An issue that is hotly debated is whether or not the current minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour, should be raised or kept the same. President Obama thinks that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would be a good idea, but others oppose the idea. Raising the minimum wage would not be a good idea for several reasons. Some people believe that raising the minimum wage could possibly do harm to the economy that is already recovering from the Great Recession, however, others say raising the minimum wage would boost the economy. According to the article “Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised”, raising the minimum wage could cause businesses to have to cut the hours of workers, fire them, or higher fewer of them in the future (Smith). As stated …show more content…
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that an increase of $2.85 in the minimum wage could bring in an additional $6,000 a year, but opponents argue that making employees more expensive for companies to hire could increase the unemployment rate which is already 6.7 percent of Americans. Also, according to the article “Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised” raising the prices of certain products could reduce the demand for them, so if we raise the price of workers the demand for them would go down and that could lead to workers getting fired, getting their hours cut, or cause businesses to higher fewer of them in the …show more content…
It could cause people to lose their jobs, have their hours get cut, or they could start getting hired less in the future (Smith). Raising the minimum wage could also increase the unemployment rate which is already 6.7% which translates to about 11 million people looking for a job. Lastly, raising the minimum wage could have a huge, negative impact on the still-fragile economy (Smith). People oppose the idea of keeping the minimum wage the same because they say they can barely live off of it because they have families, but others don 't have large families to support. Some people work their tails off for the $7.25 they make an hour, but others slack and still have those jobs, so raising the minimum wage would reward the hard workers and the slackers. Overall, raising the minimum wage could solve some problems, but leave others