...October 21, 2011 Minimum Wage and the Fight to End Multigenerational Poverty Everyday we see poverty stricken people begging for money on the side of the road. Upon seeing them, various thoughts cross our minds: Why do they not go out and get a job? Why are they wasting their time begging for money instead of looking for work? Are they really poor or do they just want to get my money? Are they really going to spend my money buying food or are they just going to buy cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs? Are they just being lazy or can they really not get a job? Though each person’s case is different, many of these people are truly so poor that neither they nor their families can survive without handouts from generous people passing by. There is no accurate or reliable way to tell if these people are genuine in their need, so it is up to the individual as to whether or not they choose to give these people aid. In answer to the ever-present question of why these people do not go out and find jobs is many times quite simple – they simply cannot. In order to get a job, one must have references; however, in order to get references one must have had a good job to provide these references. Also, one must go through the interviewing process before one can acquire a job. This is quite challenging for someone who has no place to shower and no clean clothes to wear. In addition, one must know how to behave and interact in an interview, something that many of those in poverty do not know how to...
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...Some people may think raising the minimum wage will reduce poverty, but guess what it really doesn’t to a point. Let me break it down for you, you see raising the minimum wage will help out, but what else is changing when you raise the minimum wage? Well when you raise the minimum wage something else changes with it. It actually redistributes income among poor families, it puts others out of work, and it doesn’t put low-wage workers out of work. Raising the minimum wage will not reduce poverty. Admittedly, Raising minimum wage increases in tax income, help bigger families, and increase in annual earnings . “In 1998, a typical family of four with a full-time, minimum -wage worker had income above the poverty line when food stamps and EITC benefits were considered” ( Furman, and Parrot). Food stamps and EITC benefits are considered for a big family of four because it will become hard for them to live with because you have to buy food, pay bills, mortgage/rent (etc). Raising the minimum wage could help out a little, but not a lot. You see raising the minimum wage will only help get big families with food and more. However once you raise the minimum wage other things would have to either change or something would have to go. other people’s pay may go up or you would have to try to recalculate how everyone’s pay is being...
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...Minimum Wage and the Working Poor HD 403 Poverty Spring 2012 Introduction It is believed one way to help the working poor is to increase the minimum wage to elevate their yearly income. But surveys and studies have shown that raising the minimum wage has done very little to help poverty rate. What it has done is eliminate jobs that the working poor filled and increased inflation. It seems to be an ineffective way to help the poor, a combination of other anti-poverty tools together would produce better results. Issue Each president has wanted to help those in poverty and the working poor in America. President Clinton increased the federal minimum wage to bring up the wages of the working poor. Is that the answer? What will happen when the federal minimum wage is brought up to $9.50 an hour? This article is looking into possibilities of what may happen with poverty and the working poor if the minimum wage were increased. The working poor are people in the workforce but wages still fall below the poverty level. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 has increased the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour (Rep. Miller, 2007). The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in 2011, there were 73.9 million American workers age 16 and older were paid hourly wage. But only 1.7 million workers made minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and 2.2 million had wages below the minimum (USDL, 3/2012). The working poor looked like a person who had not graduated high school...
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...Kelby Storm Rough Draft The minimum wage in America is a problem that is continuing to grow. This can be fixed by raising the minimum wage. In Webster's college dictionary "minimum wage" is defined as “the lowest hourly wage that may be paid to an employee” (“Websters College Dictionary” 845). The minimum wage determines what a human makes per hour which in America is not where it should be. At a job there is a low that can be set for how much the minimum is per hour worked. Many places put it at minimum wage just so that they can make as much money for the company without losing a bunch to pay the employees who are the one that keep the business running. Minimum wage is a very debatable topic as people view it as it is too high and others...
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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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...argument advanced in favor of raising the minimum wage is that it would improve the overall standard of living for minimum wage workers by providing them with a more appropriate income level to handle the cost of living increases. A boost to economic growth is another potential advantage of increasing the minimum wage, as consumer spending typically increases with increases in wages. A higher minimum wage would put more discretionary dollars in the pockets of millions of workers, money that would then flow to retailers and other businesses.However, opponents of an increase argue that raising the minimum wage would likely result in wages and salaries increasing across the board, thereby substantially increasing operating expenses for companies that would then increase the prices of products and services to cover their increased labor costs. Increased prices mean a general increase in the cost of living that could...
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...Minimum Wage: The Effects of Minimum Wage on the Economy and Poverty Level in relation to Living Expenses Alison Denne Central Virginia Community College Minimum wage started with the “New Deal” program. In 1933, Roosevelt’s advisers decided to develop a National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) to “suspend antitrust laws so that industries could enforce fair-trade codes resulting in less competition and higher wages” (Grossman, 1978). In his President’s Reemployment Agreement, Roosevelt accepted “to raise wages, create employment, and thus restore business” (Grossman, 1978). This began the arrangement of the government creating a policy for the working class. In order to offset the “overwork, underpay” regulations in the US economy,...
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...Minimum wage The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 established the minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping and child labor standards (Minimum Wage - Wage and Hour Division (WHD). For the purpose of this assignment, the primary focus will be on minimum wage. The minimum wage is a price floor set at a minimum price for labor per hour. The intention for minimum wage is to help alleviate poverty, workers are guaranteed hourly pay, protection of minimum living standards, and employee labor wage equality. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 and has been in effective since July 24, 2009. Although many states have their own minimum wage laws, which may be above the federal minimum wage, states must comply with both state...
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...Minimum wage is one of the number one issues in America. There are debates on whether minimum wage needs a raise or stay the same. The current minimum wage in California is $10.50 per hour. Most people that work under minimum wage work more than 60 hours a week. Those people that work under minimum wage are most likely to live in poverty. People can not earn a living on minimum wage. This is why minimum wage needs to be raised. One reason minimum wage needs a raise is because it leads to a healthier population and less premature deaths. Over the past few years, fast food prices drop while the healthier food prices increase. The author states that in “many poverty-dense regions, people are unable to access affordable healthy food, even when...
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...Minimum Wage Solutions Paper Labor Economics Minimum Wage Dilemmas There is a large push from the Democratic Party to increase the federal minimum wage. What effects could this have on American citizens? Minimum wage has been around for quite a while now, but what are its origins? What are the pros of having a minimum wage, what problems does it have potential to solve? What are the problems with having a minimum wage, and just how much do they affect the U.S. economy? What are potential alternative solutions to raising the federal minimum wage? Many different viewpoints and ideas will be discussed below, but it is difficult to fully grasp how far reaching the effects of minimum wage. The purpose for a baseline wage was set to help poverty stricken workers a fair wage for their cost of living. In June 25, 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,” which aimed to ban child labor, set maximum work weeks at 44 hours, and set minimum hourly wage at 25 cents. Roosevelt felt child labor, undercutting wages, and stretching out hours of the lowest paid workers during times of recession had a big effect on buying power even though this act affected one-fifth of the United States population at the time. Roosevelt realized a population without buying power is more than just an ethical problem but an economic one as well (U.S. Labor Department). The father of modern economics Adam Smith once stated, “But what improves the circumstances...
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...The effects of introducing a living wage of £7.20 per hour on the labour market can be examined using the data known about the introduction of the minimum wage in April 1999. The living wage behaves like as a price floor as the government intervenes to maintain wages above the equilibrium wage, which is represented as the current minimum wage of £6.70. The diagram represents the theoretical effects of the policy: We can infer that due to the new policy, there are fewer workers demanded than there are supplied leading to a worker surplus. Hence the living wage is binding on the labour market as wages can’t drop below £7.20. Businesses are generating the same profit, while providing higher wages, so demand for workers shrinks. Employees work effectively and efficiently due to the...
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...The Devastating Effect of Raising the Minimum Wage Raising the Federal minimum wage does not reduce poverty. If legislators raise the price of low and unskilled labor, businesses would reduce the workforce. The very laborers that are pushing for raising the minimum wage are the ones that will suffer the most. An increase in the minimum wage would lead to job loss and may result in higher prices for consumers. Minimum wage increases may result in severe economic devastation. Recently in New York between ten and fifteen thousand laborers marched in an effort to persuade lawmakers to increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars per hour. The majority of those marching were activist students and employees of fast food industries. If protesters are successful in securing a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage up to seventy percent of them will lose their jobs. For the first time in history, if the fifteen dollar per hour wage is approved, a fully automated solution would be an economically viable solution for struggling companies like McDonalds. Several companies are nearing commercial launch of the automated burger process. “Roboburger,” an automated burger machine can produce 8,500 burgers a day while 25 employees can produce 320 per day in comparison. If the companies are only required to pay a minimum wage of eight dollars per hour and contract labor, which means no benefits, it would still be viable to hire those 25 employees. The automation over the next few years...
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...Minimum wage has always been a controversial topic ever since the Fair Labor Standards Act took effect back in 1938. The goal Congress was trying to impose with the Fair Labor Law was to keep families out of poverty and to protect non-unionized workers in unskilled jobs. This law has failed us, being that the cost of living (rent, food, gas, taxes, utilities, healthcare, and transportation) continues to rise and the minimum wage stays at a plateau, resulting in parents not being able to provide all the necessities for their families. The United States should increase the minimum wage because the low wages are the cause for deteriorating health in American society; and the current minimum wage has more than 45 million people living below the poverty line. Raising the minimum wage would not only lift families out of poverty, but can also improve health outcome by increasing financial access to resources and opportunities. Americans living on minimum wage are more likely to experience adverse health outcomes, including higher rates of chronic illness and disability and lower life expectancies, because wages affect a person’s ability to access healthy foods. Low-wage workers are less likely to get decent health care because they cannot afford it. Low wages can cause stress because they may not know how they will pay rent...
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... (History Of Minimum Wage) President Franklin D. Roosevelt characterized the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), as “the most far-reaching, far-sighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted in this or any other country.” A law drafted by Senator Hugo Black of Alabama and signed into law in June 1938, the FLSA was designed to “put a ceiling over hours and a floor under wages” by establishing an eventual maximum 40 weekly work hours. Henderson, David R. "Raising the Minimum Wage Will Not Reduce Poverty." Poverty. Ed. Viqi Wagner. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "The Negative Effects of the Minimum...
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...Minimum Wage Raising minimum wages actually promotes growth (Meroney 1995) and will have a positive effect on the economy. The positive effect will come from promoting job growth. This statement was made by U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Reich recommended that the minimum wage of $4.25 an hour be pushed up to $5.15 an hour over a two-year period. Reich said, it has been shown that pushing the minimum wage up, would assist in welfare reform, and lower the number of persons on welfare, by making wages high enough to motivate people to go to work, rather than stay on welfare. And with more people in the job market, with more money to spend, increases would be shown in both gross national product sales, and an increase in taxes derived from sales taxes. When receiving paychecks, most employees will agree that one can never be paid enough, however, their employers may disagree with that statement and believe that they are getting paid far greater than they are entitled to. Thus creating a conflict between minimum wages. Minimum wage is the least amount of money that an employer may pay their employees. The federal minimum wage that is experienced by many members of the United States, currently is at $5.15, and is under debate as to weather or not it should be raised an additional dollar per hour, to make the minimum wage $6.15 (1). As a result of dissatisfaction with the minimum wage, debates whether or not the wage should be lifted to please more workers are currently taking...
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