Prompt #7
- Steve
In today's society there has been a very large discrepancy whether to raise the minimum wage or not. However, there are various arguments to both sides.
Some arguments for increasing the minimum wage are that in the US the minimum wage is 31 percent lower than the average hourly wage of a non-supervisory worker (Roos para 3). Another argument is that if you were to adjust minimum wage for inflation, the value of todays minimum wage is the lowest its been since 1952 (Roos para. 3) A third argument for increasing minimum wage is that minimum wage is not a livable wage. For example, in Washington D.C., one must earn $13.68 an hour to be able to support themselves, that's without a child, with a child that number jumps to $26.37 (Glink para 1).
On the other hand, there are various arguments on reasons to why minimum wage should stay the same. One argument is that the real reason for minimum wage is that so the worker has a set value that is set by the government. However, the workers real value should be tested by going into an open market and see the potential of what he or she is able to receive. Another argument is that increasing the minimum wage will increase inflation. If businesses have to increase how much they are paying their employees then they will bump their prices of their goods up to make up for how much more the employees are getting paid. This is called cost-push inflation (Roos para. 4). Lastly, an increase in minimum wage would also increase unemployment because small businesses would not be able to pay all their employees a higher salary. Resulting in employees getting laid off.
Overall, there are dozens of arguments for both sides. These are only a few, but whether you are against or in favor of raising the minimum wage, that is up to you to decide.
Sources
Glink, Ilyce. "A Minimum Wage, but Not Much of a Living." CBS News. CBS Interactive, 14 Nov. 2013. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-minimum-wage-but-not-much-of-a-living/. 02 Mar. 2017.
Roos, Dave. "How Minimum Wage Works." HowStuffWorks. N.p., 18 May 2009. http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/minimum-wage4.htm. 02 Mar. 2017.
French, Doug. "Minimum Wage, Maximum Stupidity." International Man. N.p., 29 June 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.
I agree with most of the points in this point. For the last point, if you raise the minimum wage then small businesses would increase unemployment. If one was to increase the minimum wage then prices would increase accordingly which would then result in the same price pay out the employee. Is this correct?
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on the exact change in minimum wage and what the new prices that are being charged are changed to. But yes, prices will go up if minimum wage goes up.
ReplyDelete