...Raising the minimum wage would help get the economy moving again and recover from recession. Many advantages will occur by raising the minimum wage such as creating a positive impact on working families, businesses, and state economies. By increasing workers incomes, the economy will move forward due to the rise of demand. In addition, worker productivity will be improved and there will be more job employment opportunities. By creating more jobs, the significant issue of unemployment will decrease. Raising t he minimum wage is essential for establishing a sustainable economy and living wage for the people. An increase in the minimum wage will boost worker productivity and increase employee morale. Business efficiency and loyalty throughout the work place will improve. The author Kathlene McDonald mentions the importance of benefiting the living wage in her article “Same Goals, But Another Way Of Getting There” by arguing that “raising wages would create fairer working...
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...Jack Maher Raising the Minimum Wage: a Conversation with Economist On November 4th 2014, La Crosse ballots will include a non-binding referendum on raising the minimum wage to $10.10. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse was fortunate enough to gather members from the Economics department and discuss this present issue at hand. The Economists were able to present arguments in a non-biased form to us, the students. The argument to raise the minimum wage had both positive and negative points. Raising the minimum wage has positive points. The main goal of raising minimum wage to $10.10 is to raise income for the working poor. Annual earnings for an employee that works 2000 hours a year at the current minimum wage accrues an annual salary of $14,500. By raising the minimum wage to $10.10, the annual salary would rise to $20,200. It can also be noted that when an employee earns more, they tend to work harder. This would push two percent of the population who live in poverty above the poverty line. This can cause an increase in production. Overall, a raise in minimum wage to employ’s would generate improvements to the working poor. Raising the minimum wage; however, brings up economical issues. The first issue being that raising the minimum wage would cause an increase in unemployment. Economic logic supports the idea that elasticities of labor demand would be large for unskilled workers. Also, unemployment will increase due to the fact that companies can outsource...
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...The arguments for and against raising the minimum wage are almost unavoidable in the labor market, with each side having individually strong points. Advocates say that anyone who works 40 hours a week or more deserves to earn a decent living wage and get out of poverty, while opponents argue that high wages cost jobs. Most of the arguments for increasing the minimum wage are more emotional pleas and theories with very little evidence for achieving the desired outcome. The truth is that raising the minimum wage does not lead people to get out of poverty, but what it does is make it more difficult for younger workers to find entry-level jobs to build their skills. By raising the minimum wage, experts argue that it will make it more difficult for younger workers entering the workforce to get a job. Employers will be hiring workers with more experience and skills, since they can attract these workers with higher wages. Therefore, raising the minimum wage may be causing more harm to a younger workforce looking to find their first job to gain relevant work experience. Our country needs to focus on the inconvenient truths about the real impact around raising the minimum wage. Some of these inconvenient truths are highlighted by the research that clearly shows how raising the minimum wage may cause more harm than good, and have significant consequences to the younger and entry-level workers vs. the emotional theories that state increasing the minimum wage will get more people out of poverty...
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...they perceive the product is worth. In the same vein, an employee will only work for a wage that he deems appropriate. If the employer lowers the wage, fewer workers will desire the job. These are a few of the reasons why the free market principle has many benefits. However, in a free market there can also be market failures. Market failures can arise from a multitude of situations such as pollution, or extreme low wages in areas of poverty. In a free market, a company could cause massive amounts of pollution and not have to bear the market cost of that pollution. The society as a whole, including people who do not benefit from the cheaper product, are the ones dealing with the polluted environment. Currently our government has been discussing a raise in the minimum wage. President Barack Obama is pushing for this bill and has many supporters. A rise in the minimum wage will be a major business issue for the next year and presidential election. Pros: Raising the minimum wage some enticing benefits to the American people and also has some strong logical arguments. One of the supporters for a raise in the minimum wage is U.S. Congresswoman from Florida’s 24th District Frederica Wilson who recently wrote an article titled, Raising the Minimum Wage: Good Ethics and Good Economics, which discusses the market failure of low wages. Wilson bases her argument on that a rise in the minimum wage is good ethics and good...
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...increasing the federal minimum wage is actually beneficial to our country and its residents. “Minimum wage is defined as the lowest amount that employers can legally pay their workers per hour of labor” (History and Debate of Minimum Wage). Most jurisdictions have laws that enforce a minimum wage; however there are benefits as well as disadvantages to this type of policy. Minimum wage laws were initially established to reduce poverty and are upheld with particular goals in mind. Those who support minimum wage laws generally believe that these objectives are being sufficiently achieved, which is enough jurisdiction to maintain the laws. Those who are opposed the minimum wage laws usually believe that it harms less skilled workers and raises unemployment (History and Debate of Minimum Wage). There are many pros from the side that is in favor of raising the minimum wage. An increase in the minimum wage would create more job opportunities because it would cause minimum wage employees to spend more leading to an increase in earnings among businesses and requiring them to hire more employees to keep up with their increase in sales. Raising the minimum wage would also allow some people who rely on additional support from the government to be able to support themselves better without being as dependent on social programs. This would ultimately lead to lower taxes as well as a reallocation of funds that provide support for other’s needs. An increase in minimum wage would also lead to a...
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...Raising the Minimum Wage Over the years the minimum wage has been a talked about topic. Many people would see it as a great idea because it would help families financially. In reality raising the minimum wage would be more of a struggle rather than a gift. The minimum wage has always been a struggle for people. Many people think that raising the minimum wage will solve all of our problems, when in reality it will not. It would only reduce the human motivation. Raising the minimum wage would also eliminate jobs making the economy struggle more. There would not be enough money circulating through the economy. Raising the minimum wage would reduce human motivation, eliminate jobs, raise taxes, and make the economy go into a hyperinflation. Raising minimum wage will reduce human motivation. In a perfect world where everyone comes from a good home, and lives in society, where people are raised to strive for better. In today’s society we do not have the perfect world. We have children being raised up to where they have to find a job at a young age just to help support their family. Children being raised up in a home like this creates a loss of ambition. Imagine, only being a child getting a job at such a young age. The only thing on your mind is being able to support the family with the money that is coming in. Imagine fighting to get the education back that was lost. Imagine not being able to go to school because there is no more time or money to help out yourself. Then the...
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...proposes raising the national federal minimum wage from 7.25 percent to 10.10 percent to fill the gap of income inequality. Obama wants to give America a raise. He said, “That too many Americans are working just to get by. Some are not working at all.” He wants to speed economic growth by putting more money into the pockets of the low-income families. He wants to help them get out of poverty by raising the federal minimum wage and pegging it to inflation. The President believes that this solution will help big businesses in the long run by decreasing employee training cost and cutting back on high turnovers. In contrary, Obama will hurt the people he is trying to help. “This proposal will only harm the people the President wants to help, especially teens, who have already endured more than four years of 20+percent unemployment,” Saltman said. “If the President wants to boost the economy and have an impact on the country’s unemployment rate, he needs to lower barriers to hiring, not raise them.” The minimum wage class is mostly made up of teenagers and young adults. These people are usually people with low skills and have little or no experience. Some of them are first time job seekers just starting out in the work force. Most of us at some point in our lives have started out working a minimum wage job. Why? We need the minimum wage jobs to help us gain the experience we need to climb the success ladder for a higher paying job. They are stepping stone jobs. Minimum wage jobs were...
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...According to my research, there are quite a few positive reasons why Congress should increase minimum wage that I personally agree with. Raising the minimum wage could be used as a solution tool for some economic issues. This includes an issue such as reducing the poverty rate by increasing income for minimum wage workers. Understanding that inflation occur once minimum is raised makes sense why after years of not having a minimum wage increase is affective over time. Since when minimum wage had started to be consistent, it has been generally increased to improve the economy from the conditions it was in at the time. Now I understand that just because businesses and government prices continue to increase, does not give Congress an absolute...
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...Professor Bajwa 13 November 2013 Against Raising Minimum Wage In my opinion, more people are hurt by a minimum wage increase than are helped by it. Increasing the minimum wage helps some low wage workers in the short run but is detrimental to the majority of society in the long run. An increase in the minimum wage helps some low wage workers in the short run. If a worker earned less than the new minimum wage, it is beneficial to them to get an increase in their hourly wage, as long as the prices of goods and services stays the same and the company they work for is not forced to downsize. In spite of a temporary benefit to one group of workers, an increase in the minimum wage is harmful to several other groups. Employers, some low wage employees, and society as a whole are hurt by the increase. Employers are harmed by an increase in the minimum wage. The increase causes a company’s cost of operation to go up. Higher input prices decrease a company’s profits. Because of the higher cost of labor, an employer cannot employ as many workers. This causes a decrease in the company’s productivity, which also decreases their profits. Small businesses especially have a difficult time accommodating increases in minimum wage because they do not have as large of a budget to work with. Some low wage workers lose their jobs as a result of an increase in minimum wage. The company they work for may decide to let some of their low wage employees go to offset the increase in the...
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...Raising the minimums raises the maximums Most of our nation’s low-income jobs and positions are not paying like they used to. Is federal minimum wage at an all-time low? Are we not in the greatest country, where American’s who work harder live more wealthily and have more success? The first federal minimum wage legislation was created in 1938, where law stated that workers earned 25 cents an hour. Since then the federal minimum has been revised and increased twenty-two times. The federal minimum wage was ignored from the year 1981 to 1990, and again until in 2007 where wages were raised to $7.25 per hour. Eight years later, the minimum standard remains the same which is an issue for most American’s considered to be middle class today. Actually, today’s minimum wage is lower than any rate during the years between 1956 and 1985. Nearly a quarter of America’s working adults are laboring for wages that do not support families at the minimally acceptable level (Curry). A person working full-time at the federal minimum wage earns $290 in a week, around $15,080 for the year (Gillibrand). With an annual salary of $3000 less than the nation’s poverty level line, an average family of three will struggle to make ends meet. These low-income families will need government assistance, for basic living needs. At this rate of pay, even an average family who has two working/supporting parents will still have financial burdens. They will be considered a poor family, with house-hold income of...
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...– Nathan Cecckin March 25, 2016 “I do not support raising the minimum wage, and the reason is as follows. When the minimum wage is raised, workers are priced out of the market. That is the economic reality that seems, at least so far, to be missing from this discussion.” as John Sununu states, raising minimum wage is not a great decision. The minimum wage rate must not increase for the reason that this will put many firms out of business, and will also lower the employment rate. Assuming firms are employing resources at maximum efficiency, increasing the labor wages will cause immense damage. An increase in minimum wage will not help our economic system become efficient; in order to allow our economy to run smoothly there mustn’t be an increase in labor wages. Increasing wage rates will increase the unemployment rate resulting in an increase in inflation allowing an increase in poverty, increasing the minimum wage rate will also increase the expenses for businesses, and lastly it will also affect a majority of high school students. If the industries suppliers’ prices increase along with the wages many industries will start to go bankrupt because of the decrease in demand for the industries’ products, resulting in a decrease of employment for low skilled workers, or young people just as Niels Veldhuis & Sylvia LeRoy explain in their academic journal, “Specifically, he concluded that a 25 percent minimum wage increase could reduce employment by as much as 15 percent...
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...Paper: Minimum Wage and Economic Growth Economic Policy Institute, most commonly known as EPI, has always been a crucial factor in the effort to increase minimum wage and highlighting its positive effects for blue-collar families as well as the general economy. As of today, twenty-one states including Washington, D.C. have already advanced in setting their minimum wage above the federal minimum of $7.25; in other words, almost half of the United States workforce is now under the influences of minimum wages above the federal minimum. Therefore, EPI took the opportunity to conduct data and reports from these states, with the aid of the Economic Analysis and Research Network, also known as EARN, in order to advance economic policy at both state and regional levels, and at the same time, demonstrating the insufficiency of having $7.25 as the minimum wage. President Barack Obama, during his State of the Union, requested for a raise in minimum wage. In the late 1960’s, the purchasing power of the minimum wage was at $9.22 an hour in 2012 dollars, which is nearly two dollars above the current level of $7.25 an hour. Inflation is a cause of reducing the purchasing power of the dollar; so as a result, when the minimum wage is raised, the purchasing power of the eventual wage is less than the proposed nominal dollar value. The minimum wage is twenty-three percent less than its peak inflation adjusted value of 1968. One of the reasons that many support the increase of the wage is the...
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...Raising Minimum Wage Intermediate Microeconomics In the 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour (The White House, n.d.). Many arguments stand both for and against the $2.85 per hour raise, all of which cite the affects it may have on employer costs, household income, and the economy as a whole. The majority of the arguments, however, point toward the major economic benefits that are capable if such a raise occurs. The federal government put into place a minimum wage in 1938. Nominal minimum wage values have increased intermittently ever since, starting at $0.25/hr, growing until it reached its current $7.25/hr. It has increased the most recently in three $0.70 increments, from $5.15 to $5.85 in July 2007, to $6.55 in July 2008, and to $7.25 in July 2009, where it has stayed for the past six years. In more recent years, various cities and states have made their own decisions to raise their minimum wages. For example, in 2015, San Francisco raised its minimum wage to $12.25 per hour, with plans to raise it further, to $15 per hour in 2018. In 2016, California will raise its state-wide minimum wage to $10 per hour, making it the highest state’s minimum wage (Smith, 2015). There are four major arguments against the raise of minimum wage – job loss, less job availability for low-skilled workers, lack of poverty reduction, and higher prices for consumers. In the Southern Economic Journal, experts...
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...social economic force. It shall protect the rights of the workers and promote their welfare” (Philippine Constitution Art. II, Sec. 18). Ideally, the law must side with the workers since they are practically powerless and voiceless in the face of capitalist industry. Labor exploitation is the inhumane cost of gaining national economic prosperity which is truly appalling and must be condemned as an ethical response to this unjust act. This paper aims to explain and provide an exposition of the exploitation of the labor sector and that these acts of exploitation must be greatly opposed. The concrete acts of labor exploitation that are opposed in this paper are contractualization, circumvention on provision of employment benefits, inhumane wages and other unfair labor practices. The Agony of the Labor Sector: Context and Issues at Hand Why and how does labor exploitation occur? The very injustice done to the labor sector begins with the problem of the materialistic conditions of society. There is a phenomenal misappropriation of capital, land and other material goods which in turn give rise to an imbalance distribution of power to the population. Due to the accumulation of power and wealth to only a small portion of the population, there is an imbalance in terms of power and the means of selfdevelopment. The...
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...Abolish or Sustain? The Minimum Wage Debate Sarah Campbell May 8, 2013 Abstract In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act established a federal minimum wage. Minimum wage has continuously increased throughout the years due to interest rates and the value of a dollar. Since its introduction the minimum wage has risen from 25 cents an hour to 7.25 dollars per hour in 2009. In President Obama’s recent State of the Union Address he states, “Working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher.” He hopes to raise the minimum wage by 2014 to 9 dollars per hour. Following the President’s support on minimum wage increase Sen. Tom Harkin (Democrat-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (Democrat-California) formalized a proposal known as S.460, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 to increase the minimum wage by 2015 to $10.10. This proposal includes increasing the minimum wage (in three incremental increases of $.95) and then indexing it to inflation (“as prices rise, so would the minimum wage” (Cooper, Hall 2013)). Also, the tipped minimum wage (the minimum wage paid to workers who earn a portion of their wages in tips) would be increased in $0.85 increments from its current value of $2.13 per hour, where it has languished since 1991, until it reaches 70 percent of the regular minimum wage (Cooper, Hall 2013). However, in the current tough economic times many people argue that an increased minimum wage will only hurt and that...
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