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Raising Minimum Wage Essay

1283 Words6 Pages

Poverty to Royalty
Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” (“Theodore Roosevelt Quote”). This pertains to everything you do in life, and the minimum wage argument especially. A very popular topic of conversation is raising the current minimum wage. The current United States Minimum Wage is $7.25 per hour. A Washington Post Survey found that the majority of US citizens would approve a minimum wage increase if no consequences arose (Fuller). The Washington post survey proved that raising the minimum wage is a popular idea among the people, but if and only if, it has no negative effects. The Obama administration proposed a minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $9 an hour in 2013 (Holzer). Even though …show more content…

The main issue with raising the minimum wage is, it actually has very little effect on reducing poverty. This is because the majority of minimum wage workers are part-time, young, still in school, and because very few people earn minimum wage. With the minimum wage being intended to help people with minimum skills, its purpose was not to help a person raise a family of 4. Since the majority of minimum wage workers are teenagers, raising the minimum wage to reduce poverty would have very little effects since most below poverty level are not “head of household” workers (Fuller). Out of the 75.3 million workers that are paid hourly, only 4.7% were paid in minimum wage and of those minimum wage workers, 59.4% are between the ages of 16 and 24 (Patton). Of the teenagers earning minimum wage: 79% are part-time, 62% are in school during non-summer months, their average family income is $65,900 annually, and only 22% are below the poverty line. An increase in the minimum wage would also be ineffective because if the pay was bumped up, it would actually lead to less money after taxes (Fuller). An example would be, if the minimum wage were increased to $9 an hour, after taxes you would only be making $8 after

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