Raising The Minimum Wage

Improved Essays
Laurie Coburn was a reliable person to interview because she worked for nonprofit
Raising the minimum wage will reduce the help of government for social programs because higher wages cut the need for assistance for services like food stamps. Millions of Americans rely on the government for basic needs. These needs include child care, health care, food services, etc. Most of the people who rely on the government already work full jobs and still struggle to get by. The government has to spend money to help these people when they could be spending their money on education or on poverty. Food stamps cost the government about $78 billion in 20011. Raising the minimum wage would reduce federal food stamp spending by $4.6 billion a year. “Raising
…show more content…
Millions of Americans rely on the government for basic needs. These needs include child care, health care, food services, etc. Most of the people who rely on the government already work full jobs and still struggle to get by. The government has to spend money to help these people when they could be spending their money on education or on poverty. Food stamps cost the government about $78 billion in 20011. Raising the minimum wage would reduce federal food stamp spending by $4.6 billion a year. “Raising the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020 would reduce means-tested public assistance spending by $17 billion annually.”(epi.org). These savings could go towards anti poverty tools, funding for new education initiatives. The Minimum wage also reduces tax burden. A person making less than minimum wage would require food stamps, welfare and rent in many states. If the minimum wage was raised then the help from the public would be lowered which would reduce the tax burden on the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Increasing the minimum wage will raise the level of students that will have a higher level of education. As the number of education students increases so does the workforce, there are more people that are eligible for jobs, therefore less students that are unemployed and unqualified for the work force. If there is a lesser unemployment rate than the people who live in lower income areas will have stable jobs, therefore having a steady income, allowing the economy in these areas to flourish, allowing the standards of living to rise. As a result of the standards of living raising, the crime in these communities will go down, creating a safer place to live and less illegal criminal activity, therefore less black markets, this means that. It is a common disbelief that raising the minimum wage will create a surplus.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyone needs money to help them with their daily life activities like eating, shopping and even paying bills. For that, you will need a good paying job, right? CATO Institute, a public policy research organization, states “Some policymakers are proposing to raise the minimum wage, but that policy would be harmful. Research shows businesses would respond to the increased costs by reducing employment, particularly for low-skilled workers” (CATO). Basically saying this minimum wage will not help anyone, and it will do nothing but damage.…

    • 2332 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raising Minimum Wage

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There is a need for balance between Government intervention and the free market economy. Governments should not intervene too much in the issue of minimum wage to the point of hurting employers through reduced profitability and competition. On the other hand, Governments should not allow employers to take advantage of workers to the point where workers are not able to make ends meet and have an acceptable standard of living. In today’s age minimum age is no longer a teenage thing but rather it is the reality for many Americans.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Minimum Wage is a fundamental part of our economic growth and was first made in 1938 to combat poverty. It is the minimum an employer is allowed to pay you by state law. However, recent studies show that there are about 14.8% people in poverty, which are about 46.7 million people in 2014. With that said, these numbers have been nearly the same with no change at all in the last four years. As of right now the federal minimum wage is 7.25, but we may see an increase in the near future.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Increasing the minimum wage will decrease the amount of poverty in the US but government assistance programs need to changed as well for this to occur. Government assistance programs need to be more involved with participants even though the goal is that citizens seeking aid do not have to be on it for a long period of time. Perhaps taking note from other countries policies on minimum wage would be beneficial in solving this issue. Instead of viewing this as the need to rapidly increase the minimum wage or leave it as is, acknowledging that there are more than two solutions would help end this…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many citizens are affected by the minimum wage daily (Should the Federal). The minimum wage has been increased by congress 22 times since 1938 and was last updated to $7.25 on July 24. 2009 (Minimum Wage). Around 3.3% of workers in the United States get paid the minimum wage or lower (Background of). Increasing the federal minimum wage would lower poverty levels, decrease spending on government assistance, and productivity in jobs would increase.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The topic of raising the federal minimum wage has been one of hot debate in United States politics. It has recently gained momentum within the last decade due to the Great Recession that many Americans still feel the effects of. Many argue about the moral aspect of the minimum wage, while others argue about the financial and economic aspect. While many different arguments have been proposed, in this research paper, I will make the argument and provide evidence that raising the federal minimum wage would be more detrimental than beneficial in almost all aspects of the argument. One of the first main arguments for raising the minimum wage is that it helps to reduce poverty and/or increase wages.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The possibility of price increases is very relevant to the question of whether the minimum wage is an effective instrument in helping workers from low-income households” (P.Murphy, Page 11, paragraph 5). If the minimum wage is increased, we would see an increase in the price of everyday consumer goods. This inflation will affect everyone not just minimum wage workers. If the prices go up, less and less people will be able to afford things even with the wage hike. Referring back to the article on ‘raising the minimum wage: misguided policy, unintended consequences’, it says that “Popular support for the minimum wage largely derives from the belief that it is a useful tool for boosting the wages of poor workers”.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Minimum Wage

    • 2119 Words
    • 8 Pages

    According to United States Department of Labor,“The typical minimum wage worker is not a high school student earning weekend pocket money. In fact, 89 percent of those who would benefit from a federal minimum wage increase to $12 per hour are age 20 or older, and 56 percent are women.” Minimum wage needs to be increased as it will benefit the country as a whole. The United States legislative branch can withdraw money from welfare programs thus, bettering the economy, the employees of a corporation, as well as the company. Without an increase in minimum wage, trade will be affected, causing a decline in supply and demand, a lack of financial support for employees and their families, and cause a lower profit for corporations.…

    • 2119 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raising the minimum wage can help reduce the need for government welfare for these families. “ A recent study from the Center for American Progress concluded that the [Tom] Harkin-[George] Miller legislation [minimum wage hike] becomes law, it would earn as many as 3.8 million fewer people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), thus reducing spending by nearly $4.6 billion a year” (Perez). Raising the minimum wage would help pay for the needs of employees, without them needing to be supported by the state. This helps put money back into the economy to strengthen everyone, and allow federal spending to go to better causes. When his company faced potential economic trouble, Henry Ford doubled the wages of his assembly line workers, saying, “If we can distribute high wages, then that money is going to be spent and it will serve to make storekeepers and distributors and manufacturers and workers in other lines more prosperous and their prosperity will be reflected in our sales.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim raising the minimum wage would lift about two million Americans out of poverty (“Raise”). However, that number is miniscule compared to the 43.3 million that would still be in poverty (“Poverty”). Also as stated before, raising the minimum wage is likely to reduce the amount of jobs and increase unemployment, which would add to the amount of people in poverty anyway…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Keeping The Minimum Wage

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Economists have long recognized that boosting spending, by putting money in the public’s pocket, has positive effects on the economy. The $32.6 billion in additional income for low-wage workers would be spent on things like rent, food, and other necessities, providing growth for the economy. The wage increase could provide a strong growth in the economy, and create up to 140,000 new jobs. OxFam also explained that low-wage workers obtain about $243 billion a year in federal benefits. “45 percent of America’s 10 million restaurant workers rely on government assistance, and 32 million low-wage workers use SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps)” (OxFam, 2014).…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Less money would need to be spent on government assistance programs when families are more self-sufficient (Huppke). Even though there are so many advantages to an increased minimum wage, there are still people who are not supportive for a few…

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raising minimum wage will have way more than the average million people begging on the streets for money trying to at least have one meal per day. No one is looking at the cons, that would happen with just the extra 5 dollars that still won’t even get them that far. Minimum wage should stay the same because it would cost a million people their jobs, the people working them are not fully educated and it will only increase inflation. When times get tough raising non high school graduates paycheck is not going to help anyone.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1938 the President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 which put into place a minimum wage to protect workers from being paid unfair wages. This was a huge step forward for the U.S. marketplace. The Minimum wage began at $0.25 an hour and currently it is at $7.25 (Alec.org). With the election approaching both candidates have views on what to do with minimum wage but what would actually help the country. Raising the federal minimum wage would actually hurt the lower and middle class for a few reasons.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays