Pros And Cons Of Raising Minimum Wage

Superior Essays
Last year, President Obama raised the national minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 minimum. Many people disagree on whether raising minimum wages is constructive for the economy because there are many pros and cons to raising minimum wage. Some say raising minimum wage would have a positive affect on the economy. Furthermore, with more money to spend increases would likely be shown in both gross national product sales as well as an increase in taxes derived from sales taxes which strongly benefits the government. However, on the other hand, the anti-minimum wage faction advocated that increasing minimum wage could cause more unemployment. However, Larry Hunter who was a chief economist for the Joint Economic Committee did a study in 1992, …show more content…
On the other hand, some argue that raising minimum wages would cause workers to lower their drive to perform adequately. However, an example of a company that disproves this theory is Wegmans Food Market. This company has maintained a positive reputation for paying their workers above the minimum wage. Many agree that this company already realizes that that providing their workers with suitable wages would create a collective success and shared rewards. In other words, they believe that if they meet the needs of their workers, consequently, they will achieve their personal business goals. This philosophy began immediately when Robert Wegman founded the company in 1950. He increased salaries for all of his employees as well as provided benefits for them. Since the company emphasizes the importance of teamwork and providing their workers benefits and higher wages, Wegmans maintains a respectable reputation amongst their employees and outsiders, in addition to improving productivity and reducing turnover. They can be used as an ideal example of how a company should function. This would be a win-win resolution, causing companies as well as workers to …show more content…
Some argue that it would cause employees to not perform as well and it would cause unskilled workers to lose their jobs. Others argue that it would increase employment, productivity from workers, reduce employee turnover, and the more money workers make, the more they have to spend on goods and services. This would be a win-win for employees as well as employers and companies as a whole. A few examples that proved this point was that Wal-Mart increased their wages researchers have noticed the economy is continuing to strengthen, Wegman’s Food Market has a fabulous reputation because they provide their workers with benefits and higher pay which cause satisfied workers which consequently encourages workers to advance in their productivity, and last but not least, the healthcare world would largely benefit through raising wages. Through these observations, the pros seem to out way the cons of raising minimum wage. Furthermore, when workers have jobs and make enough money to live off of, they are able to spend more on goods and services, benefiting those companies, and the government does not need to spend as much to support low-income families. Therefore, raising minimum wages would be a positive occurrence that overall helps improve the

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The Minimum Wage need to be Raise Rashed Rahman Lonestar college This paper is presented for English-1301, by Professor Vanessa Ballmer The Minimum Wage need to be Raise Many problems and challenges exist in the world that we face in our everyday lives. We always try to solve those problems and make our lives easier and happy. Now- a-days, minimum wage a big problem for low-income family.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The question about increasing the minimum wage is a controversial one. With the current federal minimum wage set at $7.25 an hour, and low-income earners continuing to struggle to make ends meet, proponents to a wage hike are biting at their chomps to get somewhere with the debate. But, like all things in life, the proposal to raise the minimum wage will carry some baggage—both good, and bad. What is the proposed minimum wage increase?…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Baker 1 Chris Baker Debra McDowell English III 12 May 2016 Controversy of Minimum Wage “Most employees are paid more than the basic minimum wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2011 94.8 percent of employees who were paid by the hour were paid an hourly wage that was greater than the Federal minimum wage of $7.25” (“Digest 4”). The controversy of minimum wage is rising in the world and the people are arguing to raise it or keep it the same. Many people do not know the bad and good aspects of raising it.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    President Obama proposed to Congress in the State of the Union Address that the federal minimum wage should be raised from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour. He also remarked that “even with the tax relief we have been put in place, in which a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line….that’s wrong.”. “According to a poll taken earlier this year by the Pew Research Center, Americans are in favor of increasing the minimum wage from its current level by a wide margin (71% to 26%).” I represent one of those 71% of United States citizens who believe that the minimum wage should be raised. Raising the minimum wage will therefore rippling through the chain effect to raise the standards of living, the number of…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    04.02 Assignment 2

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    04.02 Assignment As election news sweeps through several media outlets, controversial topics fire up and are debated across the nation. The American people fire up their minds, reach into their stockpile of information, and begin to passionately fight for the matters that are important to them. One topic that has gained momentum is the fight for a higher minimum wage. There are many who support this argument but there are several that believe the opposite. Raising the minimum wage will help the economy grow and will help minimum wage workers by providing them a wage off which they can live.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Minimum Wage Increase = Bad Idea There are many hard working Americans that deserve an increased amount of salary. A raise for a couple of those hard working employees would be justified, they deserve it.…

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why minimum wage should be raised to 12 an hour I know from personal experience that $7.25 is barely enough for a single adult to get by on in Huntsville Alabama where the cost of living is one of the lowest in the country. I made $7.35 an hour and got about 27 hour a week which was about 198.45 a week after taxes I made about 160, now you times that by four it equal to $640 a month plus my army disability of $133 I had 773. I used this to pay my $380 rent, $60 light bill, $20 internet, $57 phone bill not to mention Netflix Hulu and gym fee which total to 30.98. So the sum of my bill were 547.98-733= 225 left of 56 each week to buy gas and food no to mention if an emergency came up I had to compensate for them.…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The hot topic of discussion today in the U.S. is currently the minimum wage rate. It all dates to when New Zealand passed the very first national minimum wage law in 1894. The U.S. history leads us back to when President Roosevelt signed a law in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Back then, the wage was set to 25 cents an hour. That adds up to about $4 per hour in our currency system.…

    • 2026 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is an issue that people want to make to increase minimum wage. They want to raise the minimum wage to make it easier to reform the process and ultimately reduce subsidies. For many people who work at full-time jobs for minimum wage, there is no way for them to make ends meet except by taking government subsidies. They argue that, if the minimum wage is increased, the minimum wage can help eliminate the need for government welfare. The government should increase the minimum wage so people can make a livable wage to support themselves financially and it would help for single parent families.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For years now the issue of how to handle the minimum wage in the United States has been a hotly debated topic upon many politicians. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.15 with the lowest minimum wage requirements being at $5.15 per hour in Georgie and Wyoming. With the cost of living rising every year and an unchanging minimum wage, many workers are struggling to make ends meet. In a hope to ease the economic burden of the minimum wage workers the Obama Administration is pushing for new bill called the Raise the Wage Act which will increase the minimum wage statewide to $12 by 2020 and raise the minimum wage for workers on new federal contracts to $10.10 or higher. I fully support the Obama Administration’s minimum wage proposal, I believe that raising the minimum wage to $12 will have both long and short term positive economic benefits, including a boost to the U.S. economy, a decrease in the unemployment rate, and reduce the unequal pay between the different races and genders.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raising Minimum Wage

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In terms of the issue of minimum wage, I, Lisa Murkowski believe that the minimum wage should not increase. Therefore, I am not in favor of The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2015 (H.R. 2015/ S. 2015), which will increase the minimum wage to $10.10. However, in cases where the federal minimum wage does not increase a lot, I am in favor of it. On the other hand, in terms of the issue of guns, I am opposed to The Secure Communities Act of 2015 (H.R. 1547/ S. 1547). What this law will do is require criminal background checks for all online gun purchases and for all firearm purchases at gun shows.…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Minimum Wage History

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages

    History of Minimum Wage Minimum wage in the United States was founded in the year 1938 in the Great Depression when President Franklin Roosevelt was in office. Minimum wage was set at twenty five cents per hour and was increased by the congress at least twenty two times the most ever since the year 2009. In the year 1890 wages of Americans were a total of $380 which was below the poverty line of $500 per year at the time. America got the idea from looking at examples from Australia and New Zealand who introduced minimum wages in the 1890s. In the year 1912 minimum wage started in Massachusetts and after words elven more states would join the laws of minimum wages that covered women and minors and not men between the years of 1913 and 1917.…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many of our representatives in Washington have been discussing the advantages of adjusting the minimum wage. Many people are looking at the short term gains of having more money in their pockets. Raising the minimum wage, however, would affect the economy of the United States of America negatively, hurt the private sector, and would stunt the growth of the United States economy. Employers do not feel an obligation to hire a laborer if the minimum wage has been raised to a greater amount than the work itself is valued. Once the facts are established, it is very evident that a raise in the minimum wage would damage the recovery of the United States economy.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Damaging Consequences of Raising the Minimum Wage Who wants to earn more money for performing the same work? Most of the working population would say “sign me up”. An often-debated way to accomplish this would be for the federal government to raise minimum wage. While on the surface, this simple idea may sound like a win-win proposition; but when logic and simple economics are applied, the result is a lose-lose proposition. Raising the federal minimum wage can actually have adverse effects on the economy and the portion of the work force that it is intended to help.…

    • 2029 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Millions of people and families would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. Today the federal minimum wage is currently at $7.25, but should be at nearly $10, or better yet even higher. But the last time Congress voted to raise the wage to its current rate of $7.25 an hour was seven years ago. Since then, the cost of life 's essentials have shot up. Groceries cost 20% more, a gallon of gas costs 25%more, and average tuition at a community college increased 44%.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics