One of the most controversial issues in the U.S. is if minimum wage should be increased to $15 or not. People believe that if minimum wage was increased it would help out with day to day living. Then you have others to believe and understand the effects that it would have on the U.S. I believe that minimum wage should not be increased to the amount of $15 due to the effects it would have on education, prices, and poverty.
Education is said to be the key to a successful and less stressful life. Education is a key source to help determine the compensation that is deserved in a position. Even though, it is said that if minimum wage was increased it would give employees time to actually attend school physically and it would be less of a hassle getting a higher education. In 2002, it was determined that the percent of students attending college had dropped to an all time low. Many studies have shown that people tend not to attend college because they are low on funds or are in need of money more than education to survive on a day to day basis. It is now determined that the lower the minimum wage, the more eager a minimum wage worker would be attending college at night to improve their skills and reach for a higher paying job/position. Raising the minimum wage to $15 increases the risk of employees getting stuck in an entry level job instead of moving up to something more rewarding. Also, studies showed that people with some college education still were makings the least amount of money, but it is now proven that people with a completed college education open up more opportunities to a better compensated job opportunity. Minimum wage being increased to $15 will really affect the prices of so many things. …show more content…
What people fail to understand is that if minimum wage was increased then business owners have to make a way to afford to pay their employees. Grant it, employees will make more money and possibly be able to afford the cost of living, but some studies have shown that it’s not really worth the hassle if prices of food, clothing, gas, and etc. were to arise. Not to mention, if minimum wage was increased to $15 an hour the price of many restaurants would rise by an estimated 4.3 percent. The only other way to compensate for the increase on the minimum wage for the employee is to change the food size rather than prices. Is it really worth it? The logic of this is, the more we increase minimum wage the more of what we have done as a country will be lost. Increasing minimum wages is the wrong way to help poverty line families. People that support the minimum wage increase believe that it will help families below poverty and low-income families afford the cost of living. However, what they don’t know is, 57% of families currently below the poverty line have no members in the workforce, receiving all of their income from social welfare or entitlement programs combined with charity. Not to mention, the majority of minimum wage earners are in a home with other incomes and single people with no kids. The people that would really benefit from the minimum wage increase is a single parent with two kids, but still it’s not even at the poverty line for that household type and size. Studies show that single parents with two children aren’t a majority of the population. They’re not even a majority of those who earn minimum wage. Further, they found that among the families below the poverty line, nearly half (46%) are making more than the proposed $10.10 per hour already and more than one third (36%) are making 12 dollars per hour or more. With those figures in mind, only a relatively small fraction of Americans living below the poverty line would see about one cent in their pockets with a higher minimum wage. Even though, many beliefs were that raising the minimum wage would help a lot of families rise above the poverty level, it has clearly been proven that poverty line people really want benefit