The author of this article, Barbara Ehrenreich, dives into her article by discussing her plan to enter the low-wage workforce. She adjusts by trying to go on a $500-a-month “plan”. She went into this with 2 rules. First one being that she cannot use any skills she learned from education or usual work. The second one was that she had to take the best paid job that is offered to her and do her best to hold onto that job.
In the book Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover into the world of minimum wage employees to research how difficult it is to live off of their salary. She splits up the book into three sections where she tackles these jobs in diverse areas to be able to compare her data. In each section Ehrenreich plows through several jobs, sometimes struggling to afford housing and food. She takes these first-hand experiences and compiles them into a book that gives readers an insight to the world of minimum wage workers. Ehrenreich begins her journey by taking time to prepare for the hardships she may face along the way.
At first glance, these writings may seem unrelated. However, the themes of minimum wage and work ethic go hand-in-hand regarding these texts. These writings express the correlation of working a minimum wage job and having a strong work ethic does not always result in enough money to pay for the cost of living. Consequently, unskilled workers become forced to
In the article, “Minimum Wage Hikes Hurt Low-Income Workers,” Jame Sherk debates how an increase in the minimum wage would impact workers and corporations. Sherk builds his argument by first explaining the recent history of an increasing minimum wage and how much it has risen. Following, he argues why it would hurt businesses and low-income workers. Lastly, after illustrating the consequences, he offers statistical evidence to support his claim and to prove to the reader why the hike would only hurt both businesses and low-income workers. Sherk’s use of evidence and explanation offers a strong argument and a clear stance.
Today’s minimum of $7.25 an hour is worth 25 percent less than the minimum in the late 1960s. From research, a full-time, minimum-wage worker earns about $15,000 per year, which is below the federal poverty line for a worker with just one child. We need to raise the minimum wage to the point where the lowest-paid worker can afford their basic needs, such as food and other necessities. An increase to $10.00 an hour as proposed by President Barack Obama would actually reinstate the wage factor to the same value it had back in the 1960s. In doing so, it would lift earnings for nearly 28 million workers nationwide roughly 1 in 5 U.S. workers.
In conclusion, I found that those working a minimum wage job did not apply for the job because it was a desirable one, but because it gave them an opportunity to start small and work their way into a higher corporation. Although the stereotypes held about people working minimum wage jobs are bad, this study can show people that these workers are taking advantage of the opportunities available to them to
it says that in fast food restaurants nearly 100% of increased labor costs would be pushed into their prices. Therefore, even if people are making more money, there will still be more money coming out of their pockets to pay for goods and services. So hypothetically wouldn’t they still be just as poor if they’re spending more while making more? But that isn’t all of the negative effects raising the minimum wage would have on small businesses. If the minimum wage was to move to say $15.00 per hour, then the business would have to
In reality some people don’t have the education or skills to get a well paying job. Those are the people who end up taking minimum wage jobs or becoming homeless. Minimum wage is the lowest wage a worker can legally get. From the start of the law in 1938 the wage has increased slowly(Annalyn Kurtz, CNNMoney). Minimum wage should be kept and raised, it helps people who can’t get a higher paying job live.
Many politicians, business owners, and citizens hold fast to the belief that heightening the salary attached to minimum wage positions will yield negative benefits for our society. This opinion is supported by three vital view-points. The first can be found in the news article, “The Argument Against Raising Minimum Wage.” It expresses how the enlargement of this payment will take a toll on employment. The document reasons that if the amount of money employees earn is expanded, companies will be less likely to hire as many workers (Huppke).
. . The current value of the minimum wage in real dollars is at its lowest level since February 1956, when the lowest U.S. wage was 75 cents — the equivalent of $7.19 in June 2022 dollars” (Cerullo). The increase in the federal minimum wage and adjusting the price to compare with inflation would ensure that low-wage workers could adopt a standard of living that is equivalent to the current economy. The federal minimum wage should also be increased as it will allow minimum wage workers to afford basic living expenses. Currently, the minimum wage is not enough for people to afford housing and other necessities.
This poses the question: “Is the current minimum wage a livable wage?” The answer, unfortunately, comes back negative. The current federal minimum wage, at $7.25, is worth nearly 38 percent less compared to 1968 when the federal minimum wage was valued at its highest ($11.72 in 2016 dollars). Given the facts, it is justifiable to raise the federal minimum wage as it would amount to a more livable wage, stimulate the economy, and provide better circumstances for workers of color and women.
Minimum wage is not enough for people to rely on. Many people that make minimum wage are likely to go through a time of poverty. Employees that make minimum wage are said to put less effort into the job, than the
Minimum wage and poverty With everything going on with the Walmart workers picketing for fifteen dollars an hour wages, the topic is widely discussed with many people taking many different sides. The essay “Raising the Minimum wage will reduce poverty” By Sharon Parrott and Jason Furman, They go into how they think the minimum wage should be raised in order to decrease poverty in america, Of course there are reasons to raise it and reasons to not raise it. Yet with the multitude of reasons for and against it, it’s hard to make a decision that makes everybody content, Some of the reasons not to raise it include, Raising it can make prices for everyday items go up, Why go and spend thousands of dollars on college when you could get a decent job right out of high school, and Why let workers who work at unskilled jobs make as much if not more than the military. Some reasons for minimum wage raising is, The fact that the cost of living is higher means people can’t survive with minimum wage without federal care, And just helping people get back on their feet when they couldn’t find a job. The reasons Minimum wage shouldn’t be raised outweigh the reasons it should.
On the other hand, workers who had a hard time finding a second job to make up for their lost hours might have been earning much less. ”(Source 4) The rise of the minimum wage is not working in one place, it does not mean it will see the same results in other places, the first step of improvement is identifying the errors. If Congress can find the issues between why the rise of minimum wage is not working in Seattle they might be able to find a successful way to improve the problem why minimum wage has to rise at all. Minimum wage jobs were created for inexperienced teens but, now there are jobs where you start at the minimum.
Minimum wage helpful or disastrous for Americans Did you know that millions of minimum wage workers cannot make enough money to be over or at the poverty line level and are actually a lot more below it instead? There have been many issues on the topic of increasing the minimum wage from ten to fifteen dollars because it can cause inexperienced workers having a tough time getting or looking for jobs, families not being able to live on the minimum wage the way it stands now, and businesses not being able to create more jobs to hire more workers. For instance, an author named David Neumark believes that the effects of the minimum wage have a major issue that increasing minimum wage can reduce the numbers of jobs and pretty much screw over workers
