Minimum Wage Should Not Be Raised

Sorry about the delay in posting, the site went down for maintenance or something this morning. So here we go now. Whenever a minimum wage is set, it imposes no cost to the rest of us, the taxpayers. It is the businesses that absorb it, who will oppose it in the beginning, but then see that sales have gone up tremendously. That is because giving money to our people will in turn create a stronger economy. Americans will spend their increased income on housing, food, electricity etc., and companies of all kind will experience a surge in business. Of the 28 million Americans who would benefit from a federal wage raise, a portion of the group would include adults who are either married or with kids. Here is a run-through of the proportions: "3.4 million under 18, 4.6 million married with kids, 2.8 million married with kids, 4.9 married without kids, 12.4 adults not married without kids." The value of the minimum wage is also greatly decreasing, another reason of why we should propose a raise. Not only has it dropped by a third since 1968, but we observe great increases in everything else. College fees have shot up, basic necessities for survival are being overpriced, and our landlords haven't decreased our rent or anything. Basically, it is physically impossible to survive on the minimum wage, and our growing prices haven't aided in the welfare of our Americans. Speaking of welfare, when working multiple minimum waged jobs becomes extremely persistent and agitating, many citizens might turn to government assistance programs, like food stamps, medicaid etc. As of now, 52% of fast-food workers have to rely on food stamps, therefore costing our government the taxpayer's money. If we simply increased the wage a tad bit, than these welfare receivers will stop riding of the system. And plus, the amount of money in food stamps going to fast-food workers tallies to $1.04 billion dollars. That money could've been spent on schools, community buildings, or just back to the people. The argument as to as if whether the federal wage increase will harm the job openings in America is a myth. These companies need their workers to service customers. And if customers on average spends $2,800 extra for every dollar of wage increase, those companies would receive more purchases. As I've said before, this increases will create money cycle, thus improving our economy. Minimum wage was not created for teenagers and college students, it was for everyone who happens to not be able to find a higher job position. Not everyone has the luxury of going to college, and even some who do complete college will find themselves at a restaurant working for minimum wage. There is something called being laid off, and when that happens to someone, they will take up a job at a local store for minimum wage just to support their family. When someone starts at minimum wages, they typically do not get raises at large corporations such as McDonalds. The Fair Labor Standards Act claims that the people working for minimum wage are not entitled to vacation, rest periods, premium pay for holiday work, pay raises, or a reason to terminate employees. The laws around the minimum wage are not beneficial to the employee after all, due to the fact that they have no lobbyists and negotiators. Another example of why the federal wage is not mainly for teenagers and college students is this rule in the FLSA; the youth minimum wage for anyone under 20 is $4.25 for the first 90 days. This allows the companies the opportunity to cut pay (a.k.a cheat) a youth literally out of three months of pay. Even fast-food managers are only paid slightly higher than their employees. A federal wage raise to $10.10 would even benefit them also, since their wage's would be raised to the federal minimum wage, plus higher to account for the slight increase between workers and managers. In short, everyone would receive a raise in some way. When workers struggle to make ends meet, productivity sags, absenteeism increases, morale suffers and turnover rises because workers are constantly hunting for better opportunities. When workers have less money to spend in the markets, companies also suffer because no one is buying their products. During the last 45 years, many middle class and lower class citizens are not as entitled because their wages have been lobbied away by the big companies who want profits to themselves. If we as a country raised our minimum wages to $10.10, we would witness significant growths at all fronts. From the lives of the workers themselves, to the increase in business for companies, it makes considerable sense we go for a federal minimum wage raise. It assists all people of this country. Whenever the minimum wage is raised, virtually all jobs will see an escalation in pay. When jobs that do not require collegiate education receive a raise, those that do also will witness the same increase. That undermines your argument of how Americans wouldn't be as motivated to attend university. Thank you for this debate, and this opportunity to express my views on the raising the federal minimum wage. Sources: https://www.whitehouse.gov... http://ourfuture.org... http://www.dol.gov...