Will raising minimum wage fix any problems?

Question

Will it just make the cost of living go up to adjust for the wage? If companies are already having trouble paying employees at current minimum wage, will they be bankrupt? I like the concept of higher min wage, but could it ultimately make less jobs?

Answer 1

The natural progression is for the cost of living to go up. In order for people to keep up with it the government has to adjust the wage. Although I think that our economy is currently taking a big flush down the toilet. Pretty soon there will be no middle class... Just the rich and the people scraping to get by. Espically where I am from... (southeast mi) With Ford cutting back all of its jobs the state is going down the tubes.

Answer 2

It won't solve a thing, unfortunately. It will hurt small businesses. And I think it would make it harder for teens to find temporary jobs. It would make it even more appealing for peole to enter the country illegally, which just puts a larger tax burden on tax paying citizens in various ways.

I think one trouble is that minimum wage is abused. It's not meant to be the kind of wage a person can build a life and family on. It's meant for people like teens, who live at home, and have many expenses already taken care of and just want some extra money or to get ahead on saving money towards college, or for people for whom this is an extra income for the family. For retired persons who need a little extra or don't want to quit qorking. Things like that. When it is all the work a man or woman can find to support their family that makes it hard.

But the wage isn't everything. Benefits are part of a wage package. So even if the wage is low, but the company provides a good benefits package, that can significantly increase the ability of the wage earner to make a living wage. If he has good health care, and if his company kicks in for a 401K and provides term insurance. All these things have to be factored in.

When companies use minimum wage abusively with employees for whom this is their life job, and they call the job part time even though it is full time, and they don't provide any benefits, that's when it is a problem. But raising the minimum wage won't fix that either, because it can't be raised enough to make up for what the company doesn't provide, or sometimes cannot afford to provide.

You are thinking deeply. And mine is not an expert opinion, just one that has been thought about for awhile.

Answer 3

An increase in the minimum wage may not have the disastrous effects that some believe; companies just use that as an excuse because it can affect their bottom lines.

Think about it this way: If a cook at Burger King earns $5.15 per hour, what harm would it be to raise his or her salary by a dollar or two? Burger King could simply shift some of the money it spends on marketing (we all know what Burger King is by now) and slightly increase the price of some of its food (are people all of a sudden going to stop buying the nuggets if they go from .99 to $1.50?).

The reality is that most of our nation relies on wage labor to sustain their lives. The working class is kept in a perennial state of poverty by employers who use the minimum wage as a means to keep its profits high and its liabilities low. Granted, that is good business, but is it good for us all? No, it's not.

Something else to think about: A minimum wage employee could work every day with overtime without ever taking a day off and still just barely clear $10,000 per year. While it's not a company's responsibility to ensure that people get rich, it should at least ensure that its workforce is able to provide for itself. Otherwise, what's the point of working?

Answer 4

NO, it would price some people out of the job market. One way to think about a wage is a price. If you hire someone to clean your house the amount of money that person makes is the price you pay to get that job done. It is the same thing when a big corporation hires someone. The wage the worker makes is the price the company pays. There are always jobs that need to be done but there is a limit to the price some people are willing to pay to get it done. The higher the minimum wage is the higher the price is to do anything and so the more things people will either do themselves or not get done at all.

Answer 5

It will undoubtably help people who are living at or below poverty level. However, it may eliminate some of the jobs that those people desperately need.

It won't made the cost of living go up; conversely, the cost of living will go down as more and more people are able to afford more and more things, but at extremely budgetary prices. For example, Target and Walmart are geared toward both lower and middle wage earners, and these stores thrive, as opposed to the more high-end stores (Macys, Sacks, Bloomingdales) or the low-end (dollar stores).

A minimum wage increase will affect large corporations the least (they pay most of their employees more than the minimum wage anyway), but they'll be the ones who will scream the loudest against it. It will affect small companies, but savvy entreprenerus will figure out a way to deal.

Overall, it is a very good idea, in my opinion.

Answer 6

No. It will not affect future jobs. Top Executives make sometimes 500% more than the average working class citizen. I don't think their companies will go bankrupt if the shave a little of their salary to pay people more than the pennies they've been giving them.

I mean, seriously. Could YOU live off of $6 an hour? I think the minimum wage should be enough to pay for housing, utilities, food and gas for the month. This doesn't mean that a person should be able to live in a $1000 month apartment, but a person should be able to support themselves and not have to worry about deciding whether to put gas in their tank for work or eat.

Answer 7

Raising the minimum wage will not change anything. As costs increase, companies will have to raise prices, or fire people, or do less advertising, or cancel plans to buy new equipment, or expand. It's a gimmic to get votes. In the short term it looks like it helps people. In the long term, nothing changes.

We have been increasing the minimum wage since it was instituted in the early 20th century. And we still have just as many poor people. The fact is, there are very few people that make minimum wage. And as much as the bleeding hearts don't like it, the truth is that people make what they are worth.

Answer 8

If mandating that people be paid a minimum, why not make the minimum wage $100/hour? This would make everyone rich, right? NO... all raising the minimum wage will do is eleminate jobs and/or increase prices for the consumer. Some jobs are just not worth paying much. Flipping a hamburger at McDonald's requires no special skill, and is not worth more than the market will bear.

Answer 9

I do not like that minimum wage should be raised. Your right in the fact that our products will just go up in price. I think people today need realize they need to be specialized in a skill that is in high demand. This means 4 year college degrees. The problem with low level jobs is that your not in demand. They can fire you and higher someone cheaper that same day. Get an education and study something that challenges you and you'll never have to worry about minimum wage.

Answer 10

Nope. It will only cause more. If you raise the minimum wage, employers have to pay out more money, therefore less jobs available. Someone that has worked somewhere for a long time, their job has become less valuable. And the list goes on and on and on. It should be up to individual employers to consider each employees personal status (are they married? Do they have any kids, etc) and set their wages from that.

Answer 11

What about the cost of living increase since 1997, the last time they increased the minimum wages? Doesn't the concept of minimum wage imply that wage is actually livable? People need to be able to buy what they need with the job they have, and $5.15/hr isn't going to suffice.