The minimum wage should be raised to $12.50 gradually, by the year 2020

It seems my opponent also dropped all of my round 3 arguments, so each of them still stand. My opponent has brought up only new arguments in this round, which is usually seen as poor conduct, but I'm okay with it because I still get to respond to it since I'm second to post arguments. Now, I will address points by my opponent:Although record high worker productivity has allowed businesses to earn more revenue, we have not seen similar growth in the wages of workersActually, we have been having wage growth. A look at the past 50 years or so shows that the only times we didn't have much growth were during recessions. Otherwise, we've been averaging around a 4-5% increase in wages every month. [6] There was a study done by Eric French and Daniel Aaronson, economists at the federal reserve bank in Chicago, that showed the effects of raising the minimum wage on aggregate household spending. They estimated that a $1.75 increase in the minimum wage would increase consumer spending by $26 billion dollars.There's more than just one way to increase consumer spending. Lowering the prices of products would also allow people to purchase more. Raising the minimum wage, as I showed, would result in prices of products rising. So, while people would be spending more, they still would likely only be able to afford the same amount of products they did previously. It doesn't really change anything. Because of the fact that employers would have to pay their employees more, it means their profit margins go down, and that results in them raising their prices. It doesn't have any net effect on the purchasing power of consumers. Spending more doesn't necessarily stimulate the economy, what really does is to increase the purchasing power of people so that they can buy more things. Simply making them spend more doesn't necessarily do anything, because how they are spending more is due to prices rising. What really does something to the economy is increase purchasing power. To increase purchasing power, getting rid of those taxes I mentioned would do so. There is another number of ways of increasing purchasing power, such as having wages go up when prices remain the same or go down, and when prices of products go down while wages stay the same or go up. Having wages go up but prices go up at the same time and rate does nothing for the economy because it doesn't increase purchasing power. A minimum wage increase would result in prices going up, as the study I provided earlier, which you didn't refute, showed.Finally, I would like to cite one last piece of empirical evidence. Economists Alan B. Kreuger and David Card conducted a study that analyzed the Full time employment effects on the fast food industry in 1992, when Pennsylvania had it's minimum wage at $4.25, and New Jersey's minimum wage was at $5.05. New Jersey experienced an employment increase in the industry, Pennsylvania experienced an employment decline. If this were to happen on a federal level as well, the employment increase would definitely lead to economic stimulus.This only proves correlation. For one, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are two completely different states which have different state government policies. A number of things could have affected the employment level of the two states. To claim the minimum wage increase is the reason for it is a logical fallacy. Unless you rule out all other potential reasons for the employment difference, this study doesn't prove anything except for correlation. In fact, logic would tell us that minimum wage increases would result in a lowering of employment, because employers wouldn't be able to afford to have as many employees. To claim that the employment rose due to the minimum wage difference is an extraordinary claim that needs extraordinary evidence. Showing correlation doesn't prove it. As the congressional budget office points out, a raise in minimum wage would likely elliminate jobs[7] So, because logic tells us that a minimum wage increase would result in the loss of jobs, there was likely some other reason why New Jersey saw an increase in employment and pennsylvania saw a decrease in employment. This study also suggests that raises in minimum wage decreases job growth[8]. They originally were going into the study with the belief that minimum wage had no effect on employment levels, but discovered that it negatively affects job growth. In conclusion, I believe since there were several important points that I brought up which my opponent dropped, and that I believe I have successfully refuted my opponent's arguments, you should vote con for arguments.Sources:[6] http://www.tradingeconomics.com... [7] https://www.cbo.gov... [8] http://people.tamu.edu...