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The Pros And Cons Of Raising Minimum Wage

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What Do People Think About When It Comes to the Minimum Wage?
Many people are not concerned about raising the minimum wage because the majority support it. Greenhouse (2012) describes the opinions of people around the United States on minimum wage. Many state legislators are looking to raise the minimum wage in their respective states. A big part of this is because of liberals and labor unions are putting pressure on Congress. The number one argument for those who want to raise the minimum wage is that people cannot keep up with the standard of living. Greenhouse also describes the people who are against the minimum wage. The business community does not like the idea of raising the minimum wage. The argument for the opposing side is that raising …show more content…

According to a poll done by Quinnipac University, “78 percent of New Yorkers polled supported an increase, while 20 percent opposed it. Even Republicans favored an increase, 53 percent to 43 percent” (Greenhouse, 2012, para.14). Most people support an increase in minimum wage. Even Republicans who tend to favor less government interaction, want for the most part a higher minimum wage.
The underlying issue of why people support raising the minimum wage is due to a misconception. Sowell (2011) explains the zero-sum fallacy. The zero-sum fallacy is where in a transaction, someone is making a gain while someone else is losing. When it comes to minimum wage, it is believed that employees are on the losing side of the transaction. If the minimum wage is raised, the transaction between employees and employers becomes equal. Sowell goes on to explain why this is not …show more content…

Dube (2017) describes the correlation between job loss and minimum wage. Seattle was the first city in the United States to dramatically raise the minimum wage. The University of Washington did a study and found the impact of the new minimum wage. The study showed people who worked for more than the minimum wage got more work hours. Those who previously got paid less than the minimum wage got fewer work hours. The study showed a reduction of jobs of those who got paid the new minimum wage. There is also a discrepancy between Seattle and the rest of Washington. A graph is shown where Seattle earnings per worker are increasing while the rest of Washington is decreasing. The researchers of this do not have a definitive reason as to why, but it is believed that it is because Seattle has a booming tech industry. The tech boom may potentially curve the data. According to Dube (2017), “the job losses in the study were far greater than in a control group of similar areas in Washington state (where the minimum wage was not raised). Because the study found that low-wage workers lost income as a result of the increase” (para.2). When the minimum wage is raised, low wage workers see a decrease in income. The job losses entail that raising the minimum wage has a negative impact on low-wage

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