February Beginners // The USFG should raise Minimum Wage

I will assume that we are arguing whether America should raise the minimum wage or not, to make our debate more specific to a situation. The main argument in favor of raising the minimum wage is adding more money to the pockets of those with low wages. However, I will be offering evidence that those people will ultimately be worse off, and it will also harm others as well. Contention #1: Raising the minimum wage will lead to higher prices. Raising the minimum wage will increase the amount companies have to pay to employees. To deal with the increase in expenses, these companies will have to raise the price of their products to deal with this problem, so the change does not cut into products. This study shows a correlation between prices and the minimum wage[1]. This makes sense, since companies have to make a profit. An increase in expenses leads to an need to increase revenue. Therefore, while minimum wage benefits a few people, but it will harm the rest of us. For the greatest benefit to the biggest amount of people, raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. Think about this for a second. Would you enjoy paying higher prices, for no benefit to you? I will be arguing that this change does not help anybody in any economic class, while actually harming many. Contention #2: It increases unemployment [2] Let's say that this person, named Bob, is a employee working at minimum wage. His employer, a company, gets slightly more than minimum wage from his work. What happens when the minimum wage is increased? Bob will get fired. This is because the company will no longer be gaining money from the arrangement. There would be no point in keeping him around anymore. This is a big failure, since it is people like Bob minimum wage is supposed to help. Clearly, using minimum to help people at this income level is counter productive. Some people may get lucky and recieve a wage boost, but some will get laid off. This is extremely harmful, making those that are poor even poorer. In addition, those without specialized skills will find it even harder than it is now to find a job. With no skills, it is difficult to make a profit off of a worker. The problem gets much worse with this change in place, due to the higher wage that no-skill workers must be paid. Unless the revenue gained from an employee is greater than their wage, then they will not be hired. Earning any money at all is much better than earning no money, so these people will be greatly harmed by the minimum wage. For this reason, raising the minimum wage is an ineffective method of helping out low-income families. Many of those that need the money do not even work anyway, and so it only succeeds in forcing companies to raise the price of their products to cover the added cost of paying workers with no skills. Contention #3: Companies will have a greater inclination to outsource. Who wants our jobs and can work for cheap? Foreign workers. One of the only things keeping American companies from hiring foreign workers is that workers here are more convienient. However, if the minimum wage here gets difficult to deal with, then they have much more incentive to hire the cheaper workers in other places. Why is this not a good thing? Unemployment! Any job sent to India is a job that an American does not have. This goes against the American Dream[3]. When people cannot get jobs, they are unable to have the opportunity for prosperity and success. This alone is a reason for opposing the increase of the minimum wage. Contention #4: It does not reduce poverty. There are several types people that are seen as being in "poverty. " One type is those that are unable to get a job. Raising the minimum wage will only make it harder for them to get a job, as I showed before. Another type is those working at low wages. These people are likely to be laid off, with the increase in minimum wage, and even those that aren't will hardly be benefited. "Our results provide plausible evidence that state minimum wage increases can have substantial adverse labor demand effects for low-skilled individuals that are outside the consensus elasticity range of -0.1 to -0.3. " [4] This study plainly shows the problems with thinking that the minimum wage has more than slight benefits for those with this income level. There are mixed effects, some people having increases in wage, some being laid off. Overall, the negatives of this far outweigh the positives. These points show that the minimum wage should not be increased. I look forward to seeing my opponent's arguments. Sources: 1. . https://www.purdue.edu... 2. . http://object.cato.org... 3. . https://en.m.wikipedia.org... 4. . http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu...