The US Minimum wage ought to be raised substantially.

The forfeit is forgiven. Rebuttals(1)"The reasons for this are, largely, economic. For one, as anyone who has studied basic economics knows, when you set a floor of a price, it creates a gap between supply and demand. Labor is a supply that workers create as demand for labor increases. For example, if you are offered a job at 40 hours per week at $10 per hour, you would agree to give your time as labor or search for a better offer. Employers set their demand based on the amount of labor they require to create products demanded. When demand for a product is high, demand for labor is also high to create the product, as well as the inverse. "The con fails to fully illustrate with this point how raising the minimum wage woud negatively affect the economy. That being said, I have shown in my previous round that raising the minimum wage would not significantly affect the prices of products such as food. See R1 Point E. (2)"MOST MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS WORK FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS""Labor costs are one of, if not the largest source of cost for any business. Fast Food franchises are hardly an exception, and spend between 30-35% of their costs on average on salary alone (1) Mostly, fast food "restaurants" employ minimum wage workers. These are largely franchises who pay a fee to the corporate structure to license their name and buy their food from them. They make, on average, $50k per year (2). A $1 increase per hour per unit of labor would increase the cost drastically. A Forbes article calculated that a franchise owner would lose approximately $20k per year from a $1 increase in cost (3). "Owning a portion of a franchise is not a small business. It is merely a portion of a much larger business. Furthermore, although business owners may spend more money as a result of higher minimum wages, they would ultimatelay benefit due to the increased net spending that results from higher minimum wages. See R1 Point C. (3)"Pro's argument will rely on data from some noted economists (Krugman et al) that purports to show no negative consequences to employment, or at best no consensus. However, a literature review conducted by Neumark and Wascher (5), shows that most analysis are borderline negative at best. True, there is no clear consensus, but, at a time of record unemployment and instability in the low-skill market, is it wise to add more instability? "Con cedes there is no census as to the full impacts of raising the minimum wage. Possible economic stability is a negative that is easily outweighed by the net benefits enumerated in my R1 argument. (4)"When economic conditions for growth are already small or stagnant, anything that could slow the pace of growth is not necessarily a good idea. "This statement is true. Raising the minimum wage, however, does not slow economic growth. A strong middle class has been show throughout history to be good for forming a strong economy. I have shown in my R1 Point C that raising the minimum wage significantly strengthens the lower and middles classes. Therefore having net benefit on the economy. (6)"The cost of living varies wildly by location in the US. The most extreme examples are comparing Manhattan, NY to Harlingen, TX, the most and least expensive places to live by average cost of living. The cost is nearly triple (8). Considering the poor pay a significantly higher portion of their income on housing and utilities, it makes sense that adjustments to the cost of living should correlate to any minimum wage (9). ""As my previous point alludes to, contrary to Pro, I believe in minimum wages being set at the municipal level, based on local cost of living. If minimum wage is set to $10, it won't cover basic minimum in New York, but will be more than enough for significant disposable income in Texas. This is not a major point of my argument, but more to show my point of view. "The federal minimum wages is a baseline that all states must meet. If a state has a higher cost of living than the minimum wage, then that state should raise it's minimum wage appropriately. The federal minimum will simply ensure that a certain minimum is met. Furthermore, this argument is contradictory to the rest of your argument. Many of your point argue in favor of no minimum wage, whereas this one seems to argue in favor of state minimum wages rather than federal minimum wages. Again, the federal level is just the baseline. Local governments can make it higher where necissary. SummaryMy opponent does not provide net negatives that outweigh the net benefits, and many of the problems that he has presented are actually accounted for in the raising of the minimum wage. VOTE PRO! ! !