Minimum Wage Issues

Raising the minimum wage has been one of the biggest debates during the 21st century. One side of the spectrum argues that raising it will make it so they have a living wage, while the other argues that raising it will hurt the economy. Whichever the case is, people are clearly divided on this issue. Before Oregon passed the 15 dollar minimum wage law, people wrote arguments to try to either prevent or pass this law. The article, “How a $15 minimum wage would affect a real business: Guest opinion” by Lee Spector argues that raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses like the one he earns.

Is it ethical to raise the minimum wage when it doesn’t necessarily affect the very poor, the people it’s aimed at helping? The minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer is permitted by law to pay an employee for his work. The current federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 an hour. Across the country, there is an overwhelming push in favor of raising wages for our poorest workers. In January 2016 the minimum wage in California was raised to $10 an hour.

I watched a documentary called “Living on Minimum Wage” in the series Thirty Days. In the series Thirty Days, a man named Morgan Spurlock puts himself into certain situations to experience the problems some Americans face everyday. Mr. Spurlock decided to live off of minimum wage in the state of Ohio. The minimum wage in Ohio now is $8.10 per hour, but in 2005, when the episode was filmed, the minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. He started off with one week worth minimum wage ($300).

Seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour, or fourteen thousand five hundred per year, is the lowest amount the government deems appropriate to pay workers. This amount is sufficient for a single person with no extra expenses, but that is often not the reality of minimum wage workers. While some believe that raising the minimum wage would do more harm than good, increasing the minimum wage to a living wage would benefit society by reducing poverty, increasing productivity, spurring economic growth, and improving peoples’ quality of life. Some people say that paying workers a living wage would benefit not only the workers but the whole of society.

Minimum Wage Laws in America As cost of living continues to rise across the United States, America’s minimum wage remains the same. With a gallon of milk closing around four dollars and federal minimum wage at $7.25, one can understand how the minimum wage can be troublesome for our working class Americans. States such as California, New York, and New Jersey have some of the highest food and rental cost in the country. We must find the right balance and compensate for inflation, otherwise our lower class citizens will keep on struggling to support their families and themselves.

North Americans have been a part of an era that struggles with low minimum wage that has resulted poverty in many areas in Canada and United States. Having to work several jobs to support family is a struggle for many growing families. This issue has always been the top headline on newspaper and news channel with workers going on strike or not able to afford going to school yet, the focus is taken away by politicians making statements of the change they will make. People are still waiting on the change, politicians claimed they would make.

By increasing the minimum wage, low-paid workers would be able to afford better-quality food, housing, and healthcare. This would help to improve their physical and mental health and reduce poverty rates. Additionally, increasing the minimum wage would help to reduce financial stress for low-paid workers and their families. This would help to improve their quality of life and reduce poverty rates. Overall, increasing Australia’s Federal minimum wage is an important step towards improving the lives of low-paid workers and their

Introduction More numbers of state are joining to take action to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in a few years even though there is a high disputing controversial all over the nation. The federal has set the minimum wage level to $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2015. In less than a year the index number of the minimum wage is going up automatically with cost of living. And eventually it will be likely to increase year by year with automatic and expectation index.

In China, the minimum wage is $2.15 an hour and in Bangladesh, the minimum wage is $0.50 an hour. Someone might be thinking that thirteen is too young of an age and $0.50 cents is too little, that a law should prevent that, but this law is sometimes not enforced as it should be or is very weak. Americans are part of the problem too, have you ever seen a really nice shirt for like practically free? Here is why. Bangladesh the minimum wage is $0.50 an hour because they pay a low wage and gain a bigger profit.

Today’s minimum of $7.25 an hour is worth 25 percent less than the minimum in the late 1960s. From research, a full-time, minimum-wage worker earns about $15,000 per year, which is below the federal poverty line for a worker with just one child. We need to raise the minimum wage to the point where the lowest-paid worker can afford their basic needs, such as food and other necessities. An increase to $10.00 an hour as proposed by President Barack Obama would actually reinstate the wage factor to the same value it had back in the 1960s. In doing so, it would lift earnings for nearly 28 million workers nationwide roughly 1 in 5 U.S. workers.

Since the Great Depression, there has been a minimum wage in America, but this minimum wage has changed 22 times since the Great Deprnbession. Many people say minimum wage should stay at $7.25 like it has been since 2009. Meanwhile, other people believe that minimum wage should be $15.00 so they can have more money to live comfortably. People think that a higher minimum wage will help, but it will hurt more people than it will help. If America makes the minimum wage $9.00, people will no longer be in poverty and it will make the economy balance out.

Out of fifty states, twenty-nine have raised the federal minimum wage above $7.25. As of January first, 2016, only two states have raised their wage to ten dollars, those two states are California and Massachusetts. Moving to California or Massachusetts to get paid higher seems like a great idea does it not? What most people do not understand that with a higher wage comes higher prices along with that increase of money. You may be getting paid ten or fifteen dollars an hour to serve people burgers, but you go to the grocery store and spend your entire paycheck on food for your family.

The Minimum Wage Struggle Money is an essential object to acquire in the society we live in. Various places demand a high monthly rate in order to occupy a premise, along with the stress of utility bills that may not be included. Aside from living costs there are many other factors which must be calculated when budgeting on a day to day basis. Overall, the survival rate tends to increase due to so many responsibilities that need to be upheld, as well as costs being raised. This rise in both the cost of living as well as the need for higher wages proves that the standard of minimum wage needs a major increase.

This paper aims to analyze the effects of minimum wage on equality and unemployment from various perspectives. First of all, theories from welfare economics have been used to explain the effects of minimum wage of equality and unemployment. Moreover, statistics and data related to effects of minimum wage on equality and unemployment have been collected from World Bank database and thereby analyzed using graphical tools. Lastly, insights from economic journals and articles related to effects of minimum wage on equality and unemployment have been discussed. 2.

1. Introduction In the modest term, a minimum wage is a lawfully authorized minor bound for wages, but the term “lawfully authorised” is unclear, leading too many different kinds of minimum wages institutions (Cunningham et al, 2007:19). It further states that in the most straight forward cases, such as Brazil and Bolivia, the federal government identifies a wage level and all employers in the country must pay at that level or above it (2007:19). Economist have tended to oppose minimum wage on the grounds that they reduce employment , hurting many of those they are supposed to help (the economist:24/11/2012).