November 1, 2016

Future President

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Future President,

The reason I am contacting you is because of the controversial topic of minimum wage. Growing up with both of my parents being small business owners I hear them talk about how they wish they had the ability to hire one extra person on minimum wage and afford them part time. I also hear the constant complaint about how the minimum wage is too high to afford the one extra part time worker. I believe that the minimum wage should be lowered. The reasoning behind this is because it will help families like mine hire more people which will help our country's unemployment rate, help businesses give better benefits, and it will keep jobs for low skilled workers.

The unemployment rate is a known problem in America. By lowering the minimum wage it will help create more jobs. The way more jobs will be created is by allowing businesses owners, like my parents, to hire more people at minimum wage. An example was when the minimum wage was increased in 2009 by 10.6 percent, this resulted in the loss of 600,000 teen jobs. If the minimum wage was decreased by 5.3 percent instead of increased, it would have resulted in an additional 250,000 teen jobs. By decreasing the minimum wage it will help decrease the unemployment rate and make America’s work force larger.

Lowering the minimum wage will help businesses give their employees better benefits. Examples of benefits include 401K’s, paid time off (PTO), and health care. Businesses will be able to provide better benefits if the minimum wage gets lowered. Business will have more money to spend on employee benefits. I believe that benefits are just as important as wages. When employees are paid a higher wage they might have to pay for their own healthcare, that will result in the employee having to spend more of their own money on healthcare, and in the end taking home less money. If their wage was a little lower but their health care was paid for, they would get to keep more of their wage instead of spending it on health care. That is one way how lowering the minimum wage will help give employees better benefits.

Minimum wage should not be increased because it is being paid to low skilled workers. If the minimum wage is increased many businesses will look for higher skilled workers for those low skilled jobs because if they are paying more they should get better work for the higher price. “Firms cannot pay a worker more than the value the worker brings to the firm. Raising the minimum denies more low skilled workers the opportunity to get a job and receive ‘on the job’ training”(Dunkelberg 3). Dunkelberg’s explanation helps prove that if minimum wage goes up the low skill jobs could turn into higher skilled jobs leaving a group of low skilled workers unemployed, showing why the minimum wage should be lowered to help protect the jobs of the low skilled workers.

In conclusion, the minimum wage should be lowered to protect the jobs of the low skilled workers, help give workers better benefits, and help lower the unemployment rate in America. With the lower minimum wage there will still be jobs for those who are in the low skilled job market and, help fight the large unemployment rate problem by helping businesses hire more people. The logical choice is to lower the minimum wage and tackle the world’s problems one dollar at a time.

Sincerely,

Grant