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The Devastating Effect of Raising the Minimum Wage

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The Devastating Effect of Raising the Minimum Wage Raising the Federal minimum wage does not reduce poverty. If legislators raise the price of low and unskilled labor, businesses would reduce the workforce. The very laborers that are pushing for raising the minimum wage are the ones that will suffer the most. An increase in the minimum wage would lead to job loss and may result in higher prices for consumers. Minimum wage increases may result in severe economic devastation. Recently in New York between ten and fifteen thousand laborers marched in an effort to persuade lawmakers to increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars per hour. The majority of those marching were activist students and employees of fast food industries. If protesters are successful in securing a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage up to seventy percent of them will lose their jobs. For the first time in history, if the fifteen dollar per hour wage is approved, a fully automated solution would be an economically viable solution for struggling companies like McDonalds. Several companies are nearing commercial launch of the automated burger process. “Roboburger,” an automated burger machine can produce 8,500 burgers a day while 25 employees can produce 320 per day in comparison. If the companies are only required to pay a minimum wage of eight dollars per hour and contract labor, which means no benefits, it would still be viable to hire those 25 employees. The automation over the next few years will affect over 20 million workers. Evidence shows that minimum wage increases disproportionally hurt the people they are supposed to help. In the case that seventy percent of fast food employees lose their jobs, the wage increase would have little effect on reducing poverty. Evidence suggests that raising the minimum wage does not reduce poverty. In a 2012 review by Mark Wilson it was

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