Should Minimum Wage Be Increased?

The question of whether or not to increase the minimum wage or not often surfaces in political debates. Many argue that it could help families who are living below the poverty line and in turn help the economy. While raising the minimum wage sounds like a good idea, it may not be so simple. The government should not raise the minimum wage because it could lead to increased unemployment among young persons, increased price of goods, and an overall negative impact on the poor. Raising the minimum wage sounds like a good idea on the surface, but it could ultimately lead to a decrease in jobs for young people. Those who are able to maintain their jobs would receive higher wages if the minimum wage was increased; however, companies would be forced to compensate for the increase of labor costs. Columnist Rebecca Zissou notes that, "[t]o offset higher wages, [businesses] say they would have to. . . reduce the number of hours each employee works or hire fewer employees" (par. 5). The reduction of hours and jobs available could be especially damaging to the population of young unexperienced youth working minimum wage jobs. Young persons make up nearly a fourth of all employees …show more content…
In theory, raising the minimum wage sounds like a good idea because the current minimum wage is difficult to live off of, but overall the negatives outweigh the positives. Moreover, as the cost of labor increases businesses are forced to make tradeoffs including laying off less experienced workers. Along with this, many businesses would also be forced to raise the prices of their goods because with fewer workers, production would also decrease which could lead to a shortage of supply. Finally, although raising the minimum wage seems like a good way to decrease poverty the effects are minimal and it is likely that there are other courses of action that would be more