Minimum Wage A larger number of the U.S. population thinks that raising the minimum wage will make a major difference in poverty levels and the quality of life for the unskilled workers. The perception is incorrect of the way minimum wage works. Raising the minimum wage will not benefit people because it creates unemployment, negatively affects the poor, makes goods and services more expensive, and majorly effect small businesses; and when considering raising the minimum wage, we must also consider what we define as poor and how that definition affects minimum wage.
To begin, what is seen as being poor and how does this definition affect our opinion of minimum wage? The Census Bureau considers the poor or impoverished as people that are not …show more content…
Young adults and teens are a major part of the minimum wage workforce. Many of the people on minimum wage are working so they can make money while in high school or to help with college debt. In California, a 15 percent increase in minimum wage would erase 35,000 to 70,000 unskilled jobs which would effect 1.5-3 percent of the young citizens working (Henderson). The drop in jobs would be a result of managers having to fire people because of the increased salary. Raises in salary cuts into the amount of money made by a company; therefore, two options are available for the company to take so that the net gross will remain the same and the company will not go under; these two options are firing or increasing product prices. Companies do not want to increase prices because the possibility that fewer customers would be coming in, so in many cases a company will not do that. The company would cut back on employees which results in having an unemployment problem across a state. If a 15 percent increase in minimum wage was implemented across the nation, it could result in a possible 400,000-800,000 jobs lost (Henderson). A wage increase would make already high unemployment numbers explode to a level …show more content…
This reason is true because with the wage increase employee numbers will likely decrease. Henderson said, “A job at 5.15 an hour, the current federal minimum, is much better than no job at $6.00 an hour.”, obviously this is not the current minimum wage but the same principle applies in this current time period. A man, single parent, or woman, can certainly benefit from having $15 dollars per hour, which is what the current push is for and $10.10 per hour that President Obama is asking for (“3 ways”), but, what about the people that are fired because a company has to lay off workers? It is impossible to support oneself, especially a family if there is no
To begin, what is seen as being poor and how does this definition affect our opinion of minimum wage? The Census Bureau considers the poor or impoverished as people that are not …show more content…
Young adults and teens are a major part of the minimum wage workforce. Many of the people on minimum wage are working so they can make money while in high school or to help with college debt. In California, a 15 percent increase in minimum wage would erase 35,000 to 70,000 unskilled jobs which would effect 1.5-3 percent of the young citizens working (Henderson). The drop in jobs would be a result of managers having to fire people because of the increased salary. Raises in salary cuts into the amount of money made by a company; therefore, two options are available for the company to take so that the net gross will remain the same and the company will not go under; these two options are firing or increasing product prices. Companies do not want to increase prices because the possibility that fewer customers would be coming in, so in many cases a company will not do that. The company would cut back on employees which results in having an unemployment problem across a state. If a 15 percent increase in minimum wage was implemented across the nation, it could result in a possible 400,000-800,000 jobs lost (Henderson). A wage increase would make already high unemployment numbers explode to a level …show more content…
This reason is true because with the wage increase employee numbers will likely decrease. Henderson said, “A job at 5.15 an hour, the current federal minimum, is much better than no job at $6.00 an hour.”, obviously this is not the current minimum wage but the same principle applies in this current time period. A man, single parent, or woman, can certainly benefit from having $15 dollars per hour, which is what the current push is for and $10.10 per hour that President Obama is asking for (“3 ways”), but, what about the people that are fired because a company has to lay off workers? It is impossible to support oneself, especially a family if there is no