...Raising the Minimum Wage Student Name: Sylvie Makendi Course/Number: com /170 12/14/15 Faculty Name: Angela Grosse With $7.25 a person can maybe buy a whopper meal at burger king and a pack or chewing gum at a local convenience store. For a person working minimum wage to buy that whopper and pack of gum, they must work one hour. That is not enough to live a sustainable life. The meager wage brings forth recent discussion about whether or not the federal minimum wage should be increased. This divisive issue is especially prevalent within the bipartisan American political parties, the majority of Republicans do not want the minimum wage to be raised, and the majority of Democrats want the minimum wage to be raised. However, this issue should not be a political one because raising the minimum wage benefits everyone regardless of their political party of affiliation. There are many reasons to raise a minimum wage. In today’s society, it’s expensive to live in America and even getting day by day is tough. Raising the minimum wage will be beneficial for both workers and employers in the United States. It will put more money in people’s pockets. This money is invested back into their communities and small business which will help uplift the downtrodden economy. The growth of the national economy, the decrease in poverty and reduction in government sponsored social programs shows that the federal minimum wage should be raised to more than $ 7.25. Raising the minimum wage would...
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...Paper: Raising minimum wage 3/21/15 Professor Arin Black English 102 July 24th very easily could have been the day of rejoicing for Americans around the United States thanks to the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which amended the FLSA (The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938) to increase the federal minimum wage in steps. The first increase came on July 24th, 2007 when minimum wage was increased to $5.85, then in 2008 when minimum wage rose again to $6.55, and lastly on July 24th 2009 when minimum wage was raised to its current $7.25. Instead of raising minimum wage consistently as the years before, six long years have passed since the minimum wage has risen at all in the United States and this has left Americans to have very little to rejoice about. Not only does the government owe their citizens a raise in minimum wage, but it is long overdue. Many Americans are drowning in debt but somehow find a way to enjoy their life as comfortable as possible without the help of a higher minimum wage. For many this may seem like the norm but poverty has grown ever so steadily and there has yet to be an answer for this since July 24th, 2009. Given this, I absolutely agree the minimum wage needs to be increased in order to match the rise in costs of living which, unlike minimum wage, has risen dramatically since the last time anything was done about it. To begin, I’d like to take you deeper into the history of our rise in prices throughout the economy since the last rise in minimum wage...
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...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.” While the technological innovation and scientific revolution has increased, so has the cost of living. This is why minimum wage must go up: because the cost of living has increased. Education is essential to one wishing to work even a minimum wage job, and many people living in the middle-class or poverty level are unable to afford education properly. This exhibits the potential energy of classism bubbling to the surface as economic inequality. Companies should be required to pay workers what they deserve, which is substantially more than what the minimum wage is today. According to a 2015 BLS Report by the United States Government, 35.5 Percent of minimum wage workers are least forty years old and a whopping 56.4% of women.1 Without doubt this opens way to a new piece of evidence to discuss when talking about minimum wage. These companies are vehement to pay the working backbone of their very nature - especially fast-food companies - but have no problem installing self-checkout kiosks in franchises like McDonalds to limit their minimum wage workers. This poses an even more important question than before: if we demand that minimum wage be raised, will...
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...Presently in the United States, many people, such as the liberals believe the best way for low class workers to get out of poverty is to raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars national wide without even think of how it is going to affect the economy as well as the citizens of this country. Raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars national wide will lead to a disaster. According to Douglas Holtz- Eakin, raising the minimum wage will hurt the poor citizens more than people think it would help them (Holtz-Eakin, 2015). As it is obvious, the cost of living is different in every states. Therefore, raising the minimum wages to 15 dollars national wide will be such disadvantage for many states in this country. For instance, New York, the minimum wage...
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...Hannah Bowman 21 Apr. 2017 4th block Should the Federal Minimum Wage be Increased? In the United States many people struggle in their everyday life to provide for their family. A quick and easy way to solve this problem would be to raise the hourly minimum wage to a higher rate instead of $7.25. Increasing the minimum wage would reduce the amount of poverty that the United States has. Surprisingly, the high school dropout rate has a high correlation with the low national minimum wage. Doing this would also decrease the amount of crimes we have in the US every year. Raising the minimum wage would benefit the United States in many ways. Poverty is a real problem in the US and has been for some time, but by paying our low income families more money per hour this problem could be resolved. “The annual earnings for a full time minimum wage worker is $15,080 at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.” (what are the annual earnings) $15,080 is hardly enough to support a family and provide nutritional and well balanced meals. In agreement with Mike Konczal, Author of Economist agree: Raising the Minimum Wage Reduces Poverty says, “raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, as many Democrats are proposing in 2014 would reduce the number of people living in poverty by 4.6 million...
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...Many people in the United States have witnessed and experienced minimum wage jobs earning $7.25 an hour. People have been activists of raising the federal minimum wage for a long time. This federal minimum wage standard has been used since July 24, 2009 and has not been changed since then but the question is whether or not we should raise the federal minimum wage again to help families in need. The thought of raising the minimum wage standard recently has been a popular topic. In this article, Senator Tom Harkin, Representative George Miller and U.S secretary of labor Tom Perez propose the idea of raising the federal minimum wage and what pros can come from raising the wage. They talk about how much of an impact it would have on our economy. They also take into...
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...ENG 111 10 March 2014 The Reasons Why Federal Minimum Wage Is Raised U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on February 12, 2014 to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour starting next year and encouraged employers nationwide to increase wages for their workers. The president also announced during his State of the Union address last month that he intended to take executive action to raise wages for federal contract workers (Mason). Order to understand this issue, we are going to understand what the Federal Minimum Wage is and when started it in the U.S.A. According to the United States Department of Labor (USDL), early in the administration of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), it started to be apparent that the use of the legal minimum wage was prone to producing undesirable efforts upon the financial systems of Puerto Rico and also the Virgin Island if put on all their covered industries. As a result, on June 26, 1940, an amendment was passed prescribing the establishment of special industry committees to find out, and problem through wage orders, the minimum, wage levels relevant in Puerto Rico and also the Virgin islands. The rates established by industry committees might be under the legal rates relevant elsewhere within the United States. In 1949, the minimum wage was elevated from 40 cents an hour or so to 75 cent an hour so for those employees and minimum wage coverage was extended to incorporate employees in mid-air...
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...only get paid minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is set at $7.25, as of 2009. Over the past 79 years, the national minimum wage has been raised 22 times (Minimum Wage Mythbusters). The wage has been increased due to inflation, or the decrease in value of currency. With inflation, everyday objects cost more than they did 70 years ago. The minimum wage today is less compared to the minimum wage of 1981. The base pay needs to be raised for the good of the people, and the good of the country. Increasing minimum wage in the United States will reduce its poverty, boost economic activity, and benefit and reward...
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...Minimum Wage Raising minimum wages actually promotes growth (Meroney 1995) and will have a positive effect on the economy. The positive effect will come from promoting job growth. This statement was made by U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Reich recommended that the minimum wage of $4.25 an hour be pushed up to $5.15 an hour over a two-year period. Reich said, it has been shown that pushing the minimum wage up, would assist in welfare reform, and lower the number of persons on welfare, by making wages high enough to motivate people to go to work, rather than stay on welfare. And with more people in the job market, with more money to spend, increases would be shown in both gross national product sales, and an increase in taxes derived from sales taxes. When receiving paychecks, most employees will agree that one can never be paid enough, however, their employers may disagree with that statement and believe that they are getting paid far greater than they are entitled to. Thus creating a conflict between minimum wages. Minimum wage is the least amount of money that an employer may pay their employees. The federal minimum wage that is experienced by many members of the United States, currently is at $5.15, and is under debate as to weather or not it should be raised an additional dollar per hour, to make the minimum wage $6.15 (1). As a result of dissatisfaction with the minimum wage, debates whether or not the wage should be lifted to please more workers are currently taking...
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...Abolish or Sustain? The Minimum Wage Debate Sarah Campbell May 8, 2013 Abstract In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act established a federal minimum wage. Minimum wage has continuously increased throughout the years due to interest rates and the value of a dollar. Since its introduction the minimum wage has risen from 25 cents an hour to 7.25 dollars per hour in 2009. In President Obama’s recent State of the Union Address he states, “Working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher.” He hopes to raise the minimum wage by 2014 to 9 dollars per hour. Following the President’s support on minimum wage increase Sen. Tom Harkin (Democrat-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (Democrat-California) formalized a proposal known as S.460, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 to increase the minimum wage by 2015 to $10.10. This proposal includes increasing the minimum wage (in three incremental increases of $.95) and then indexing it to inflation (“as prices rise, so would the minimum wage” (Cooper, Hall 2013)). Also, the tipped minimum wage (the minimum wage paid to workers who earn a portion of their wages in tips) would be increased in $0.85 increments from its current value of $2.13 per hour, where it has languished since 1991, until it reaches 70 percent of the regular minimum wage (Cooper, Hall 2013). However, in the current tough economic times many people argue that an increased minimum wage will only hurt and that...
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...In today’s society, many political leaders debate about whether raising minimum wage would help or harm both our economy and our United States working class earning minimum wage. I feel that our country should not raise its minimum wage, for while it may help those that keep their minimum wage jobs, it would make the laid off and fired workers suffer. Many businesses would not be able to afford paying their current number of employees, meaning that there would be less job opportunities, and unemployment would increase. Also, with fewer job openings earning minimum wage, overqualified individuals would take a majority of the job positions, leaving fewer opportunities for less experienced workers to learn necessary life skills. Raising minimum wage is not a smart move for the federal government to make, because businesses have strict budgets that they must follow. We must remember that just because the minimum wage can be freely altered by the government, does not necessarily mean that businesses will magically have more money in their budgets to distribute to their employees. Instead,...
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...The national average for the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour. This is the lowest amount that an employer can compensate its workers legally. Basically it is the lowest wage that a worker can sell their labor at. The federal minimum wage should be raised for two reasons, it keeps up with rising living costs, and it boosts the economy. But on the other side the opponents will say it increases poverty and unemployment. The first reason that the federal minimum wage should be increased is because of the rising cost of living. Raising the national living wage will allow workers to better support their families and keep up with the economy. The last time congress raised the national average of pay was seven years ago. Since that time, the cost of living has dramatically shot up. According to an article on USA Today’s website, groceries cost 20% more, a gallon of gas costs 25% more, and average tuition at a community college increased 44%, if...
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...some of the additional effects raising the minimum wage income has on society. The United States low wage workers, namely the fast food industry workers are currently demanding higher wages. We will discuss the effect of those higher wages to businesses, the workers and those who we would not think to be affected. Effects of Minimum Wage Increases Chapter 1 Introduction Anyone who watches the local or national news has heard of the recent debate over raising the nation’s minimum wage requirements. Employees of McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King are protesting in the streets and going on strike demanding a $15 per hour minimum wage (Fast Food Workers). These restaurant chains and others do not believe the minimum wage should be raised to $15 per hour for fast-food workers. There are many arguments to support both the demand to raise the minimum wage and not to raise the minimum wage. This paper will focus on different arguments and the impacts of raising the minimum wage will have on society from different angles, the first being how employers may respond to the wage increase by reducing the amount of employees they employ. The second focuses on who the mandated increase will most likely impact. And the third and final being the artificial inflation effects on the consumer. History Raising the minimum wage is not a new idea for the United States. In 1938 congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which ensured minimum wage of 25 cents per hour (USDofL)...
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...The minimum wage is often thought of as a guarantee of fairness in the employment market. As it is erroneously perceived, the minimum wage ensures that every person receives a living wage. However, the minimum wage neither guarantees that an individual be employed in the first place, nor does it guarantee that an employee will be offered enough hours of work in order to garner a so-called “living wage.” A raise in the minimum wage, without a raise in productivity for the given work, will result in companies resorting to drastic measures to secure profits. These measures include cutting down worker hours, implementing rigorous productivity standards, and most importantly, raising the cost of products and services. An increase in the minimum wage will result in an increased difficulty for low-skilled individuals seeking work, as they now have to compensate for an inequity in the value they provide and the wage they are guaranteed. In addition, those already past the threshold of the minimum wage will be forced to endure a rise in the cost of living, despite the fact that they did not receive a raise in their personal wage. Lastly, raising the minimum wage will degrade the idea of the free market, a system which allows prospective employees to exchange their work to an employer for an agreed upon wage, including wages that may not conform to the restraints of the minimum wage. Ultimately, the federal minimum wage should not be raised as it will encourage an increase in the unemployment...
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...Minimum Wage and the Working Poor HD 403 Poverty Spring 2012 Introduction It is believed one way to help the working poor is to increase the minimum wage to elevate their yearly income. But surveys and studies have shown that raising the minimum wage has done very little to help poverty rate. What it has done is eliminate jobs that the working poor filled and increased inflation. It seems to be an ineffective way to help the poor, a combination of other anti-poverty tools together would produce better results. Issue Each president has wanted to help those in poverty and the working poor in America. President Clinton increased the federal minimum wage to bring up the wages of the working poor. Is that the answer? What will happen when the federal minimum wage is brought up to $9.50 an hour? This article is looking into possibilities of what may happen with poverty and the working poor if the minimum wage were increased. The working poor are people in the workforce but wages still fall below the poverty level. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 has increased the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour (Rep. Miller, 2007). The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in 2011, there were 73.9 million American workers age 16 and older were paid hourly wage. But only 1.7 million workers made minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and 2.2 million had wages below the minimum (USDL, 3/2012). The working poor looked like a person who had not graduated high school...
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