Persuasive Essay On Minimum Wage

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Minimum wage has always been a controversial issue within America, while some americans agree and encourage minimum wage to be raised, others discourage it and argue against it. Due to Senate Bill 3 the minimum wage went up from $9.00 to $10.50 this past January. In addition, Americans are going to be experiencing a dollar increase in minimum wage every year, resulting in minimum wage being set at $15.00 an hour in the year 2021. While there are some benefits to minimum wage increasing, there are also some negative outcomes.
In 2014, a letter was sent to President Obama in which over 600 economists signed to show their support over minimum wage being raised to $10.00 an hour. Some of the arguments mentioned in the letter were that it increased …show more content…

On July 2015 Purdue University stated in a report an estimated 4.3% increase can be seen in the prices of fast food if restaurant employees are given an minimum wage of $15.00 an hour. (6) California already has one of the highest paying wages in the world and the reason why it’s able to compensate for this is due to the amount of revenue the state earns yearly. There are four possible actions firms can take in relations to the increase in minimum wage, which are to cut jobs/hours, raise prices, invest in labor-saving technology or moving their business to another state. Companies that only in California are more likely to simply increase their prices, preventing any unemployment. However, companies that compete nationally or internation don’t have the option to increase prices which could result in many of these companies moving to another state or numerous employees being laid-off. (9)
A long term impact that can be seen due to minimum wage increasing is an increase of people being dependent on minimum wage paying jobs to support their families. While most believe individual working minimum wage paying jobs are between the ages of 16-24, they actually range higher than that. Around 88% of individuals working in minimum wage paying jobs are not teens and the average age tends to be 35 years old. (3) With more older people applying for minimum wage paying jobs there has been increase in demand for jobs which pay minimum