Minimum wage increase
Jessica Gough
WRIT 3037.03
Mrs. Longest
March 22, 2010
Minimum Wage Increase
Surprisingly, many people many don not know at much the federal minimum wage rate is currently set. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “The federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $5.85 per hour effective July 24, 2007” (Department of Labor).
Minimum wage should be increased for a number of reasons. Positive reasons exceed negative effects. Reasons minimum wage should be raised are the current minimum wage can be utilized as a tool by employers as the alternative to take advantage of employees, economic growth will motivated by employee’s purchasing power if federal minimum wage is raised, and finally because the cost of living exceeds income.
Minimum wage should be raised because employers can utilize minimum wage as possibly taking advantage of employees. Many employers pay their employees minimum wage when their job is worth much more. According to attorneys, federal minimum wage provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Sexual harassment and employment discrimination get all newspaper headlines, but the Fair Labor Standards Act is the most violated of all the federal employment laws. Employees who run a convenience store or cook in a kitchen should get paid more than $5.85 per hour. If the United States raised the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour as planned to do so by the end of July 2009, “an estimated 7.3 million workers (5.8% of the workforce) would receive an increase in their hourly wage rate. Due to spillover effects, the 8.2 million workers (6.5% of the workforce) earning up to a dollar above the minimum would also benefit from an increase, the federal minimum wage is at its lowest real value in over 50 years” (Fox 2010).
The Essay on Should the Minimum Wage Be Abolished
A. Marginalized workers Minimum wage harms a large percentage of the working groups, mostly the marginal workers which includes teenagers, the less educated workers and the more aged workforce. Based on the 2005 data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the law also discriminates workers belonging to ethnic minorities. The unemployment rate for Hispanic and Black teens belonging in the 16- ...
If the minimum wage were raised this high, it would definitely have a negative effect on employers’ pocketbooks, especially the larger companies such as Kohl’s whose assembly line is populated by minimum waged employees. Larger companies are against raising minimum wage this high. Companies would offset this deduction by laying off many employees. A positive effect it would have against this, higher competition for jobs, the younger workers would work harder as well as the other employees for their labor cost. Some might argue that this would create a higher sum if unneeded welfare, a highly populated area. Stipulations to this could be avoid this masquerade, if either welfare was cut, or there were narrower qualifications to receive it.
Another reason economic growth will stimulate the economy; employees increase purchasing power if federal minimum wage were raised. Consider the saying,” If you got it. You spend it.” Essentially this is true for lower wage workers. According to Robert Segal, “The federal government had found that the average family of four in the United States is dividing its money something like this: housing…33%, food…25%, taxes…20%, transportation and clothing…10%, medical expense…5%, other personal expenses…7%” (Segal 1993).
This is a 1993 federal government average, though, and a modern federal average would probably have a closer transportation average of 33 percent due to vehicle costs, repair and gas. Stimulating the economy would mean more goods made in the United States, and exports would actually be more than imports. The current debt of the United States is close to 12.6 trillion dollars, increasing more every day. Consider the current situations of the economy. With the economy struggling, increasing minimum wage rate could stimulate the economy; it certainly would not hurt it. According to Farrell, raising the minimum wage would have a positive effect of “stimulating economic growth by increasing the purchasing power of workers” (Farrell 2008).
The Essay on Min Wage Minimum Increase Increases
Should Minimum wage be increased? Introduction For many decades now, there has been heated debates concerning minimum wages and increases in those wages. Most people have a tendency to assume that when the minimum wage is increased people will benefit. They do not stop to think of the consequences that come from minimum wage increases. The general population merely assumes that people should make ...
It would also mean more goods being used means more is required to produce, which means more manpower is used to make items and introduction to the workforce, in the long run. It would be not necessarily have a negative impact, then, on the economy, as many might think. The higher the workforce makes, the more they pay in taxes, and there are actually people career only pays $5.85 or sometimes the generous employers may pay a little over that. However when minimum wage is raised to $7.25 per hour, the least overtime pay is $10.63
My final reason is that one can simply not pay one’s bills making $5.85 per hour. Dr. Ware says she “has no problems raising minimum wage if it is reflective of the difficulty of the work that one does. Most of the people that work for minimum wage do work essential for the basic structure of our lives. You cannot live on a job that pays minimum wage. It is not designed for people who are independent and my biggest concern is minimum wage in food service, because it is actually lower, $2.13 per hour plus tips, than the real minimum wage” (Dr. Ware, personal communication, March 16, 2010).
According to America’s Union Movement,
The wait is finally over. Minimum wage workers, who have gone more than a decade without a raise, saw the first of a three-step minimum wage increase go into effect on July 24. This first step raised the minimum wage from $5.15 (where it had been frozen since 1997) to $5.85. The second step will raise the minimum wage to $6.55 on July 24, 2008; and the third step will raise the minimum wage to $7.25 on July 24, 200 (AFL CIO).
What is inflation-adjusted value? This is what the United States dollar is worth in terms of dollar inflation to the national economy and how much of the United States is worth because of continuous inflation. The incremental raised wage of $5.85 replaces the wage of $5.15 per hour, the lowest real wage rate in 50 years, which went the longest without being changed since minimum wage was adopted in 1938. The tax expenditure of minimum wage at $5.15 was nearly $1.00, taken out of every paycheck. According to Robert Segal, “expense would include rent, house, or land payments, education, insurance, loan payments, food, clothing, transportation, medical expenses, savings and recreation and miscellaneous expenses” (Segal 1993).
The Essay on Why the Minimum Wage Should Be Raised
... minimum wage and are dissatisfied. Debate of whether the minimum wage should be raised is currently taking place. Finding the perfect minimum wage ... are been experiences in the future work may be harder and complicated ... & Great Britain. (2011). National minimum wage: Low Pay Commission report 2011. London: Stationery Office. ... in minimum wage, then it would be twenty two dollars an hour currently. ...
Consider buying a gallon of milk or ice cream at a convenience store. An hour of work at minimum wagecurrently set around $5. 25 per hour untaxed would barley pays for a gallon of milk it ice cream. It cannot pay for close to two gallons of gas which was set at $2.38 per gallon when I first started writing this paper and is averaging around $2.70 locally. Reflecting that many employers don’t pay overtime, a person working full-time can expect a 40 hour work week. This means 160 per month and $186 per month making minimum wage. One can expect to pay well over $100 per month automobile insurance, $300 per month automobile payment and over $400 per month rent or housing payment. This means one is over the limit without paying for other such as education and tuition, food or gas. The reasons are clearly present why minimum wage should be raised.
Minimum wage should be raised as it is scheduled to do so incrementally because employees are vulnerable to being taken advantage of at current wages, the economy can be stimulated because of an employee’s purchasing power above minimum wage, and because one can simply not be expected to cover all costs and bills making minimum wage. Researching the topic of minimum wage had clearly defined purpose of positive effects raising minimum wage. A minimum wage increase exceeds the negative effects and important topics such as minimum wage seems to be importance and understanding within the current economic state.
Work Citied
Farrell, C. (2008).
Hypothetical Costs and Benefits. Business Week
Fox, L. (2010) Minimum Wage. Retrieved March 15, 2010, From Economic Policy Institute:
The Term Paper on Minimum Wage
Minimum wage is the lowest rate employees may legally pay for an hour of labor (Merriam, 741). The United States has a minimum wage law to guarantee minimum hourly wages and to prevent the exploitation of workers and provide unskilled and part-time workers with a wage floor. People have argues that the minimum wage has become less of a safety net for primary earners in poor families than a floor ...
Neil, G. (2007).
Federal Minimum Wage Facts. Retrieved March 10, 2010, from gNeil
Thomas Nelson Inc.
Ware, M. Dr (2010).
Personal Communication
