Raising Minimum Wage will it help those in poverty?

Answer 1

No, this will have no impact on the vast majority of wage workers and may in fact, cost some people their jobs...

The minimum wage issue is purely an election year ploy so that politicians can look like they've accomplished something to their constituents.

The federal minimum wage is $5.15, but each state and some cities set their own. These range from $5.15 to as much as $10.33.

Raising it is absurd. Why? Because it will actually cause job creation to DECREASE. Minimum wage jobs were intended for entry-level workers with little to no skills, not as a career position. It also encourages employers to either hire illegal labor or pay labor off the books. These jobs are designed for young people to gain work experience (at a lower wage) and then move up and make more in another position with more resposibility. Some of these jobs are also held by retirees looking to augment their income. Also, many are given increases after a period of 90-180 days.

As an employer, you're likely to either do without more employees to avoid the increase, pass the cost on to your customers, or reduce your staff to combat the increase. Or simply avoid creating mimimum wage jobs in the first place.

As of 2004 there were some 74 million hourly workers in the US. Of those ONLY 520,000 earned the federal level minimum wage of $5.15, while 1.5 million were paid less (usually waiters/waitresses, and tip-based employees). This means the balance EARNED MORE!

As I said, minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of all hourly-paid workers earning $5.15 were under age 25, and about one-fourth were age 16-19. Among teenagers, about 9 percent earned $5.15 or less. About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less. Among those age 65 and over, the proportion was 4 percent.

Why increase the mimimum when it would impact only 2 million people out of a population of almost 300,000,000? If you're already paid above the new minimum and this increase goes into effect, you don't get anything....

Answer 2

Where i live they want to raise the wages but will not do it all at once they will do it over three yrs i think, this will not help poverty at all right now we are to busy helping everyone else that cries they need money or food etc that i believe this will be another depression for this country. In order to make it you just by getting by you would have to make atleast 10 a hour and that is still ruff and i sure dont see the wages going to that much per hour. We have to thank our goverment for all of this unless you are rich there is no such thing as rich middle class and poor you are either rich or poor now a days.

Answer 3

No, if anything it will cause even more people to be in poverty level...The higher minimum wage, the higher inflation for everyone...And what about small businesses that can't afford to pay any more to their employees? In the end, we are the only ones who pay for it!

To POP D: Why don't you explain why Democrats want everyone on Welfare then, if that is how you see it?

To XAMAY CA.COM: If you are speaking of servers, they do not even make minimum wage, they make from $2-3 an hour plus tips! So, minimum wage does not effect them...

Answer 4

Raymond it might help some of those who continue to get a check, but what about the many that will lose their jobs.

If a small business employs 10 people at $6 an hour it costs then $60 an hour. If the minimum wage increases to $7.50 its very possible they might decrease labor to 8 people and stay at $60 an hour.

Thanks to raising minimum wage 2 people just lost their jobs.

Answer 5

Absolutely not. You raise the minimum wage up to $50.00 per hour and it won't help anything. It is all based around economics. As income levels increase the price of goods and services will increase. Everything will get pushed into a state of equilibrium.

The area in which you live normally determines what is and is not acceptable pay level. McDonald's out in San Francisco literally have to pay like $11.00 bucks per hour whereas in Valdosta, Georgia the pay would be around $5.00 per hour. It has nothing to do with the federal or state minimum and everything to do with standard cost of living for the area in which you reside.

Chairman of the bored 04 is correct when he says it's just a political ploy. There are a lot of uneducated and unskilled laborers in this country that feel they don't get paid enough money. It would make sense to vote for someone who they "think" might help their solve their financial woes.

Answer 6

I don't think so. If we raised the minimum wage, the businesses would have to pay the workers more. If they had to do that, it would make their prices for services go up. Which would put the people in poverty in a bind again!!

Answer 7

The minimum wage will help keep them in poverty - which is the intention.

It helps the shareholders dividend and keeps the gap between rich and poor.

Maybe removing barriers to education and training would be a fairer system but when you have wealth, why do anything that could endanger you luxury?

Answer 8

Not by much. It will make things easier to afford. Once minimum wage goes up, the rest of salaries will go up. This will compensate for the rising oil costs, thus letting people have more money to spend on other things. This will eventually boost the economy back to what it was before the war and recent conflicts.

Answer 9

No , it will not help the poverty people, the bosses who give those raises will just have to raise the price of their goods to cover the raise and then the people will have to pay more for the things they need. The end result would be no gain.

Answer 10

To an extent but not that much. My wife and I combine for 70K a year and when we moved into our place (3 years ago) we were on rougher times and we got into low income housing, as in you can't make more than 25K a year if you're going to live there. I don't know how they do it. With a car, normal bills and rent neither of us could afford our apartment. Fortunately at our complex it doesn't matter how much you make after year one, so we can make as much as we want Society is set up for co-dependancy. If I were out on my own I would probably rent a room somewhere and I make more than 40K a year!!! Someone being raised up from 5.15 an hour to 7 an hour isn't going to change the fact that their still poor, as unfortunate as that is.