raising minimum wage??

Question

Explain the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage. Should the government raise the minimum wage? Why or why not?

Answer 1

It is apparent that the current minimum wage earner cannot make enough to support themselves, let alone families, with their current income. As such, raising the minimum wage would help bring people out of poverty. An added benefit is that one could predict that crime would be reduced as poverty is directly correlated with crime.

On the other hand, raising the minimum wage puts a burden on employers as it would significantly increase their costs. Employers would then have to increase the price of their goods and services to adjust for the increase in their expenses. Therefore, we would all have to pay more for these goods and services.

Answer 2

Cons: taxes would go up OR federal funding towards other organizations/areas of the gov. would decrease to offset the rising minimum wage.

Pros: People may actually be able to *live* off what they're making.

In Florida, the minimum wage is $6.67. I, a 17 y/o Senior, am now making $7.25 (I started off at CVS making $6.75 when minimum was $6.50). After working a 38-hour week over the summer, I made a measly $228. My standard paychecks for 24-hour weeks are ~$140. Now, what's going to happen to me when I move out of the house come June 2008? I can guarantee you that I won't be able to make rent on THAT wage, let alone pay for food, gas, or insurance, and I have a little ol' scooter! Imagine if I had a car! Not only would I *not* be able to make ends meet, I wouldn't have any ends to deal with whatsoever, what with school, books, labs, scoot insurance (~$60/month or more), gas, groceries, rent, etc.

Many people are working minimum-wage jobs, and they AREN'T just the high-school/college drop-outs. Students are working minimum--both college and high school--and it is absolutely impossible to make a living off of it. CVS has increased its profit by ~70% or so in the past few years, according to my AP Gov. teacher, and raises for CVS employees has only increased by a mere 1-2% during that same span of time.

Answer 3

Pros- Gets more votes for a politician

Cons- Forces prices to go up so business can recoup the cost, Increases unemployment because more people will be looking for a job and companies will have to fire employees to manage the cost, cuts the jobs of those people who's skills are not worth the minimum wage.

No the government shouldn't raise the wage only the market should be allowed to determine what work is worth.

Answer 4

No. Raising minimum raise will only increase the cost of the products produced by minimum wage earners, therefore transferring the cost to consumers. It will have a positive effect on the workers income, but their expenditures will also rise. Also, since the Unions use the minimum wage as a wage floor, union workers salaries increase according to their wage schedule. Which, again, will increase the cost to consumers. Raises in minimum wage look nice on paper, but have some pretty rough draw backs in life.

Answer 5

Raising the minimum wage doesn't do much to help people. Employers just make their products more expensive to pass the extra cost to the consumers. If prices go up then what good was raising the minimum? The income disparities in this country are horrible but getting the government involved never solved anything. Workers need to unite to demand they get treated fairly and consumers need to unite in protest when corporations are taking ridiculous profits for their services and goods.

Answer 6

Raising the minimum wage is a wonderful illusion. At first it seems like "hey that is a good idea, becuase low wage earners will have more money to spend on plasma tv's and tricking out thier cars."
But then after you think about it a bit more you see, that this is actaully bad, because businesses are not getting more income but they are still expected to pay these people more. So the business increases the prices the customers may, or it fires a few of the workers, because it cannot afford to pay them all. Or better yet, it closes it's domestic plants and sets up a plant in India, where the wage is half or less.

Either way, no -real- progress is made.

Answer 7

Pros:

Higher earnings for more lower class workers.
Greater purchasing power for those in the lower class.
The wage increase corresponds with the higher cost of living.

Cons:

Higher labor costs increases prices for consumers.
More tax revenue for the gov't (If the gov't taxed income at say 10%, the gov't would make more money if people earned more money. 10% of $7.00 is greater the 10% of $5.00. This also counts for social security and medicare.)

Less employment. Higher cost to a business means less people can be employed. Price floors take the market out of equilibrium and creates a surplus. (In this case a surplus of labor that actually isn't working).
Less freedom for business owners. Minimum wages impact small, medium sized businesses more than larger ones. Small business makes up the majority of the businesses in the United States.

Minimum wages encourage unskilled labor.
Minimum wages encourage illegal immigration.
Businesses match dollar for dollar social security and medicare contributions which also increases tax revenues.

Answer 8

I'm not sure to be honest. I do know that stores are finding it a hard time to get workers and they are already paying above minimum wage. I'm sure that there are businesses that pay the lower wages, and that they are having a hard time finding employees too.

In a free economy, we should be able to let the market determine the wages. If you are an owner, and you need people, then you will have to pay whatever it takes to get people. If you can't find them at minimum wage, then you'll have to raise the ante and up the offer.

good luck.

Answer 9

You cannot dictate to industry what wage to pay. They will pay what they can afford in competition with all other companies. The company that pays the best will win the best employees.

The minimum wage is simply a way to limit entry level possibilities. You can no longer hire someone with no skills and train them to become a skilled worker as the beginning wage is too high for such a useless entry level employee.

It sounds good, but if it is such a good idea why not make it $1000/hr? or $10,000/hr? As an employer it is hard enough making payroll without the government telling me I have to pay more. So, I don't hire the unskilled, as they are too expensive. This further adds to their sense of uselessness. They never get a chance to learn.

Answer 10

The minumum wage in Canada is $8.25 and they want to raise it to $10.00/hour. Problem with that is it will put the small businesses out of business. Good for the average worker but in turn their will be job losses because employers will not be able to afford the high minimum wage.

Answer 11

The Federal Minimum Wage in the U.S. was changed as follows:

July 24, 2007 to $5.85

July 24, 2008 to $6.55

July 24, 2008 to $7.25

Some states have higher minimum wage.