Is it a truly a good idea to raise the minimum wage?

Question

I can see the positves, not many though (a person is not suppose to live off of minimum wage, if you want that, then you want something other than what our economy thrives on, capitalism). But one negative, overrides all positives, it hurts, small businesses. Small businesses is what this country is built on. Your thoughts please!

A teenager does not need a car, i should know, i am a teenager and do not have one, why do they need it? Keep up with inflation, raising the minimum wage sky-rockets inflation, and just puts us back where we started, except that when you go to a pop machine, instead of putting a dollar in, you have to find a 5 dollar bill

Laurie, i am a teenager, i have always lived on a budget with my family, i have worked my butt off, to just pay for my first year of college, minimum wage is going to possibly force me to quit to help my parents out. Now wouldn't that suck. Yes, by all means yes it would. I have done budgets, i manage my money very effieciently, i see what my parents pay for and know the prices, i just don't see the actual positives out-weighing the negatives.

Answer 1

the people who live off of minimum wage can NOT keep up with inflation. Even the middle class was hurt last September with the gas prices; imagine what that did to the lower classes. The minimum wage is LONG overdue to be risen. The upper/lower class income gap is rising. The poor are becoming poorer due to inflation. We call ourselves a great, wealthy nation, but overall, poor people in European nations are much better off than the poor people in the US. Europe has many more gov programs in place to help them. So while poor people in the US make more money, poor people in Europe have more wealth.

So, yes, it should rise, but at a slow rate so that businesses can keep up. Raising it a whole dollar at a time is a bad idea. The gov should have been raising it .5-.25 all along. Now it is overdue, and it will hurt the economy rather than help it.

edit--and I think the whole point behind the teenager and the car statement was to say if a teenager can't afford gas, insurance, and a car payment, how can a person get by feeding their family and paying their bills? Sorry, if a business owner has to go from making 50k per year to 40k per year--maybe cut out cable or buy fewer clothes so that their employees can go from making 12k per year to 15k per year to pay their bills and buy groceries, I am all for it. People in the middle class don't realize how much they have. They think they need it all. Sorry, try living on half your salary and you will find how much you really need. You try living on 12-19k per year. That translates into $200-400 per week, or 800-1600 per month. When your gas bill is $200, your rent is $400, water and sewage is $20, electricity is 100, that is 700 not including automobile gas, car payment, car insurance, health insurance, groceries, retirement, savings in case something goes wrong, car or household repairs, household items, clothing, etc. Trust me, I've lived on 12k per year while watching people who were having a "tough time" drive one of their 2 cars, truck, or motorcycle and going boating at their lakehouse that they owned for the weekend, not to mention their third house that they had rented out. Sorry, not buying it.

Answer 2

Maybe it would allow these teenagers to save more for college so they can get degrees and contribute something valuable rather that working at a minimum wage job for the rest of their lives. And the minimum wage should be raised every few years anyway just to compensate for inflation. The same way many companies give the employees a one or two percent pay raise every few years. It's a cost of living increase.

Answer 3

Do you know how many people live in poverty because of how low the minimum wage is, how many people have to get assistance from the government because of how low the minimum wage is? If people are not supposed to live off of it them why do we have it? How are the people who work for these small businesses supposed to get by if not by living in poverty and getting help from the government. A teenager can't even afford to pay for car insurance and gas to get to a job with the current minimum wage. It needs to be raised to keep up with inflation, the people who keep not raising the minimum wage sure make sure they get raises every year, most of them make $150,000+ per year. Is this right that they make more in a day than people on minimum wage make in a year? I see plenty of positives in raising the minimum wage people can get out of poverty and stop getting help from the government and tax payers.

Answer 4

Ok, ask this, what will happen if minimum wage is increased? It may put more money into the pockets of some however, it is an illlusion because those same people will be paying out more. As minimum wage increases so will the cost of goods such as fast food, groceries and other products distributed by companies that pay minimum wage. Therefore hurting the very people it is intended to help. I did research on this before for an essay I wrote but I can't remember where I found it nor do I have the time to look it up. However all we need is common sense to realize cause and affect. For every action there is a reaction and to answer should we, you should first ask what if we do, then what?

I feel more effort should be put on financing education and programs that help the lower income provide for their needs and attend school so people can advance beyond minimum wage.

And given the fact that a very small percentage of people actually work for minimum wage and an even smaller percentage of those people are actually trying to raise famies, the need to raise the minimum wage is very small.

Do you know that welfare will provide daycare and other help so a person can attend training programs so they can work at local factories that tend to have a high rate of layoffs, yet they won't lift a finger to help someone pay for a real education in college in order to better their ability to make a secure income in a real career rather than a job?
In fact when I quit one of my two part time jobs in order to work for a scholarship on the college paper, I was taken off of food assistance, not because I received a scholarship, but because I had to quit one of my jobs and didn't replace it with another paying job. In essence I was punished for trying to better my life and the future of my children.

After reading other post I wanted to emphasis that a very small percentage who are trying to raise children actually work for minimum wage. The majority of people on minimum wage are teens.

Also I wanted to emphasis that as wages increase so does the cost of living.

The problem isn't lack of pay but lack of jobs. Even those who are qualified for the better paying jobs are having trouble finding employment. And those people can't even get minimum wage jobs because they are over qualified.

One would be in error to assume that welfare receipients are there because of minimum wage given the fact that the majority of minimum wage workers are teens. Also given the fact that minimum wage at 40 hrs a week is more than welfare provides with cash and food assistance together. At least in Kansas.

Answer 5

The minimum wage argument is supported by the Democrats who OWE the unions big time for voting and donating, and this is just payback, with your money of course, because, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO BENEFIT WHEN THE MINIMUM WAGE GOES UP ARE THE LABOR UNIONS.

I cannot believe how stupid Americans are on this issue.

Answer 6

ok if you are a teenager, try to do a budget. Ask your parents for help. Ask them how much they spend on bills, and things that aren't necessities like movies, internet, etc. Try to cut their spending down to what poverty level would be for your household. (It is dependent on state and how many people are in your household, so you would have to run a search based on your state or go ask your local Department of Human Services office.) I think you will see how necessary it is for people in that class to make more money. As far as small businesses go, many of them COULD afford to pay more money to their employees, but would rather line their own pockets instead. And bigger business such as Wal Mart could afford to increase the wages of their employees without raising their own prices one cent. The country may have once been built on small business, but those small businesses are fading into the background of large corporations hellbent on padding their personal wallets. I think it is a mistake to say the country is "built" on small businesses. If the small business went away, the only ones who would notice are the small business owner and their loyal customers.

And to the ignorant person who said that it is rare to find a minimum wage job, come down to the South. The South is the biggest place of poverty, despite the media focus on the inner city. All you can find in a poorer state is a minimum wage job unless you have lots of education or experience (which not everyone can afford an education, or CAN get one, despite what we think here in America. There are lots of reasons for this and if you don't believe me, email me personally because that is going off on a rabbit trail).

Answer 7

Who the hell works for minimum wage? Even McDonalds pays more than that. Who is it supposed to help? It's a bogus question and always has been. Jeez.. if one wants to be fair... just pay everybody the same.. from doctors to ditch diggers everyone gets the same wage. Think about it..... and anyone should be able to see why it wouldn't work.

Answer 8

I know some businesses that can pay the better wages, but hide behind the minimum wage thing. Yeah it may hurt businesses at first, but look at it this way. If somebody is making more, wouldn't that mean they also have more to spend?

Answer 9

It's not just people living on the minimum wage who suffer. I know a lot of people in the manufacturing sector who don't make enough to contribute to their 401K plan and their insurance plan.

Raising the minimum wage is not really going to change the fact that some jobs simply don't pay very well.

And raising the minimum wage may also contribute to more illegal Mexicans finding work.

Perhaps if people had better health care options, living with the limitations of minimum wage become easier to handle.

Answer 10

Well an increase in minimum wage would go right back to the economy. The more money people earn, the more they will spend. I would think that more money would be given back to small businesses than they would lose.