The Pros And Cons Of Minimum Wage

A college student, fighting to pay rent and maintain good grades, walks into their job just for their boss to say they are no longer able to pay them. This situation would be all too common in a world where $15 is the minimum wage. This situation is a product of years of argument on what the minimum wage should be. With multiple cities already testing this dangerous policy it seems that it will only continuing spreading. This not only has an impact on these workers but on all of society as a whole. An increase in hourly wage for lower paying jobs would cause a multitude of socioeconomic issues resulting in vast unemployment of low-skill workers and general inflation of everyday consumer goods with other economic issues.

Lower-skilled workers

A report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics states, “58.5% of the United States workforce receives minimum wage,”(BLS 1061). A majority of these people being aged 15 to 24 years old. This age range shows these workers, in general, are mostly high school students and college students. These workers are largely very underskilled and lack any speciality in their occupations. High schoolers work mostly to pay for gas or their basic wants (while not always the case) while in comparison College students work to pay off incomprehensible student loans as well as rent. An increase in minimum wage would take away all of this from them as well as future opportunity for similar employment. Essentially this raise in income would block out these less skilled workers and only bring in experienced ones. Establishments that pay

The argument to increase minimum wage seems to forget that these rural societies exist and disregard their existence. A large majority of these towns pay less than the $600 weekly wage that a $15 per hour pay results in. How can these small town businesses afford to pay this government mandated increase in pay? According to a study by Forbes, “In the bottom ten areas (of population), however, a $15 minimum wage would cause much larger problems,”(Millsap 1). A majority of these businesses are local and do not have outside support from major corporations. Having small town shops that receive small amounts of consumers pay the same wage as a Starbucks in bustling Seattle does not seem very ethical. Lawmakers need to encapsulate all of the countries people when making laws that affect everyone. Another economic issue presented by raising minimum wage is inflation. Inflation is “a general increase in prices and fall in purchasing value of money”. This is an inverse relationship. As prices increase the value of money goes down. This is exactly what would happen if the minimum wage was raised. Businesses would respond to the increase in wage by increasing the prices of their products, thus decreasing the value of our money. It is illogical thinking that businesses wouldn’t do this. If more people are making more money then they would logically need to raise prices of