Should Minimum Wage Be Increased Essay

Improved Essays
Should the minimum wage be increased? Recently in the news, multiple people have been arguing if the minimum wage should be increased and the repercussions in raising the minimum wage. A few of the reasons we have a minimum wage is to protect workers from being given an unfair amount of money for the work they do and to protect them from poverty. Throughout the years, the minimum wage increased numerous times. The minimum wage was increased to help keep up with inflation in the past. Some economists argue that when the government raised the minimum wage, the minimum wage increase had negative effects on the economy. Others argued differently by telling people that more people accessing jobs rather than losing their job. Raising the minimum …show more content…
People will lose jobs to robots that are capable of doing mundane work that requires simple little skills. Employers of small businesses will be unable to pay workers above today’s minimum wage, so people would be compelled to do more work in little time to make up for the minimum wage increase. When the minimum wage increases, employers are likely to hire someone with more skills than someone who has fewer skills. This will lead to a higher unemployment rate. Also, people will be less motivated to go for promotions or find a better paying job. People will have a harder time finding jobs out of high school, so people will be required to continue their education to improve their chances of finding a job. Raising the minimum wage will not help the poverty issue because people already make between the minimum wage and whatever the minimum wage will be. This will force employers to raise everyone’s pay above the minimum wage. The pay increase for minimum wage would not help reward the employees who do more than their job titles, since everyone would obtain the pay increase. People would quit their jobs since the people who might not show up or do their job would also obtain a pay increase for doing nothing at

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The minimum wage is a controversial political issue. Americans’ views on the minimum wage law vary widely; some citizens believe that it should be abolished entirely, others think that the minimum amount should be expanded to match the rate of inflation. Raising the minimum wage does not come without its issues. However adjusting the minimum wage to match inflation, the United States would see an increase in economic activity, a reduction in poverty, and a reduction in race and gender inequalities.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The federal minimum wage was first introduced during the Great Depression by Franklin Roosevelt. Minimum wage started off at $0.25 an hour and has been increased several times to finally have reached an hourly salary of $7.50. Minimum wage has been increased 23 times because it has become clear that one cannot live and or raise a family from the hourly amount minimum wage offers. In the 2016 election raising minimum wage was one of the many questions that caused debates between people in America. After doing my research and hearing a great deal of debates, I have made my decision that minimum wage should not be increased during this time.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Social Problem Minimum wage was first created in 1938 during the Great Depression under Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) presidency. Minimum wage started off as $0.25 an hour and has been changed for a total of 22 times by the year 2009. Initially, minimum was introduced to cover women and minors, due to the fact that white men were able to rely on the union as a safety net and that they earned higher wages (Kaufman, 2012). Currently in Louisiana minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Although the current minimum wage is significantly higher than what it used to be at $ 0.25, it still does not suffice to meeting the modern individual’s needs in 2017.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It turns out that increasing the minimum wage means decreasing job opportunities. If the minimum wage increased, people will face lots of problem such as- it would result in the job loss evidence of job losses, hurt low-skilled workers, little effect on reducing poverty, and it may result in the higher price for consumers. Most Americans agree the current federal minimum wage is not enough to live on. It is hard to imagine some families are surviving on just $15,000 a year.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior 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

    On the other hand, some thinks the opposite. Not too long ago, people are proposing for a 15 dollar minimum wage by the year 2020, 4 years from now, in hope of improving poverty. Raising minimum wage can affect everyone in one way or another. However, raising the minimum wage will only do more harms than goods. Raising the minimum…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 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

    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.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Minimum wage today is seven dollars and twenty-five cents. In these hard economic times, the government wishes to raise minimum wage to fifteen dollars or more. Money is, essentially, a key item that makes the world go round. Why do people care about money so much? Money is what programs the world.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • 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.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior 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

    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

    Should the minimum wage be raised to fifteen dollars an hour? There is a good amount of people that think that this is a good idea when it is actually a bad idea. First, the raise of the minimum wage to fifteen dollars would be a higher wage than some people make with an education. If minimum wage raises, then all wages would increase accordingly. Also, the price of merchandise would be raised on everything to make up for the raise in minimum wage.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raise Minimum Wage Essay

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The minimum wage should be increased because a lot of people are suffering from low pay to make ends meet. The total of money companies is paying employees today is not enough. A lot of companies are making a profit from their employees; they simply don’t want to pay them because they know if one of the people working for them quits, they are going to find ten more desperate people who would do anything to have this job. Today, it is extremely important to raise the minimum wage because the insufficient wage is too low, it causes parents to work two jobs, also companies should raise salary high enough to inspire people to go to work.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics