Raising Minimum Wage

"In the end, the trade-off is clear. People who keep their jobs get more money; those who lose their jobs, or fail to get new ones, suffer."Pretty much. "According to recent research by Richard V. Burkhauser and Joseph J. Sabia if federal minimum wage were increased from $7.25 an hour to $9.50 an hour, only 11.3% of workers who would gain from the increase belong to poor households. [1]"So raising the minimum wage doesnt just help out the poor, it helps out everyone. Got it. "Raising the minimum wage is therefore an ineffective anti-poverty proposal."But raising the minimum wage benefits more then just those living in poverty as you said earlier. It helps lower, middle, and in some cases even upper classes alike... It still helps those 11.3% of people who do live in poor households as well, and not many other economic moves/forces can potentially reduce poverty by 11.3% "One of the more effective methods to helping those in poverty is a tax credit for those in poverty"They also have to be paid by the federal government with money it clearly doesnt have, whereas the minimum wage doesnt cost them nearly as much.... While tax credits do help the poor, that doesnt deny that the minimum wage still has its benefits and overall can be a net positive if used correctly. "A great example of what would happen if the minimum wage was raised is my very own workplace...... (30 minutes later)... Plenty of small businesses across the country would go under. "Most minimum wage jobs though ARE owned by big service industry giants like McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King, etc. In fact of the 3.8 million people who work on the minimum wage in the US, well over half of them work in service industries that are primarily food services, namely restaurants and fast-food chains. http://www.bls.gov...That means that raising the minimum wage would primarily effect workers who work for companies that make millions, even billions of dollars a year... Companies that could afford to take a hit like that and still operate business as usual without a tremendous loss of jobs that were poorly paid anyways. In addition to the 50% who work on the minimum wage in the food service industry, another 30% who work on the minimum wage work for retail stores such as Macy's, JCPenny, Walmart, Target, etc who also make millions a year and could more then afford to pay increased wages without being driven into bankruptcy. http://www.bls.gov...==========================================================================================Yes, raising the minimum wage costs job, no one in their right mind will dispute that. But a majority of people who do work minimum wage work for corporate giants who can afford to pay out increased wages without being driven into ruin, and raising the minimum wage helps more then just those living in poverty, it helps the lower and middle class alike. There is also one last argument for raising the minimum wage: curbing inflationhttp://www.financialramblings.com...Inflation has chewed away at the buying power of the dollar so much, that the $7.25 minimum wage today is the market equivalent of making $1.25 back in 1956......So lets look at 2 scenarios:If the minimum wage stays at its current level and inflation continues to grow, then the buying power of the dollar will only decrease over time and cause more people who do work minimum wage to fall into poverty or deeper into poverty. There arent enough tax credits in the world to counter such prospects, especially since those come right out of the federal budget which has a problem with not being balanced. So people go into/deeper into poverty, and the government spends a sh*tload of money it doesnt have to help these people get out of it assuming it chooses to, when it easily could decide not to. Thats what we end up with if we dont raise the minimum wage by just a smidge.On the other hand, if we DO raise the minimum wage it helps out both lower and middle class families, it helps a considerable number of people who are living in poverty get out of poverty (depending on how much it is raised by), and most of these minimum wage jobs are jobs that are owned by massive companies that could afford to pay for such wages without being driven into bankruptcy while other non-retail and non-service sector business do take a bit of a hit. The minimum wage will cause some jobs to be lost yes, but jobs can be added and created just by having a healthy economy and letting the free market be free. What cant be curbed naturally is poverty and inflation, which are the two main things that a raise on the minimum wage can impact the most. That is why I feel the minimum wage should be raised at some point in the future by a reasonable amount.