Minimum Wage Livable

Can a Livable Minimum Wage Ever Be Achieved? Raising the minimum wage by just about $2, would bring 4.6 million people out from under the poverty line (The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage 2). There is no question that a person cannot support themselves on the $7.25 national minimum wage; unless you buy the bare bones package. A higher minimum wage would boost the economy and save taxpayers millions of dollars. The problem with all of this information available about increasing minimum wage is that they have a flimsy foundation; the intent is good but the methods and results are untrustworthy. If the United States were to raise the national minimum wage to a livable wage, it would have to be a slow incline and not all at once. There seems

The New York Times states, “Employers do not automatically cope with a higher minimum wage by laying off workers or not hiring new ones. Instead they pay up out of savings from reduced labor turnover, by slower wage increases higher up the scale, modest price increases or other adjustments” (4). It would not make sense for businesses to raise prices for consumers because the possibility of losing sales is very real. That argument, that raising the minimum wage would hurt consumers, just furthers the negative sentiment people have towards this topic. Numerous studies have shown that employment increases from the state and federal level had an overall positive effect on employment (Whitaker et al. 631). Higher wages attract more employees and reduces turnover, which results in company’s saving money. In addition to assisting employees to live above the poverty line, a minimum wage increase would benefit owners. A higher minimum wage would benefit people across the board, it should stop being politicized so

Both sides have very convincing arguments with specific data to back both of them up. The problem is that because of how politicized this issue is, it’s very polarizing. People on the left want wages equal to inflation, but those on the right argue that it’s too big of a hike and they are not wrong. Another problem is that both sides rely on data that supports their argument, and that should never be the case when talking about people’s livelihoods. It seems that both want to see how the research is conducted and a wage that people can live off of. There is middle ground for the minimum wage, it is just a matter of moving it from being political back to an economic