Pros And Cons Of Raising Minimum Wage

Raising the minimum wage to $10.25 an hour is a touchy subject with virtually all individuals; fortunately, understand both the pro and con arguments is easy. Simply looking at it from an employee’s perspective, an increase is needed; trying to survive on only a 40 hour per week, minimum wage job would be near impossible. This yearly average is 8% below the 2015 federal poverty level for a single-parent family with a child (ProCon.Org). Looking at it from a business perspective, especially small businesses, some believe it could force a number of companies to close, due to the strain of the extra payroll; while driving other companies to lay off workers, cutback on hours, or not hire new employees in the future.

Some feel that raising the

That seems to hold true at tax time, when some households receive their large income tax refunds, it becomes obvious to the retail sector. People cannot wait to spend all they receive on new gadgets for themselves and their children. Opponents disagree with this belief, stating that the cost of items will increase in order for the business to pay the additional payroll requirements. Moreover, they feel that individuals will not buy excess products, simply continue to buy what they always have; unfortunately, it will just cost them extra to purchase the same items

This would help save the government money if less is being spent on these programs. One article stated that an increase to $10.10 an hour would elevate 900,000 people above the poverty line (Maverick). Conversely, the other side says that even though wages would increase, hours worked per week would decrease; thus causing the average household income to decrease and not increase. This would cause additional individuals to fall into poverty rather than rise above it. Opponents say this would happen due to the fact that businesses would not be able to afford to pay the extra wages; or if they did, they would have to increase the cost of their product to help compensate for the additional wages and then the demand for their product would decrease as the cost increased, causing less need for workers.

Another positive for raising the minimum wage is there will be less absenteeism and employee turnover. If employees have satisfaction with their job and feel they are being compensated for their worth, they are more likely to work as scheduled. Furthermore, employees are less likely to jump from job to job if they are satisfied. This would mean less employee turnover, which would actually save money for employers if they were not constantly