Raising The Minimum Wage Research Paper

Raising the minimum wage, a topic that has been plaguing the nation for years has finally made its appearance in Los Angeles. Many people argue that raising the minimum wage is helping everyone, distributing the nation’s wealth more equally, but that is definitely not the case. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Los Angeles County is a double edged sword, helping many lower-income workers, but harming more middle class employees and employers. The intent of raising the minimum wage is to help many lower and middle class people. But, by raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Los Angeles County, the city is raising the standard wage by more than 50% within the span of 5 years. This drastic measure is meant to put more money into

Some proponents of raising the minimum wage argue that the current minimum wage, currently $2.13 for tipped employees and $9 for tipped employees, is not a living wage. According to University of California Davis, minimum wage workers make around $15,000 a year after taxes. On the surface, this does seem like a terribly low number. However, according to the article “Why Get Off Minimum Wage?” from the Los Angeles Times, a family of four in California can get up to $35,000 in government subsidies and benefits. That adds up to about $50,000 a year per family of four. That seems like a decent amount of money to live off of. Proponents of raising minimum wage also argue that if lower class citizens have more money, they will spend more, stimulating the economy. In theory, it sounds like a scenario that would work, but it is actually not so different from the basis of trickle down economics, a right wing theory that argued that the wealth of the rich will “trickle down” to the poor. Trickle down economics argues that the rich will stimulate the economy by distributing their wealth, and the advocates of raising minimum wage assume that the lower class citizens will distribute their wealth into the economy. Both these theories rely on one social group to help stimulate the economy. However, based on prior experience, trickle down economics did not work, it did not stimulate the economy, rather it just made one social class wealthier. So, by using the same logic, raising the minimum wage will not stimulate the economy; it will have the same effects of trickle down economics, but now just for a different social