8393820

A single parent mother wakes up every morning to help her kids get ready for school. Her

children clothes are too small for them but she doesn't have enough money to buy them new

clothes and pay rent at the same time. After the kids take the bus to school she takes the city bus

to work. The mother works at a wood cutting shop. Everyday she will come home to splinters in

her hand and sore back. Then have to make something to feed her kids. In order to get food she

has to depend on government assistance every month. The mother has to work long hours

throughout the day and still has to find time to be in her children lives. It's not much she can do

with a low paying strenuous job. While another mother who gets paid above minimum wage an

hour can buy her kids extra clothes and always have food on the table all the time. She doesn't

have to worry about paying rent late because she has enough money for it and has extra money

for herself just to spend on what she wants.

A minimum wage is the lowest wage that employers may legally pay to workers. ​The

goal of the minimum wage law is not to raise or lower unemployment, nor should it be because

evidence suggests that it really can't. Its purpose is social. It is meant, just like many other laws,

to protect those who might not have the power or resources be able to protect themselves. The

federal government established a minimum wage in a 1938 law called the Fair Labor Standards

Act, which also marked the first time that employers were legally required to pay workers

overtime for certain jobs. At the time the law passed, the country's first minimum wage was

$0.25 per hour. ​The ​federal minimum wage right now sits at $7.25 an hour. Congress hasn't

voted to raise the minimum wage in more than a decade. The purpose of the minimum wage was
to stabilize the post-depression economy and protect the workers in the labor force. The

minimum wage was designed to

create a minimum standard of

living to protect the health and

well-being of employees. If

low-income workers earned

more money, their dependence

on, and eligibility for,

government benefits would

decrease.​Studies by leading

economists, including Nobel

laureate George Akerlof of

Georgetown University, found that employee morale and work ethic increase when employees

believe they are paid a fair wage.An increase in the minimum wage raises the standard of living

for impoverished workers. Graph above shows a comparison between employees at federal

minimum wage and below minimum wage. The minimum wage should be raised because it

would save the government money, decrease the poverty rate and fairly compensate the people

who are working those jobs.

The minimum wage should be raised because it would save the government money.

Raising minimum wage will help reduce the need government funds. Boosting the minimum

wage over the next four years to $12 per hour would unambiguously reduce net spending on
public assistance (Cooper 2016). “When employers pay wages so low that working people have

to turn to public assistance to make ends meet, they're effectively receiving a subsidy from

taxpayers," the report's author, David Cooper, said in a statement. "Policies that raise wages

would free up resources that could then be used to strengthen anti-poverty programs or make

investments in any number of other policy priorities.” states a quote from Talk Poverty. Raising

minimum wage will help people stop using the government for assistance. ​SNAP benefits cost an

average of $70.9 billion each year and supplied roughly 44.2 million Americans with a monthly

average of $125.51 per person in food assistance. The same CAP study found that, in

conjunction with helping people get off of food stamps, raising the minimum wage would save

the government billions over time in spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance

Program as people earn enough money on their own to no longer qualify.​ ​By ​raising the

minimum wage to at least $12 dollars could save the government​ about $17 billion annually in

savings to government assistance programs. ​Higher minimum wage will assist people in daily

life needs and wouldn't need to depend on welfare, food stamps, or other governmental funds.

​Another reason that minimum wage should be raised is because it decreases the poverty

rate. Raising the minimum wage helps level the playing field in our capitalist society. It lifts up

the lowest-earning among us and gives them more resources with which to build a better life.

And that’s really important! Especially in an economic system where women make up a majority

of low-wage workers and more low-wage jobs are being created than any other. ​Currently the

estimates on poverty rate is around 12.7 percent, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2016

estimates. That year, an estimated 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty according to the
official measure. According to supplemental poverty​ ​measure, the poverty​ ​rate was 14.0

percent.(Rios 2016)

Today's minimum real value of minimum wage is more than 25% from the 1960s.​ The

Congressional Budget Office reports that the Harkin-Miller bill by raising the minimum wage to

$10.10 would boost incomes of people below the federal poverty line by $5 billion.

Congressional Budget Office also states that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift

900,000 people out of poverty. For full time workers earning the federal minimum wage, this

bump would give them a raise of over $4,000 dollars enough to take a family of three out of

poverty. This is probably too conservative, other academic research finds that the same bill

would lift more than 4 million people out of poverty. The working poor aren’t the only ones who

will be poverty, also the children will be in poverty due to the low income of their parents.

Children who are in poverty is reflected on how much their parents are paid. By raising the

parent’s pay can help the children out of poverty. ​Boosting the minimum wage would allow low-

wage working parents to move away from the poverty line and therefore lift more children out of

poverty.

The minimum wage should be raised because it would fairly compensate the people who

are working those jobs.Workers who have low paying jobs are struggling and paying them more

for their hard work could lift their spirits. Quote from Tsheets says, “The rise is good news for

the thousands of low wage workers across the country who are currently struggling to make a

living. Studies show that minimum wage alone isn’t enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment

in any state in the country — nonetheless food, clothing, or additional bills and expenses.Giving
these minimum wage workers a boost to their paychecks will certainly boost their spirits.”

(Mondry 2017). Minimum wage is used to protect workers from unfairly low compensation.The

idea behind the minimum wage is that people who work and contribute to society should earn

enough money to meet their own basic needs and provide for their families but the current

federal minimum wage isn't enough, by raising it to $15 it'll be more reliable for low income

workers (DelPo 2017). “For most members of the workforce, a paycheck is a major motivation

for working in the first place. Compensation is a main factor when employees choose between

jobs, make the decision whether to work or retire, and select among places to live for purposes of

different costs of living. Federal and state governments recognize the importance of wages, and

have enacted many laws designed to protect an employee's interest in receiving fair pay for their

work.” says a quote from the Findlaw website.

The minimum wage should be raised because it would benefit the government to save

money, not so many people would be in poverty, and it would fairly compensate the people who

are working those jobs. Raising the federal minimum wage has many great impacts such as

reducing the amount of money spent on federal care and other government funds. By putting

more money in employees pockets many wouldn’t be in poverty and it’ll also make the

employees spirits go up. Minimum wage affects everyone in the workforce. There’s hard

working employees doing hard jobs for a low amount of money. The raise of minimum wage is

an important topic because many workers aren’t pleased with current minimum wage situations.

The current minimum wage causes harder living standards and having it raised to a more

beneficial living amount is the solution from minimum wage problems. Our society should be
concerned about this topic because it affects everyone, including children. Making change in our

society can have a positive impact on the future.

Cooper, David, et al. “How We Can Save $17 Billion in Public Assistance-Annually.” Talk

Poverty, 5 Mar. 2018,

talkpoverty.org/2016/02/18/can-save-17-billion-public-assistance-annually-minimum-wage/.

Mierjeski, Alex. “We'd Save a Shocking Amount of Money If the Minimum Wage Went up Just

$5.” ATTN: ATTN: 5 Feb. 2016,

archive.attn.com/stories/5676/higher-minimum-wage-would-save-taxpayers.

Mondry, Myranda. “How Will The Rising Minimum Wage Affect Your Medium Wage

Employees?” The Time Tracking Blog, 12 Sept. 2017,

blog.tsheets.com/2017/business-help/minimum-wage-employee-morale.

Rios, Carmen. “How Increasing the Minimum Wage Helps the Poor – And the Rest of Us, Too.”

Everyday Feminism, 8 Feb. 2016,

everydayfeminism.com/2016/02/increase-minimum-wage-now/.

Tompkins, Olivia. “The Blog.” First Focus,

firstfocus.org/blog/six-reasons-why-children-benefit-from-a-minimum-wage-increase.