Raising Minimum Wage Essay

Minimum Wage is a fundamental part of our economic growth and was first made in 1938 to combat poverty. It is the minimum an employer is allowed to pay you by state law. However, recent studies show that there are about 14.8% people in poverty, which are about 46.7 million people in 2014. With that said, these numbers have been nearly the same with no change at all in the last four years. As of right now the federal minimum wage is 7.25, but we may see an increase in the near future. The reason minimum wage was first placed in 1938 was to prevent unfair wages and to prevent poverty.
With so many people in poverty right now, most states already took the actions to raise the minimum wage with Washington having the highest at $9.32(UC Davis). That’s more than a 25% increase of the federal minimum wage. There are more states that are considering minimum wage increase by ways of legislatures or through ballot initiatives. However, raising the minimum wage too …show more content…
These employees will be paid usually 20 percent less and would all be under the table income. This in fact would hurt the economy because these employer would not be required to pay some of their allotted taxed and avoid other payroll obligations. The results in higher taxes due to unreported income.
According to economist James Galbraith, with a higher minimum wage it would bring in more income for more than 28 million Americans with Women having the most benefits from this. Galbraith claims that Women tends to have lower wages than men and raising it would make people tend to go back to school or have children. These would open up more jobs and make it easier to find work. There will also be more income-tax revenues, which would bring down the federal deficit and would make social security a problem of the