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. Raising the minimum would cause businesses to lay off employees, it would raise the cost of everyday items, and minimum wage will not raise families out of poverty. The main objective of a business in
…show more content…
This hurts the middle class the most. An increase to minimum wage would cause companies expenses to go up and this would cause these companies to raise the price of the goods to increase (Brown, 1981). Since the minimum wage only affects people that were making less than the current minimum wage than workers who do not get a pay raise then they would be paying more for a product without actually getting their wage adjusted. For example, If McDonald 's raises the price of the McDouble from $1 to $1.50, the person who was making $15/hr is paying more for the product without making more money. A raise in minimum wage by 10% would cause a 4 percent increase in foods and a 0.4 percent increase in prices overall (Brown, 1982). So a raise in minimum wage would hurt the exact people it is trying to help because the establishments that hardest hit by price increase are where the lower income people shop(Brown, 1982). They would have more money in their pockets but the difference goes to the increase in consumer goods.
Of Americans 25 and older that are making the federal minimum wage only 25% of them are living under the poverty level since they many of them are the second or third source of income. More than half of the workers making the current minimum wage are only working part time. Only 16.5% of minimum wage workers are living on their own. A large majority are living with parents or relatives (Brown, 1981). Since raising the minimum wage will not actually help those who it is aimed to help it would hurt businesses and in the long run end up hurting lower income
This hurts the middle class the most. An increase to minimum wage would cause companies expenses to go up and this would cause these companies to raise the price of the goods to increase (Brown, 1981). Since the minimum wage only affects people that were making less than the current minimum wage than workers who do not get a pay raise then they would be paying more for a product without actually getting their wage adjusted. For example, If McDonald 's raises the price of the McDouble from $1 to $1.50, the person who was making $15/hr is paying more for the product without making more money. A raise in minimum wage by 10% would cause a 4 percent increase in foods and a 0.4 percent increase in prices overall (Brown, 1982). So a raise in minimum wage would hurt the exact people it is trying to help because the establishments that hardest hit by price increase are where the lower income people shop(Brown, 1982). They would have more money in their pockets but the difference goes to the increase in consumer goods.
Of Americans 25 and older that are making the federal minimum wage only 25% of them are living under the poverty level since they many of them are the second or third source of income. More than half of the workers making the current minimum wage are only working part time. Only 16.5% of minimum wage workers are living on their own. A large majority are living with parents or relatives (Brown, 1981). Since raising the minimum wage will not actually help those who it is aimed to help it would hurt businesses and in the long run end up hurting lower income