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are many benefits to increasing minimum wage, one could argue raising minimum wage will hurt the economy more than it will help it. Increasing minimum wage will force companies to spend more on jobs, and that money has to come from somewhere. Companies will likely lay of many of their workers in order to give others a pay raise. This will cause unemployment for many people which will create an even greater need for government sponsored programs to help them get jobs, leading to more government spending, which may lead to higher taxes for other Americans. Raising minimum wage would also make it more challenging for small business owners to afford workers. This could lead to the end of many small businesses which will be replaced by larger business chain stores with nearly no competition, which could lead to higher prices for consumers. Increasing minimum wage is a double edged sword, which could increase the standard of living for many people, but also hurt many others and the economy of the U.S..
ReplyDeleteI like how you show the pros of have minimum wage being increased and then having the picture of 3 pros and 3 cons. then show the wages of 1938 then to 2009 that was another smart thing to put in your argument. Another thing that is nice about this is that how you say that gender and race would be a little bit more equal which might be true but also might not be. The last part that I like about this is that the question at the end with "why haven't we raised minimum wage yet?" that is a great thing to end on to make the reader think and also to spark arguments.
ReplyDeleteWhile I see all the points of your argument, and I firmly believe that the things that you stated would happen as a result of raising the minimum wage should occur, on an economic level it isn't as easy. It is said that the minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation, and while that is true, raising minimum wage allows more markets and producers to just raise the cost of living as a whole, reducing people to having the minimum wage be equivalent to what it was before. These producers would also need to keep up with paying a higher overall salary to people, which in turn would lead to more people being laid off. Companies would need to decide between laying of specialty jobs or many minimum wage ones. To pose a question, if we raise the minimum wage and many people get laid off as a result, doesn't it put us into a similar state. If the government were to raise it, it should only be by small amounts at a time to avoid the imbalance between producers and consumers.
ReplyDeleteI think we should raise the minimum wage, but being careful about at the same time. I mean, we don’t want to be Bernie Sanders here and raise it to 15 dollars an hour. Like you said, the minimum wage does not consist with the inflation rates, leaving people below the poverty level. But it shouldn’t be raised to $15 dollars an hour, but more like $7.75 dollars an hour. While it may not seem like much at first, that .50 cents adds up to $1 more every 2 hours which helps a lot.
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I agree that increasing the minimum wage would be beneficial for many. Everything goes around will come back. While companies would be spending more money, they would have happier workers which can make the workplace an overall better place. Another benefit is these people making minimum wage can live more comfortably. They will have enough money to support them self and any dependents that they may or may not have. With the extra money they can spend more money putting money back into the businesses, making the economic loop more full.
ReplyDeleteMinimum wage does benefit a lot of people but not all jobs have the same work level you may work the same hours but some people have to put in harder work than someone who might work in the fast food industry or something.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the idea that minimum wage should be raised. If employers had to pay their subordinates more than they currently do, it would resolve many problems in today’s society. When people work at a job, it’s because they need to make money. Of course, for teenagers just looking for a part-time job, they obviously shouldn’t be getting as much money as, say, a single mother of three. However, those over a certain age threshold should be gaining more than a minimum of $7.25 an hour. Yes, they often do get paid more, but there are still many people out there who only transmit the lowest possible amount of money to their workers. And while minimum wage is not the sole reason for poverty in today’s society, it is certainly a big factor, and many people feel nostalgia for the past when minimum wage could actually help you support a family.
ReplyDeleteI agree that minimum wage should be increased; however, by how much should minimum wage be increased so that employers can still hire easily, maintain human resources, keep high schoolers from dropping out, while still keeping up with inflation and deflation rates? For young teenagers who are working their first or second job, maybe it is okay for them to be making $7.25/hour because they don't have to pay for mortgages, cars, phone bills, basic needs, or student debt. For an adult who's in college or on their own making minimum wage is unacceptable because they would need to work at least 4 hours to be able to afford a single tank of gas. Think about how much they would have to work to pay for college, rent, food, clothes, entertainment- the majority of their lifetime presumably.
ReplyDeleteThe minimum wage is a tricky thing to balance. The minimum wage as of now is okay but could definitely improve. The businesses don’t want to raise the minimum wage because then they will have to pay their staff more, even if the staff are not getting paid minimum wage. The value of our money will go down since everyone has more money, and eventually the people working minimum wage, will not be able to afford the housing they need, which is why we raised the minimum wage in the first place. I think that raising the minimum wage a little bit could be beneficial but too much could be worse for us.
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ReplyDeleteRaising the minimum wage could potentially balance out gender and race disparities but at the same time could create another problem. That problem being unemployment. Companies won’t able to employ more workers as they won’t have the funds to pay the workers. Essentially people believe that raising minimum wage will bring people above the poverty line but the truth is that is not the case. Very few people are actually going to get hired for these minimum wage jobs.
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ReplyDeleteBecause minimum wage is a price floor in the labor market, a raise in the minimum wage would potentially hurt the very workers it means to help by causing a labor surplus and thus causing unemployment. However, it is clear that workers benefit in the long term with the minimum wage as companies adjust to a change in the labor market. Now is the ideal time to increase the minimum wage as the labor market currently is nearing full employment. The unemployment rate is currently 3.7 percent, the lowest in nearly 50 years. Therefore an increase in unemployment would not be as harmful to the economy or to workers now as it would have been a five years ago when unemployment was 7.3 percent.
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ReplyDeleteWhile raising minimum wage has a positive impact on the personal lives of numerous workers, raising minimum wage could potentially harm workers as well. By raising minimum wage, the government sets a higher price floor on wages. This causes an increase in quantity supplied of labor as more people are willing to work for a higher wage, but a decrease in quantity demanded as less businesses are willing to pay more for labor. This creates deadweight loss as workers willing to work for less are unable to work, and suppliers who would hire those workers are unable to employ more expensive labor. In the current labor market, unemployment is very low, which is reflective of a decrease in supply of labor. Due to the principles of market equilibrium, this decrease in supply should naturally increase the equilibrium price of labor which may be seen in companies choosing to hire above minimum wage to attract employees regardless of the set minimum wage.