President Barack Obama once shed light on the minimum wage issue during his last State of the Union Address. Being slightly enraged, he urged the Congress to raise the minimum wage, saying that “If you believe you can support your family at current minimum wage, try it; otherwise, please vote for increasing the minimum wage.” Additionally, last couple years have witnessed public’s strong movements for the raise of the minimum wage. As the dimension on which the minimum wage issue has an effect is tremendous, it has to be done to take a closer look at this minimum wage issue.
Fortunately, more and more economic professionals and experts come together to discuss the issue, and one valuable debate was held in Washington DC in 2013. The motion …show more content…
Evaluation of data and evidence
In evaluating data and evidence, people should focus on some factors. One of those factors is how reliable the evidence is. In addition, how the data is related to the issue is another criteria in evaluating data and evidence.
To begin with, the supporters provided plenty of research and studies to support their arguments. One of the evidence they suggested was a study by David Neumark written for the National Bureau of Economic Research. This evidence is fairly reliable as the research was done by an official organization. His research refutes one of the opponents’ arguments that a number of economists, policy makers, and low wage workers themselves have long accepted and understood advantages of the minimum wage. They also brought real-life example. They told a story of a female owner of a restaurant. After the minimum wage was raised, she could not help but firing majority of her workers in her restaurant as she could not pay her workers as much she was supposed to do. Another real life example was the failure of raising the minimum wage in Washington DC. The Washington post said the city council’s decision to raise the minimum wage of special stores such as Costco, Home Depot, and Walmart was a failure because Costco ended up leaving the city as it could not make up the raised minimum wage. These studies and real-life evidence are clearly relevant to their arguments and have guaranteed …show more content…
As employers are able to pay their workers based on workers’ capability, they will try to hire more people. Consequently, low-skilled workers are at much lower risk of losing their jobs. More opportunities will significantly help unemployed young population aged 16 to 24. At the same time, as mentioned above, what actually has to be done is to figure out right ways to help individuals having low skills. The answer is to fix our school system. Therefore, abolishing the minimum wage will lead to changes in the educational policy. However, there is also a negative side of abolishing the minimum wage. If we abolish the minimum wage, the government will collect fewer payroll taxes. That means the government will collect more taxes from other sources including food stamps, welfare benefits, and unemployment insurance. The taxpayer will have more burden than they would without abolishing the minimum wage. However, fewer payroll taxes are not correct predictions. After abolishing the minimum wage, more people will eventually have jobs, which means we have more people who can pay payroll taxes. The slight reduction in payroll taxes from currently hired people’s wages will be greatly compensated by the significant increase in new payroll taxes from newly hired people’s
Fortunately, more and more economic professionals and experts come together to discuss the issue, and one valuable debate was held in Washington DC in 2013. The motion …show more content…
Evaluation of data and evidence
In evaluating data and evidence, people should focus on some factors. One of those factors is how reliable the evidence is. In addition, how the data is related to the issue is another criteria in evaluating data and evidence.
To begin with, the supporters provided plenty of research and studies to support their arguments. One of the evidence they suggested was a study by David Neumark written for the National Bureau of Economic Research. This evidence is fairly reliable as the research was done by an official organization. His research refutes one of the opponents’ arguments that a number of economists, policy makers, and low wage workers themselves have long accepted and understood advantages of the minimum wage. They also brought real-life example. They told a story of a female owner of a restaurant. After the minimum wage was raised, she could not help but firing majority of her workers in her restaurant as she could not pay her workers as much she was supposed to do. Another real life example was the failure of raising the minimum wage in Washington DC. The Washington post said the city council’s decision to raise the minimum wage of special stores such as Costco, Home Depot, and Walmart was a failure because Costco ended up leaving the city as it could not make up the raised minimum wage. These studies and real-life evidence are clearly relevant to their arguments and have guaranteed …show more content…
As employers are able to pay their workers based on workers’ capability, they will try to hire more people. Consequently, low-skilled workers are at much lower risk of losing their jobs. More opportunities will significantly help unemployed young population aged 16 to 24. At the same time, as mentioned above, what actually has to be done is to figure out right ways to help individuals having low skills. The answer is to fix our school system. Therefore, abolishing the minimum wage will lead to changes in the educational policy. However, there is also a negative side of abolishing the minimum wage. If we abolish the minimum wage, the government will collect fewer payroll taxes. That means the government will collect more taxes from other sources including food stamps, welfare benefits, and unemployment insurance. The taxpayer will have more burden than they would without abolishing the minimum wage. However, fewer payroll taxes are not correct predictions. After abolishing the minimum wage, more people will eventually have jobs, which means we have more people who can pay payroll taxes. The slight reduction in payroll taxes from currently hired people’s wages will be greatly compensated by the significant increase in new payroll taxes from newly hired people’s