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Minimum Wage Case Study

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1. Minimum wage is defined as the lowest wage at which employers must pay their workers. Minimum wage is an example of a "price floor". A price floor is established by the government to insure that a product or service receives a pay that is not "too low". Raising the minimum wage can benefit the economy. For example, less of taxpayer’s money will go to low-wage workers receiving federal assistance. Additionally, raising the minimum wage brings people up closer to a better living wage, and can decrease poverty for many Americans. However, cost of raising minimum wage is great. Firstly, the number of workers willing to work increases on the supply curve, but the number of positions available decreases on the demand curve. What results is a …show more content…
Opportunity cost is defined as "the cost of the next best alternative". Since we cannot "have everything", we automatically forfeit one thing for another (e.g., we forfeit money in order to go to class) when a decision is made. We determine the opportunity cost by using marginal analysis, and compare marginal benefits against marginal costs. Marginal benefits should be greater than the marginal costs. The Law of increasing opportunity costs states that when production is increased, the opportunity cost of additional item will increase. This concept influences what is produced. For example, one can produce more widgets in the present and have a higher opportunity costs, therefore sacrificing consumption in order to make gains in the future. More specifically, if the production of one widget increases, then the production of another widget decreases since the workers need to be retrained. Or one can have a lower opportunity cost in the present, but forfeit future gains. This is how we make our decision in regards to production and decide what is worth …show more content…
Marginal utility states that one will receive the greatest satisfaction from the first item. The marginal utility of the second item will be lower than the first. Changing at the margin happens from one item to the next. Total utility states that one will be happy with the second item as well, but the level of satisfaction for the first item is greater than the level of satisfaction for the second item. Nevertheless, total utility increases because you are still experiencing satisfaction. However, the more you increase in total utility, the more marginal utility decreases. For example, if a person is very hungry, the first hot dog they eat has the highest marginal utility. If that person eats a second hot dog, their marginal utility decreases since the person is longer as hungry as they were when they ate the first hot dog. Therefore, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility states that after each item, satisfaction at the margin goes down. This applies to supply and demand because, as you add additional units, you are willing to pay less for each unit and the demand decreases. Therefore, this determines your own individual demand

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