Minimum wage has been a highly controversial topic in the United States for eighty years now. Federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 currently and there are many debates on raising it from that to $12 or $15. Many Americans think this is a good idea and its going to yield a higher yearly income, this is true. On the contrary is is also going to inflate the prices of the goods we purchase. Raising the minimum wage to $15 would not be morally justifiable according to utilitarianism and comparing inflation to what MacKinnon calls living wage.
Through utilitarianism we can measure up the happiness raising minimum wage would bring us. At first glance one would think getting paid more would decrease poverty in the United States therefore causing more …show more content…
Second, when we raise wages and the amount of money companies are having to pay their employees prices for that company’s products will also increase. For these companies to keep their employees at this increased wage they will have to be making a greater profit from their products. Third, when companies are having to pay employees at an increased wage they risk the chance of not being able to afford to pay that many employees. Therefore, there could end up being a lot of layoffs and unemployment rates will rise. Another problem with unemployment is that most teens and young adults rely on part time minimum wage jobs to have some extra cash for school and other activities. By increasing the wage for these minimum wage jobs employers are going to be looking for the best most reliable employees since they will be paying them increased wages. Teenagers and young adults may not be the most reliable employees and therefore they could go without jobs. Lastly, and the biggest problem with raising minimum wage is inflation. Inflation is defined on Dictionary.com as “a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency” (Dictionary.com). As mentioned above as …show more content…
As we add together the cost of living today it shows that a minimum wage should be higher. This would make sense why to increase the wage for Americans. But if we increase the wage and then our economy inflates and the value of a dollar decreases and our cost of living goes up. If our cost of living goes up then we are back to where we started, wanting to increases the minimum wage so we can afford the cost of living. This problem is a never ending tenacious circle that we will keep going through if we increase
Through utilitarianism we can measure up the happiness raising minimum wage would bring us. At first glance one would think getting paid more would decrease poverty in the United States therefore causing more …show more content…
Second, when we raise wages and the amount of money companies are having to pay their employees prices for that company’s products will also increase. For these companies to keep their employees at this increased wage they will have to be making a greater profit from their products. Third, when companies are having to pay employees at an increased wage they risk the chance of not being able to afford to pay that many employees. Therefore, there could end up being a lot of layoffs and unemployment rates will rise. Another problem with unemployment is that most teens and young adults rely on part time minimum wage jobs to have some extra cash for school and other activities. By increasing the wage for these minimum wage jobs employers are going to be looking for the best most reliable employees since they will be paying them increased wages. Teenagers and young adults may not be the most reliable employees and therefore they could go without jobs. Lastly, and the biggest problem with raising minimum wage is inflation. Inflation is defined on Dictionary.com as “a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency” (Dictionary.com). As mentioned above as …show more content…
As we add together the cost of living today it shows that a minimum wage should be higher. This would make sense why to increase the wage for Americans. But if we increase the wage and then our economy inflates and the value of a dollar decreases and our cost of living goes up. If our cost of living goes up then we are back to where we started, wanting to increases the minimum wage so we can afford the cost of living. This problem is a never ending tenacious circle that we will keep going through if we increase