One of the on-going political and economic issues is that of the minimum wage. Essentially there are those who feel that a minimum of $5.85 (now $7.15 in NY State) is just a poverty wage. There are those who believe that the minimum needs to be up in the $8.00 range to make it a living wage. Others believe that any increase in the minimum will create inflation and more unemployment of low end workers. What is your take on this?
2007-11-09 11:00:30 · 5 answers · asked by CD 1 in Social Science ➔ Economics
The simplest way to look at the minimum wage argument is reduce it to it's simplest form. Your wage is a negotiation between you and your employer. Obviously market conditions come into play. If you are applying for a job that anyone can do, then there is no real reason for an employer to pay you more than an entry level wage.
The problem comes in when government enters the picture. If you agree to work for me for $3.00 per hour, what right is it of the government to tell you that you can't. It may be for a reason as crazy as you like the color paint on the wall. But you should have a right as an individua to negotiate the best deal you can. If you don't like the situation with an employer, you are not an indentured servant, you have the right to move on.
Entry level jobs are a lot like first credit cards. They are terrible, but you get a chance to prove that you honor your agreements.
When government stipulates a minimum wage, the employer is forced to either cut back on the employees, cut profits (not going to happen), increase prices (inflation), or not go into business in the first place. None of these options are good for the economy as a whole.
2007-11-09 12:00:53 · answer #1 · answered by Hobgoblin66 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Minimum wage is a non-issue. According to the Congressional Budget Office, only about 18% of minimum-wage workers are actually poor:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/77xx/doc7721/01-09-MinimumWageEITC.pdf
The majority of minimum-wage workers are teenagers from non-poor households working for pocket money.
Conversely, most of the working poor earn wages above minimum.
Whether the household is poor depends not only on its income, but on the number of persons in it; a family with one child may be above poverty level, but another family with equal income and three children could be well below.
All in all, if you are concerned about the plight of the working poor, there are better ways to help them, in particular, the Earned Income Tax Credit, which actually takes into account the number of dependents the worker supports.
2007-11-09 11:51:32 · answer #2 · answered by NC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The State Government has decided to offer a higher minimum wage than offered by the federal government.
2016-05-29 00:15:34 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that there needs to be a two tiered wage scale. there should be a training wage for teenagers...because hopefully they don't have to support a family,if they used the condoms right.... but any job held by an adult should pay enough that if working full time that person would have adequate housing and food.
2007-11-09 11:12:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Raising the minimum wage WILL cause further inflation.
2007-11-09 11:06:53 · answer #5 · answered by baddius 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋