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

    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

    Keeping The Minimum Wage

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    US News explains that for low-income families as a group, a minimum wage hike to $10.10 would raise average family incomes that currently sit below the poverty line by 2.8 percent and reduce the number of people living in poverty by 900,000 (US News, 2014). OxFam released a report recently explaining more benefits to raising the minimum wage. One often overlooked factors when discussing minimum wage is the moral of the Public. Studies show that the moral of Americans would increase greatly if the minimum wage was raised because majority of the public wants it (OxFam, 2014). OxFam also explains the benefits that raising the minimum wage would have on the overall US economy.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 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

    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

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The federal minimum wage, should not be raised because raising minimum wage help people get a step forward from poverty level instead of working had and also help improving the economy. According to the passage "higher minimum wage will cause businesses to shut down or fire workers, but that businesses will simply leave open positions unfilled as the cost employing entry-level workers rises". If we pay close attention on the outcome of raising minimum wage we can conclude that there is no point in it. If the minimum wage was to rise the cost of living would increase with it and a lot of people would lose their jobs and not be able to afford the houses and apartments and cars they are living and driving.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Raising the minimum wage would not help . . . it would have the opposite effect because it would victimize the country’s lowest-skilled workers and make it more difficult for them to find employment” (Reisman, 2015). Raising the federal minimum wage will increase unemployment and at the same time increase the cost products and services. Per Thomas MaCurdy, professor of economics at Stanford University, “higher minimum wages help almost nobody; but raise prices for everyone” (MaCurdy, 2015). If the federal government desires to raise the standard of living in our country, “the best thing the [government] could do is to just get out of the way” (Epstein,…

    • 2029 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The amount of people in poverty would decrease as we increase the minimum wage. The poverty line in 2015 was $12,331 a year, which is only 20 percent below a full-time minimum wage worker earning $15,080 per year (Should the Federal). People can barely survive on minimum wage, it doesn’t fulfill…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 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
  • 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
  • Superior Essays

    It is important to realize that there are people who work full time but still rely on government aid programs to survive, according to Aimee Picche in her article, How Low-Wage Employers Cost Taxpayers $153B a Year. Picche goes on to detail how vast the problem of minimum wage workers on public assistance is in America, stating, “Almost three-quarters of enrollees in the country 's biggest public support programs are members of working families”. If the minimum wage were to be raised to $12 an hour, the wages of 35 million workers in America would increase, as declared by David Cooper, a senior economic analyst for the Economic Policy Institute. This economic boost would not only offer workers the ability to detach from public assistance programs, but also give them greater purchasing power and reinvest the money back into American…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior 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 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

    The small amount of people that would benefit from the raise and the negative effects the raise would cause businesses prove that raising the minimum wage would not benefit the country in the long run. In 2014, about three million people made minimum wage or less. Those people made up about…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Increasing the minimum wage could cut back on taxpayers billions of dollars because low wage workers would be making an increase in salary and would not need assistance, therefore taxpayers dollars would not go towards their needs. Minimum wage is the lowest wage paid to a worker according to the law. Minimum wage in my opinion should be increased. As a matter of fact, a living wage should be put in place instead, because it is the minimum income…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 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