Minimum Wage

I suppose I will rebut those as well, since I was expecting him to give only a rebuttal. I will not offer new arguments or defend my own. ========== “Very few workers even work the minimum wage…” Both pew research and the government bureau conclude that about 4.7% of all hourly-waged workers work at or below minimum wage as of 2012 [1][2]. That translates to about 3.6 million people. And this does NOT include the appreciable number of states and districts that have a minimum wage of above the federal minimum. Clearly, that’s not “very few” people. In addition, this number has been decreasing significantly since 1979, when 13.4% of hourly workers worked at or below minimum wage, despite increasing minimum lines. My opponent went on to base many of his later assertions on this statement. “People have a choice of w[h]ere to work, if they want a very low paying job, it[’]s because they feel it[’]s the best choice” The purpose of minimum wage is so that workers can survive their wages at a reasonable degree of health; in general, earning significantly below minimum wage is supposed to make a worker a very poor person and barely able or unable to survive. Indeed, some times working for inhumane wages and not working for any wages are the two evils that workers are stuck between; minimum wage is meant to alleviate one of those. Sometimes, the choice simply isn’t there, because the companies DO exploit people. “Competition is better than minimum wage. ” [Paraphrase] I have shown this to not be true. Companies do and will exploit workers if there are no regulations. The assertion that “free market does fine” when it comes to protecting workers can’t be further from the truth. The proof is in Industrial Britain, where workers were regularly exploited until the government stepped in with the Factory Acts, child labor laws [3], regulations, and minimum wage. I have also shown why having a broad worker base that is willing to spend money is good for the economy. The assertion that “Bu[s]inesses will try to offer the best wages possible to compete for workers” is ludicrous; worker competition only becomes an issue when a certain skill set is in low supply. This virtually never happens at skills that are worthy of minimum wage. “As for worker exploitation, that means that countries with no minimum wages will have higher poverty rates. ” No. it means that countries without minimum wages will have lower worker wages. Cherry picking states that suit your case doesn’t work. Failing to look outside of the U. S. also doesn’t make it work. The fact that the minimum wage is below the poverty line [4] in the U. S. doesn’t help you either, since this means people in poverty are going to remain in poverty even when their wages are boosted. To make that EVEN worse, your examples of poverty rates are BLATANTLY FALSE; the one thing debaters hate more than arguments from ignorance is inherently FALSE statements; seriously. California’s poverty rate is 13.2%, New Mexico 17.9% [5], and San Francisco 15.2% [6]. I don’t know where you got your news form, but I’m guessing it’s some right-wing liar. Yes, my liberal colors are showing because I can’t stand it when people lie like this. Oh, and Germany does have pseudo-minimum wage laws [7]. Not only that, they legalize and enforce collective bargaining and have a vague law that bans “immorally” low payments [8]. “Any one in us who produces less 7.25 an hour is unhireable. ” Conceded. However I have shown that this has minimal impact, and encourages people to be more productive. ========== Conclusion: I have shown that: 1. Minimum wage prevents worker exploitation. 2. Encourages progressive action. 3. Has an unappreciable impact on unemployment that is far balanced out by its other benefits. My opponent has: 1. Failed to show that minimum wage causes poverty. 2. Failed to show that companies will treat workers humanely without minimum wage. 3. Lied. Vote PRO. ========== I’d like to add that the current minimum wage laws are far from perfect. Something more along the lines of productivity, more exemptions for people such as part-time college students willing to work for less than minimum wage, or inequality controls like they have in Germany would be more ideal. I believe that the current minimum wage in the U. S. does not need raising; in fact I think lowering it to about $6 per hour would be more sensible, since $6 per hour would still be about the recent historical average minimum wage adjusted for inflation. $15 per hour is ridiculous. [1]. . http://www.pewresearch.org... [2]. . http://www.bls.gov... [3]. . http://eh.net... [4]. . http://billmoyers.com... [5]. . http://en.wikipedia.org... (The data compiled here is from the United States Census Bureau. ) [6]. . http://www.city-data.com... [7]. . http://www.wageindicator.org... [8]. . http://en.wikipedia.org...