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History of the minimum wage
History of the minimum wage
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At first glance, these writings may seem unrelated. However, the themes of minimum wage and work ethic go hand-in-hand regarding these texts. These writings express the correlation of working a minimum wage job and having a strong work ethic does not always result in enough money to pay for the cost of living. Consequently, unskilled workers become forced to
The solution to the minimum-wage problem that haunts American workers in the 21st century is to strive for lower everyday expenses rather than for a higher minimum wage. The renowned author Barbara Ehrenreich, in her informational novel Nickel and Dimed, tells the story of how she performed a social experiment by working several minimum wage jobs, while living a lifestyle of a low-wage worker. In her novel, Ehrenreich concludes that minimum wage workers “in good health” can “barely support [themselves]” (199). Even though Ehrenreich earned “$1039 in one month,” at the end of the month she only had “$22 left over” as she had to spend “$517” on food and gas, and “$500” to pay her rent (197). As evident, Ehrenreich’s wage is not the cause of her
On average a worker would make a few dollars a week, which lead a factory worker from Texas to write President Roosevelt, “ I can’t see for my life President why a man must toil & work his life out in Such factories 10 long hours ever day except Sunday for a small sum of 15 cents to 35 cents per hour & pay the high cost of honest & deason living expences,” (pg 171). This reality of people working for nothing needed to come to a conclusion. In order for the people to receive a higher hourly wage the government needs to implement a law that dictates the minimum amount of money a worker gets paid hourly. This amount needs to be determined based on the cost of living, and in order to prevent people from working for little to nothing in the future it needs to fluctuate with the cost of living. Owners of factories and other business will be upset and not follow the law, and that is why the government will need to be strict and enforce this minimum wage law.
Increasing the minimum wage is the answer to the problems and challenges of inequality in today 's world. Giving low income workers the chance to earn more money will better the general well-being of individuals and societies by improving life satisfaction, including health, education, family etc. By strongly agreeing with this statement, I am locating my belief on the Left Wing
Which leads to the rebuttal of the argumentative piece, “Curiously, most members of Congress who take a hard line on immigration also strongly oppose increasing the minimum wage, claiming it will hurt businesses and reduce jobs” (Dukakis & Mitchell, 2006). Nonetheless the authors have an exception to this rebuttal, that is if “We want to reduce illegal immigration, it makes sense to reduce the abundance of extremely low-paying jobs that fuels it. If we raise the minimum wage, it’s possible some low- end jobs may be lost; but more Americans would also be willing to work in such jobs, thereby denying them to people who aren’t supposed to be here in the first place” Assuming that most american citizens are going to work, they would take up all the jobs provided out there, assuming that the minimum wage went up and they would be payed better (Dukakis & Mitchell,
Minimum Wage Policies Thomas Sowell is well known for advocating for an upgrade of minimum wages to better the lives of the poor. In one of his favorite quotes, Sowell says that “if their work is not worth enough to pay for what they want, is it up to others to make up the difference, rather than up to them to upgrade their skills to earn what they want?” (Sowell, 2). However, various assumptions arise in the collective thought that increase in the minimum wage of employees will ultimately improve the lives of the less fortunate members of the community. Political activists who advocate for the increase in minimum wage are credited for being compassionate with regards to the needy members of the community.
Opponents also argued on how the increased wages for workers will decrease the workers’ incentives to receive better education. Since people who receive minimum wage are usually teens who just start out in the workforce, most of them earn money for personal wants rather than using it to support their whole family. Patton believe a minimum wage job “should never be the end game. Rather it should be a beginning step in the career path for those inclined to improve their circumstances”. The minimum wage will enable workers to start climbing up the ladder and gain more experience.
The minimum wage is currently a hotly debated policy area, and is frequently talked about on the news and in political spheres. Part of the reason why this debate gets so heated is that, according to Antony Davies, a Senior Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, both those arguing in favor and against the minimum wage are trying to help the poor, and therefore assume that anyone disagreeing with them are trying to harm the poor. It is for these reasons that in articles and research papers Davies uses reason and empirical arguments to apply economic theory to the minimum wage debate. The minimum wage debate is centered around whether employers should be forced to pay all employees a minimum hourly rate for their time, and whether this rate should be raised to the level of a “living wage”. Although the term “living wage” is not clearly defined by advocates, it is loosely a wage sufficient to satisfy one’s basic needs including housing, education, food, and healthcare.
Throughout the years the United States’ economy has had to overcome many obstacles to get to where it is today, through good times and bad. One of the major topics that have been discussed for over the past decade is raising the federal minimum wage. This specific topic has been debated all up through presidential debates and congress meetings to where even voters are influencing their governor votes on rather if they will fight for raising the federal minimum wage or not. The desire to increase the federal minimum wage has been gaining momentum throughout the years “as a way to alleviate rising wage and income inequality”, especially within this past presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (Neumark). Many states have already raised the minimum wage by their choice, but doing this to the rest of the country through law
Stated in an article by Frosty Wooldridge “ It's time to raise the American standard of living. The real minimum wage has been declining for over a decade. Some advocate raising the minimum wage--but this would raise the price of unskilled labor above its free-market value. Mass unemployment would result.” also “We can immediately create millions of new jobs.
The minimum wage is a subject of ongoing debate, with proponents advocating for an increase to address various economic and social concerns. This essay will explore three key reasons supporting the case for raising the minimum wage: the unlivable wage scenario, the impact of rising inflation, and the pursuit of social justice. However, it is important to acknowledge opposing perspectives to provide a comprehensive analysis of the issue. One compelling reason to raise the minimum wage is to combat the problem of an unlivable wage. Many low-wage workers struggle to make ends meet, facing challenges in meeting basic needs such as housing, healthcare, and education.
The federal minimum wage has long been a topic of controversy in U.S. domestic policy. In fact it’s been in contention since its inception. The U.S. followed the models lead by Australia and New Zealand, which established the world’s first minimum wage policies in the 1890s. The Progressive faction here at home introduced the idea of a U.S. minimum wage; their argument was that a wage should be sufficient enough to support a common worker's necessities. This resonates just as arguments used today, and proponents even go further in prospects of increasing the Federal minimum wage.
President Obama said in his State of the Union speech that he wants Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. “Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. … And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.” President Obama (Ye Hee Lee)
Around 60 percent of workers benefiting from a higher minimum wage are women. Less than 20 percent are teenagers. Also, those workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage brought home 46 percent of their household’s total wage and salary income in 2011. These factors show that raising the minimum wage directly helps parents make ends meet and support their
1. Introduction In the modest term, a minimum wage is a lawfully authorized minor bound for wages, but the term “lawfully authorised” is unclear, leading too many different kinds of minimum wages institutions (Cunningham et al, 2007:19). It further states that in the most straight forward cases, such as Brazil and Bolivia, the federal government identifies a wage level and all employers in the country must pay at that level or above it (2007:19). Economist have tended to oppose minimum wage on the grounds that they reduce employment , hurting many of those they are supposed to help (the economist:24/11/2012).