A recent report has been shown to suggest that low wage workers are finding poverty harder to escape this past decade more so than before. While President Obama has suggested that he wants the minimum wage to increase it still stands at a measly 7.25 an hour, which about 3.5 Million make. $7.25 is the federal minimum wage, so it different areas of the United States it may be more (but not less). While one may think that most of the people making money at the minimum value maybe teenagers working summer jobs, a large portion of the workers making this low money are an older group often supporting families.
Here is the initial article,with the graph (which I was unable to post here ) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/business/economy/low-wage-workers-finding-its-easier-to-fall-into-poverty-and-harder-to-get-out.html?ref=us
“More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, according to Janelle Jones and John Schmitt of the Center for Economic Policy Research.”
I think it’s insane to think that nearly 25 million workers in the United States make under $10.10 an hour. Some of these people may have received a college education to, unable to find jobs. I compare myself to these people who live under minimum wage, and although both my parents did not receive a college education, they make much more than the minimum wage of california. My question to you is do you think that minimum wage should be increased? If yes, then why, and if no are there alternatives then other than increasing the wage to assist the lower class? Also, if incomes are increased how do you think this will affect the market?
Here is a more local supporting an increase:
Here is showing both sides:http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/careers/ct-biz-0317-work-advice-huppke-20140317,0,6199470.column
2 comments:
If I recall correctly, minimum wage was originally intended to be enough to live off of - even to feed a family on. Now, it is widely known that minimum wage workers have to get SEVERAL jobs to survive. Obviously, minimum wage hasn't been keeping up with the change in the economy. I think this is incredibly problematic.
But at the same time, I really am not sure how mandated increased incomes could affect the economy, and I do worry that it would put some people out of work, and higher unemployment rates really would be a disaster. I wish there was a way to increase the health of the economy to the point that employers were naturally paying higher regardless of minimum wage laws.
Whatever adjustments are made, I think they ought to be taken really slowly to avoid negative, unintended results.
I think that minimum wage should match the basic standard of living because a working person should be able to afford basic things, like housing and food. Unfortunately, if the minimum wage is raised too high, then it will increase unemployment in the US. Companies will offshore their work and have people in other countries do the same job for much lower wages because it decreases the cost of production.
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