Should The Minimum Wage Be Increased?

The question on whether increasing the minimum wage will cause a surplus of labor, hence unemployment has been debated for many years. If we look at the fundamental principles of microeconomics, we would see that theoretically, raising the minimum wage will cause more people to be out of a job. However, these principles are just a theory. In reality, economies are not as clean cut and simple as they appear. Some may believe that increasing the minimum wage will ultimately lead to Armageddon. On the other hand, raising the minimum wage would have many benefits like helping out so many families get out of poverty. Based on all my research, I have concluded that raising the minimum wage would not lead to unemployment, but will actually be beneficial for the economy and the employees. …show more content…
However, if the wages become higher and enough for someone to survive off of, the employees tend to stay in that job longer. Staying in a job longer would lead to employees having more experience. Having more skilled workers would cause more firms to be more willing to expand their business. Furthermore, “A higher minimum wage also pays dividends to taxpayers by reducing demand for costly anti-poverty programs (Hanauer, 2016).” There are many anti-poverty programs that provide aid to workers. With this wage increase these programs would be less needed. The money the taxpayer pay could go to other places that need aid. For example, college might be able to be less of an expense than what it is. Now, this will cause more people to go to school and make their own firm that hires more