...Recession, seven to eight years ago, about 8.4 million jobs were lost and 14.3% of Americans were living in poverty. Several years later, the government is still trying to get the Economy back on its feet. Democrats say that raising the minimum wage will increase earnings for millions of workers leading to cash flow which will stimulate the economy. Republicans say that although increasing the minimum wage would help many Americans by increasing their earnings, many Americans would also experience job loss. Increasing the minimum wage would help the economy greatly but could also hurt many of the low-income families. Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune, brings up a great point stating that raising the minimum wage is not an effective way to address the poverty issue America faces. When raising the minimum wage, not only will the families living in low-income housing be affected, but also young adults with their first jobs and teenagers working after school. This is a concern because these students aren’t the ones who need the help; it is the families with 5 children who...
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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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...of machinery and rail road systems to America, the economical framework relied on a warped version of lasseiz-faire and featured wealthy descendants of British merchants who joined the colonies. Others worked menial jobs and apprenticeships to guarantee their source of income and it is safe to say that many were unhappy with their predicament --- even if they had no platform to voice this opinion. While the Industrialization Era introduced centuries of wealth to America, it also severely tipped the wealth distribution scale which can be seen extremely in events like the multiple depressions...
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...Minimum wage in California is predicted to increase up to $15.00 an hour by the year 2023. Most people fighting for an increase in minimum wage are restaurant workers, especially in the fast food industry, dissatisfied with the current minimum wage of about $10.00. Economists, on the other hand, oppose raising the minimum wage for numerous reasons, such as an increase in unemployment, the effects it has on minors, the effects of the free market, and the “-ism”’s that increase. The largest and most often point argued by economists that oppose raising minimum wage is that it increases unemployment. Statistics show that “...in 2013, a $1 increase in the minimum wage was associated with a 1.48 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate…”...
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...Rhetorical Strategies: Minimum Wage Whether an opinion piece is effective depends on the expertise of rhetorical strategy of an author. This can either make a written piece convincing or unconvincing to the target audience. A clear example of how rhetorical strategies make a piece more convincing is the comparison of David Laska’s, “Minimum Need for a Minimum Wage Increase”, and Shamus Khan’s, “The Promise of More: Why We Should Raise the Minimum Wage”. By using rhetorical analysis on both opinion pieces Laska clearly makes a better argument. He makes use of logos by including statistics, an expert’s research in the field of minimum wage, and historical data to attack Obama’s decision to raising the minimum wage. He includes pathos to create a sense of disappointment and hopelessness in Obama’s decision effectively to convince his mainly conservative audience. In comparison, Khan also makes use of logos by mainly focusing on historical and some statistical data to convince his more liberal target audience. He also makes use of pathos to instill a sense of remorse for minimum wage workers, and also to call the readers to action. His evidence seems a little weak though, because in one case he forces the reader to open a link for another article for evidence and it seems that his claim relies too much on pathos. First, it is important to note how the author’s ethos affects the basic effectiveness of the article since credibility of writers is vital to convince the target audience...
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...parent’s low paying jobs. Why should the kids suffer because of their parents, this is an unfair deal for the kids that are the key to our successful economy. If the minimum wage is increase, many people will be allowed to have a better future for themselves and their children. America is a country of increasing imbalance, where the wealthy are moving ahead while the working class is falling behind. In America, inequality exists in income, wealth, power, and education. People who are poor in the United States tend to stay in that cycle almost throughout their whole lives, not always by choice but because they do not have any other choice or opportunity. Poverty class has become much more significant in the lower income gap than the upper class,...
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...Fast Food Workers’ Strike Raul Valdez’s section On Thursday September 4th 2014, thousands of fast food restaurant workers walked out of their post and joined a street protest demanding a wage of $15 per hour. Fast food workers in more than 100 cities in the US joined the protest hoping to disturb the fast food chains enough to get their executives’ attention. This protest was part of the movement that was organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). A previous strike was organized on May this year and it took place not only in the US but in at least 33 countries like The UK, Philippines, India, Japan, and Belgium among others. The protests were supposed to be peaceful, but there were some instances of protesters blocking streets. The police had to intervene and at least 430 people were arrested. Kendall Fells, the organizer director of Fast Food Forward organization that helped organize the protest said “There has to be civil disobedience because workers don’t see any other way to get $15 an hour and a union” Protesters were hoping that their absence from work would make these fast food restaurants lose revenue and create chaos forcing executives in these establishments to accept the protesters’ demands. A similar strike took place when the Market Basket workers abandoned their posts when the Market Basket Board of Directors decided to replace their CEO. Although the fast food protest was highly organized and the majority of workers joined, some workers...
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...The Hike to $15 America, the land of freedom and opportunity they say. I think that saying might just be false with the way our nation is today. The main reason I believe being that the federal minimum wage is too low. Minimum wage should be $15 in every state. If we want people to experience the freedom and opportunity, it can’t be done off $7.25. People have kids to provide for, colleges to attend, families to support, and so many more things. The luxury to afford to have all the “freedom” or “opportunity” the rich may have isn’t plausible for minimum wage workers. Every morning these people wake up and questions whether they have enough money for food or housing for example. Robert Reich, an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator, made some good points on this issue. Reich also believes that the minimum wage should be $15 an hour. We both agree with federal minimum wage being hiked to $15 an hour. My reason as to why I agree with him being that Reich gives 7 very valid reasons as to why the raise should occur. The benefit over time would be well worth it. Congress instituted the minimum wage in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (DOL). The first minimum wage that was established was 25 cents an hour (James). The last minimum wage increase occurred in 2009, when Congress raised the rate to $7.25 an hour (AFL). The District of Columbia and 19 states have also established local minimum wages higher than the federal rate (AFL)...
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...The article I would like to debate: The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage If we’re going to live in one unified America, we need an economy that works for all Americans By David Cooper http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/05/10/raising-the-minimum-wage-will-reduce-income-inequality In this article one would be lead to believe that raising minimum wage was beneficial for everyone including our economy and should be increased more than it already has been in the past. The argument posed is that small businesses can’t afford to pay minimum wage like big corporations. Big corporations actually don’t even deal with minimum wage in general. And minimum wage jobs were created for people who are beginning in their careers, not those who want to stay in the same position. It is a base, or minimum job position. I agree that it is difficult to raise a child(ren) on minimum wage rates in today’s economy, but the statistics being used in this article are skewed to make the reader sympathize instead of stating that most minimum wage employees are under the age of 25 (Labor, modified 2013). The majority of these people are not raising children. In fact, child-bearing years in women on average have climbed from 28.4 years old to 29.4 years old over the past decade. As you can see it is over the minimum wage range for the majority of workers by 3.4 years. In the article there is no reference to the exact age range, demographics, or even family size. We don’t know what...
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...“The most important problem that we are facing now” (Christofferson, 2013). A significant contributing factor to this is the stagnant minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage will not only decrease income inequality, but also raise millions out of poverty, spur consumer spending, and ultimately lead to a more efficient workplace and workforce. Therefore, America needs to adopt one of the currently proposed $10.00+ minimum wage policies being discussed in the political arena and ensure it is being used in a responsible way to fight these problems. The federal minimum wage has went without a change for nearly a decade twice, from 1981 to 1990 and 1997 to 2007. There have been many more multi-year gaps as well (Federal, n.d.) As a result, the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation over the last 40 years. The purchasing power of the $7.25 minimum wage set in 2009 has already dropped by 5.8% by 2013 (DeSilver, 2013). Since 1968 the power of the minimum wage is down 23% after adjusting for inflation (Boushey, 2014). There is, however, another way of weighing the minimum wage instead of just against inflation. In 1968 the minimum wage was 53% of the average wage for hourly lower level employees, compared to 2013 when it had fallen to 36% as much (Boushey, 2014). This measurement shows that the people making the minimum wage today are not only falling behind their own historic levels, but also behind the workforce as a whole. This is a significant factor in...
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...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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...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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...government should raise minimum wage. Raising minimum wage will help the economy and help people buy what they need to live a comfortable life. Raising minimum wage would be very beneficial to our economy. Raising the wage would not only help people by putting more money in their pockets but those people would also buy more goods which would put money back into our economy. Let’s face it, the cost of living has gone up significantly in the last decade or so. People need more money in order to live a comfortable life. People need money to be able to afford vital things such as food, transportation, education, healthcare, life insurance, etc. “Even if one can work full-time, after state and federal taxes and Social Security and Medicare deductions, one is lucky to retain $225 a week or $12,000 a year, which is precisely the threshold of poverty for a single person (Komlos, “Column: Why”).” If...
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...they perceive the product is worth. In the same vein, an employee will only work for a wage that he deems appropriate. If the employer lowers the wage, fewer workers will desire the job. These are a few of the reasons why the free market principle has many benefits. However, in a free market there can also be market failures. Market failures can arise from a multitude of situations such as pollution, or extreme low wages in areas of poverty. In a free market, a company could cause massive amounts of pollution and not have to bear the market cost of that pollution. The society as a whole, including people who do not benefit from the cheaper product, are the ones dealing with the polluted environment. Currently our government has been discussing a raise in the minimum wage. President Barack Obama is pushing for this bill and has many supporters. A rise in the minimum wage will be a major business issue for the next year and presidential election. Pros: Raising the minimum wage some enticing benefits to the American people and also has some strong logical arguments. One of the supporters for a raise in the minimum wage is U.S. Congresswoman from Florida’s 24th District Frederica Wilson who recently wrote an article titled, Raising the Minimum Wage: Good Ethics and Good Economics, which discusses the market failure of low wages. Wilson bases her argument on that a rise in the minimum wage is good ethics and good...
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...Minimum wage is one of the number one issues in America. There are debates on whether minimum wage needs a raise or stay the same. The current minimum wage in California is $10.50 per hour. Most people that work under minimum wage work more than 60 hours a week. Those people that work under minimum wage are most likely to live in poverty. People can not earn a living on minimum wage. This is why minimum wage needs to be raised. One reason minimum wage needs a raise is because it leads to a healthier population and less premature deaths. Over the past few years, fast food prices drop while the healthier food prices increase. The author states that in “many poverty-dense regions, people are unable to access affordable healthy food, even when...
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