Minimum Wage
Minimum wage should be increased
Dear next President,
I believe that a major problem in our country is minimum wage. It should be raised because families are struggling to make ends meet living off $7.25 per hour or less. Currently in the U.S. “2,561,000 workers (or 3.3% of the hourly paid working population) earn the federal minimum wage or below (ProCon).” I think that statistic is a problem, Americans should make more money for the work they do.
The Economic institute stated that “a minimum wage increase from the current rate of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 would inject $22.1 billion net into the economy and create about 85,000 new jobs over a three-year phase-in period (ProCon).” Boosting the minimum wage would not only increase the wages of nearly 3 million americans it would also help boost the job market and economy. President Obama got a letter recently written by 600 Economists that stated “increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market (Department of Labor).” According to those economists, raising the minimum wage would have little to no effect on the employment of workers in a negative way. When minimum wage was established in 1938, it was to “serve as “a floor below wages,” to reduce poverty and to ensure that economic growth is shared across the workforce (AFL-CLO).” If we were to raise minimum wage it could help reduce poverty and boost the economy as it did in the late 1930s. Minimum wage today is “is worth a few dollars less than when its real value peaked in 1968 (Weissmann).”
Although we do not know the exact effect that raising the minimum wage would have on the economy; I believe that minimum wage should be raised so that American families can stop struggling.
"PreCalcHangen - Home." PreCalcHangen. Procon.org, 14 July 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
Region/Country, By. "Minimum Wage Mythbusters." United States Department of Labor. N.p., 09 Dec. 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
Weissmann, Jordan. "Should We Raise Minimum Wage?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
"Minimum Wage." AFL-CIO. AFL-CIO, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.