The inadequate minimum wage is leaving people below the poverty line, forcing them to turn to government assistance, a cost beared by the taxpayers. All the while, corporations benefit from low wages in the form of pocketing huge profits. A UC Berkeley study found a specific example of in the fast food industry. The study revealed that more than half of fast food workers, employed 40 hours per week or more, were enrolled in federal assistance programs, and the cost of assistance for these workers alone is 7 billion per year (Allegretto, “Fast Food, Poverty Wages” ). Full-time workers should not be paid wages low enough that they cannot survive without the help of federal assistance. These low wage jobs and the profits earned because of them only exist because the government subsidizes part of the worker's
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There is no reason for the U.S. government to add billions to the profits of gigantic companies like Mcdonald's, because last year alone Mcdonald's made $27 billion in profits. The CEO also brought home $7.91 million in just one year and the wage gap between employers and their employees is incredibly large, the average CEO is paid almost 300 times more than their workers compared to only 20 times more 40 years ago (Bult, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook gets a 368% pay raise while the fast food chain's workers demand livable wages) (Johnston, Efforts to regulate CEO pay gain traction). Our economic system proposes that some people are worth 300 times more than other people. This is a fundamental flaw in the structure of our country, when the government allows these disparities to exist and people to earn wages so low they cannot survive off of them. Corporations will tell you that if the minimum wage were raised they would be forced to cut jobs, but this is simply not true. Numerous economists and seven nobel prize winners agree that a minimum wage raise wouldn’t lead to job loss. (Woellert, Seven Nobel Laureates
There is no reason for the U.S. government to add billions to the profits of gigantic companies like Mcdonald's, because last year alone Mcdonald's made $27 billion in profits. The CEO also brought home $7.91 million in just one year and the wage gap between employers and their employees is incredibly large, the average CEO is paid almost 300 times more than their workers compared to only 20 times more 40 years ago (Bult, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook gets a 368% pay raise while the fast food chain's workers demand livable wages) (Johnston, Efforts to regulate CEO pay gain traction). Our economic system proposes that some people are worth 300 times more than other people. This is a fundamental flaw in the structure of our country, when the government allows these disparities to exist and people to earn wages so low they cannot survive off of them. Corporations will tell you that if the minimum wage were raised they would be forced to cut jobs, but this is simply not true. Numerous economists and seven nobel prize winners agree that a minimum wage raise wouldn’t lead to job loss. (Woellert, Seven Nobel Laureates