Minimum Wage

Thanks to pro for the argument, I will now rebut what pro has stated in round 2. Starting with your poverty argument, if we want to alleviate poverty, why not make the minimum wage $50 or $100 dollars?? Most people will say no because that will kill jobs, thus leading into pros argument that the minimum wage does not kill jobs, the logic stands that even raising the wage by 1 dollar will increase unemployment. "A higher minimum wage would help address growing inequality, particularly as it affects lower-wage women..." In this pro is making the assumption that women have the exact same skills as men, they do not. If two people were applying to a job, say to a roofing job. (Men make up 98.9% of the workers). I am not saying women can not be skilled in this area, however she needs to gain experience. So lets say a man and a women were applying to the same job at a roofing company, most likely who would the company hire? (This is assuming neither have experience). It is most likely that the male would be hired, however what if the female said I will work for 2 dollars less. This increases her chance of getting hired much greater. Now if they still hired the male, I can almost guarantee she could find another job if she worked for less. Of course when she gets experience she can work her way up the ladder at her job. In regards to pro saying it increases income inequality, we see it with a minimum wage as well. In fact with no minimum wage this gap would be gone, mainly because if a employer is not paying what you are worth, you will go to a company willing to pay you more, thus increasing competition. Take for example Wal-Mart, the average cashier is paid $9.09 per hour USD. Now I can guarantee the higher up employees are paid much more than that, as the links below show, the higher up management are paid much more than the workers, creating a large gap. However without minimum wage Wal-Mart would have other competition willing to pay more. Lessening the income inequality gap. "Supporters hail the minimum wage as a victory for "fairness" and a benefit for poor people. This, it is alleged, will provide more income to support spending and stimulate the economy. If it works that well, why not make the minimum $50? This would provide someone working 2,000 hours a year an income of $100,000, eliminating poverty and stimulating the economy. Obviously, $50/hour would be detrimental to employment as is $7/hour, it"s just a matter of degree." This ties into pros consumption argument, stating that minimum wage helps the GDP, it would help if the jobs would pot be lost. Congress raised the minimum wage 10.6% in July, 2009. In only 6 months, nearly 600,000 teen jobs disappeared, even with nearly 4% growth in the economy, this compared to a loss of 250,000 jobs in the first half of the year as GDP growth declined by 4% Why? When you raise the price of anything, people take less of it, including labor. The unemployment rate for teens remains unacceptably high. About 60% of the officially poor don"t work, so the only thing raising the minimum wage does for them is to make it harder for them to get a job if they ever decide they want one. Consider a community based pizza parlor selling 100 pies a day for 360 days at $10 each. Total revenue is $360,000. It employs 10 minimum wage workers earning $7 per hour, working 2000 hours a year, making labor costs $140,000. Assume rent, utilities, equipment, depreciation, insurance, supplies, licenses, and food costs come to $170,000 per year, leaving a profit of $50,000 for the owner and his/her family. Raising the minimum wage $1 would raise labor costs by $20,000 (paying more for the same amount of labor) and reduce profit to $30,000. The owner must either move into a smaller house or raise prices, which reduces the demand for pizza, resulting in the loss of a worker. So, the full increase in the wage cost of an increase in the minimum wage comes out of the pockets of customers or the owner"s family, and the one person who loses a job. There was no net gain in income to increase spending in the community served as every dollar the minimum wage workers received came out of someone else"s pocket in the community. Another problem with minimum wage is it takes down the initiative to work hard and get ahead, why would I work twice as hard as my fellow employees when I make the same? I am excited to hear back from pro! http://www.thedigeratilife.com... http://www.glassdoor.com... http://www.forbes.com...