“We cannot live on $7.25 an hour,” is what Americans were protesting about a few years back. Now minimum wage has boosted up to $10.50 an hour, in selected establishments. I worked in McDonald’s for four years and Americans were right, you couldn’t live off of the previous minimum wage. The real question is, should you have to live off of $7.25 an hour? McDonald’s is a starting job, not a career, unless you try to pursue a manager/supervisor position. With minimum wage shooting up to $10.50 an hour more problems are arising such as: employees being laid off; hours being cut; stores closing down; company’s relocating; and most importantly, automation. With minimum wage going up so high employers will find it easier to replace the employee with
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Halvorson tackles the many sides of increasing the minimum wage. There are many reasons why increasing the minimum wage would be beneficial to our country as well as employees. Raising minimum wage has the power to stimulate the economy, which would also lead to more job openings. Since employees will be getting paid more that means they have more money to spend. With people spending more money businesses are earning more and will need to hire more employees to keep up with the increase of customers and sales. Another positive effect of minimum wage would be employees relying less on government provided programs because they will be able to support themselves and become more stabilized. Unfortunately, raising minimum wage so drastically also opens doors for negative effects. A higher wage also means a tighter payroll budget, meaning the company can’t compensate the same amount of employees so layoffs must be made. Since others will be making more money, others will be left with no job at all. Also, if companies are laying people off that will most likely entail fewer hirings. If people are getting paid more, products will also increase in prices. This means the cost of living will slightly increase, which will most likely result in the need of another raise in minimum wage. Lastly, competition will escalate. Overly qualified individuals will be pushing to get the minimum wage positions, essentially meaning that younger and inexperienced workers will remain inexperienced because they no longer have the opportunity to build a resume and enter the work field. Jane McGinn, owner of Sweet Jane’s Frozen Desserts claims, “At this point, as a startup, it would put me out of business. It would also hurt my employees. Right now, my workers are all high school kids who are cutting their teeth on their first jobs. If the minimum wage went to $15, I would have to
Halvorson tackles the many sides of increasing the minimum wage. There are many reasons why increasing the minimum wage would be beneficial to our country as well as employees. Raising minimum wage has the power to stimulate the economy, which would also lead to more job openings. Since employees will be getting paid more that means they have more money to spend. With people spending more money businesses are earning more and will need to hire more employees to keep up with the increase of customers and sales. Another positive effect of minimum wage would be employees relying less on government provided programs because they will be able to support themselves and become more stabilized. Unfortunately, raising minimum wage so drastically also opens doors for negative effects. A higher wage also means a tighter payroll budget, meaning the company can’t compensate the same amount of employees so layoffs must be made. Since others will be making more money, others will be left with no job at all. Also, if companies are laying people off that will most likely entail fewer hirings. If people are getting paid more, products will also increase in prices. This means the cost of living will slightly increase, which will most likely result in the need of another raise in minimum wage. Lastly, competition will escalate. Overly qualified individuals will be pushing to get the minimum wage positions, essentially meaning that younger and inexperienced workers will remain inexperienced because they no longer have the opportunity to build a resume and enter the work field. Jane McGinn, owner of Sweet Jane’s Frozen Desserts claims, “At this point, as a startup, it would put me out of business. It would also hurt my employees. Right now, my workers are all high school kids who are cutting their teeth on their first jobs. If the minimum wage went to $15, I would have to