Increasing Minimum Wage Essay

Improved Essays
A major controversial topic in the United States currently is that the minimum wage is currently too low. Many protestors argue that families are not able to survive on it if one or both parents work minimum wage jobs. One side suggests that the minimum wage should be more than doubled to fifteen dollars an hour so that families would be able to provide for themselves and possibly even enjoy life. The other viewpoint of the argument is that the current minimum wage should stay the same as it is. Many business owners argue this case because they are not want to have to pay all of their employees more than double the normal rate. The current minimum wage in the United States is seven dollars and twenty-five cents. You can see that is neither high nor low when comparing to other countries minimum wages. “Currently Australia has the highest at over sixteen dollars per hour but …show more content…
The one main point that is not seen is that a benefit of raising the minimum wage would in turn bring half the lower class into the middle class. A majority of businesses focus on the bad sides of things when trying new ideas in their companies. Almost with all good things something bad happens so one can’t expect everything to become perfect when changing a huge part of society. A CBO report shows full proof of that, “An increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty (Case 2).” The majority of those 900,000, if not all, probably only go to the store on a need to basis. If the United States was to raise the minimum wage, those 900,000 people would be more wealthy and able to spend more money. Sure, businesses can become frustrated with this idea but in the long run the extra money they spend on employees will just come right back because they will be able to go to the store more often. Kai Filion, a policy analyst has a good argument for this

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Minimum Wage Amendment

    • 1587 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It would drive our economy and cause businesses to boom. If more people have spending money then they are able to use that money at local businesses, which would help bring more money into the pockets of employers. The money people have, the more people will spend, which will most likely only help the employers in the long run. Many states also feel that the minimum wage is too low, 21 states have increased the minimum wage to well above the $7.25 federal wage. This is because many people understand how hard it is to live on that little of money.…

    • 1587 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    If companies have the choice to pay their worker more or to move the company they will more than likely to outsource their companies. There is a growing concern that increasing the minimum wage would result in more businesses outsourcing their jobs overseas where workers are paid much less than $4 an hour let alone $10. People fear that if the companies are forced to pay workers more than $10 and hour, companies will ship jobs overseas for lower overheads costs than pay more for workers here. “As well-paying manufacturing jobs have left America, low skill workers have turned to low paying service jobs, filling the roles that used to be filled by teenagers and high school dropouts. The majority of new jobs created now are in the service sector.…

    • 1843 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Most Americans think that raising minimum wage will reduce poverty, but yet do they know that raising the minimum wage will not do anything to poverty (Sherk). Workers that work hard and long hours should be able to feed and house their family (Harkin 18). Raising the minimum wage would hurt the economy more than help it. State hourly minimums range from $7.50 in Arkansas to $9.47 in Washington state (Desilver) These states function well without the minimum wage at ten dollars an hour. Raising the minimum wage would increase prices of everyday living items.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Minimum Wage is a great thing. It prevents Employers from ripping their employees off and underpaying them.The only problem with the current minimum wage is it doesn 't keep up with inflation and brings the full time salary in below the poverty line for minimum wage workers and almost forces a family to need government aid just to put food on the table and to have health care. There needs to be a change. The Government needs to increase the minimum wage to allow U.S. citizens to no longer need government aid, to help the economy and low income families, and to decrease the poverty rate. There is tons of controversy about whether the minimum wage should be increased or stay the same.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Minimum Wage Solution

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Furthermore, the minimum wage worker only makes $15,080 before taxes, working a year round, full shift (Wing, 1). The difference between these two figures is truly monumental, and shows the harsh rewards for long hours of work. It is clear that employees with families must receive more compensation in order to supply their family with daily necessities. However, an independent can live off minimum wage with strict budgeting (Halligan, 1). Because it has been attempted and proven to be efficient, we know that certain members of the population may fill the spots within smaller companies giving lesser pay, and therefore provide individuals jobs while still benefitting the…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although most Americans are in favor of the federal minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, they must understand that the increase will cause drop outs in education and cause high-skilled workers to go to lower-skilled jobs and is not beneficial to our economy, employers, nor to the people in poverty. First off, the minimum…

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They also believe raising the wage could also have no negative effect. From the Department of Labor (DOL) website, they put up several myths that were proved wrong with raising the minimum wage. As it goes, many people believe that raising the wage is only helping teenagers, the DOL proved that “89 percent of those who would benefit…are age 20 or older and 56 percent are women.”(Minimum Wage). The website also points out other common myths that were not true that thousands believed. One important issue is that if the minimum wage does increase, then thousands of small business owners would go out of business as they simply cannot stay open with prices rising.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even if the economy stays the same as it is now, does not necessarily mean that people will stop applying for welfare. Raising minimum wage will cause more inflation in the United States and will be more of a problem for business owners and people of the middle class. Jobs are still hard to come by for some and if businesses have to pay employees fifteen dollars an hour can actually result in job shortages. Making it harder for even people older than twenty-five to get a…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Snows In Miami Essay

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fifteen dollars an hour in Texas is worth more than $15 an hour in California and New York. It would reduce poverty but it will cause some people to lose their jobs, when companies are forced to lose some employers. One reason is that New York and California are high cost states because every thing is expensive their. Second reason is that any companies like McDonalds and Wal-Mart will hire more teens because they don’t need any experience at all. These assumptions lead to reasoning because higher minimum wage in which companies will make better quality in their products.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raising Minimum Wage Essay

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Americans Are Worth More Than 725 The American people are worth more than just seven dollars and twenty-five cents per hour. If you live in America you probably know that a big issue in politics right now, is raising minimum wage. Many people think it would help our economy, but businesses that do not care about their employees try to convince us that it would hurt the economy by paying working human beings a wage they can actually live on. Big business owners like to make the point that they would have to charge more for their services or products and reduce the size of staff and/or hours worked by the staff. They also say that they would lose money and go out of business.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics