Ghost towns. Depressed main streets. Rubble and debris, the only remains of entire industrial sectors. Foreclosure after foreclosure. Economic depression at it’s finest. Is this really what we want? Is the supposed “reward” of raising the minimum wage really worth this devastating risk? I hope not. The Federal Minimum Wage is currently set at $7.25 an hour, and many of the people who work at that rate aren’t too happy about it. But after a closer look, I wonder why, and you soon will too. Raising the minimum wage is a fatal blow to America’s lower class because in an effort to help the poor we forget about the increasing unemployment that will result.
For the most motivated of minimum wage workers, this raise isn’t even necessary. Low earners don’t need a pay hike because they get it on their own; Nearly two-thirds of workers earning the minimum wage get a raise within
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15 dollars times 40 hours a week is 600 dollars. Is an employee who operates a fry cooker at McDonald's worth 600 dollars a week to the company? Probably not. It’s simple; the whole reason people make the wage they do is as a result of supply and demand. If there are very few engineers who are looking for a job and there are a lot of people who need an engineer, then engineers will be making a large amount of money for the work that they do. However, if there are tons and tons of manual labourers, all competing for a select few amount of jobs, employers will pay the lowest possible salary they can in order to save money (Zwolinski). When the government decides to come in and interfere with this process of supply and demand, many employees are paid much more than they are worth to their companies. When this happens, companies lose money, forcing them to decide if they should fire a bunch of employees or close down (Alesse et al.). Both of these options have a sour end for