Minimum Wage Benefits

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The goal of a minimum wage is to help alleviate low-waged families out of poverty (Stigler 1946). The minimum wage does not successfully achieve its goal. Therefore, the mayor of New York City should eliminate the minimum wage, instead of increasing or decreasing the minimum wage. The main reasons the minimum wage cannot fully help alleviate those in poverty are poor allocation of resources, different ways wages vary, and the lack of increase in family income along with minimum wage increases (Stigler 1946). When making a decision about the minimum wage consider who pays and who benefits from the minimum. Also consider the other factors within a labor market: the means-tested in-work benefits, income tax, and national insurance (Freeman 1996). …show more content…
Workers lose their jobs when the level of work they provide for a company is not as great as the level of a new worker who enters the labor force because of the new minimum wage (primarily middle-class women and teenagers) or because their labor is lower in value compared to the new minimum wage (Stigler 1946). Therefore, the workers are not able to utilize the resources they are willing to provide. The low-skilled workers that lose their jobs may not have been as productive in the workplace, but the goal of a minimum wage is to help alleviate those from poverty. By reallocating their jobs to higher-skilled workers, they are not benefitting from the minimum …show more content…
3:27 [ESV]). The government has the power to create a minimum wage, but by doing so many individuals are not able to find work because of being low-skilled; therefore, the people are unable to make a wage. Thus, the government is using its power to withhold “good”; an economist would view “good” to be the wage and “whom it is due” to be one deserves the wage for their work. God clearly states that persons are not to withhold good from those whom it is due. All, even those in poverty, should have the ability to work for the “good;” but due to the minimum wage and the higher skilled people taking the low-skilled jobs, they are unable to. Noell (1993) discussed that theologians think about the ends; if the mayor chooses to keep the minimum wage, there will be individuals who will be withheld from a wage. It is the government’s power to allow not withhold a good when it is due. The ends to that policy lead to unemployment. The bible needs to be considered in the mayor’s decision. The mayor should not withhold the good (wage) from the people by having the minimum wage policy; the end of unemployment needs to be considered in the policymaking process. Do not keep individuals from being able to find work or work for the good; get rid of the minimum

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