Dear President,

I believe that raising the minimum wage to be $13 an hour is the right move for America to make because it would solve people's financial problem, it would also help the economy, and lastly it would affect employment in a positive way.

According to a chairman of the Harvard Economics Department, Greg Mankiw, minimum wage earners are second or third job holders in households with low incomes. That could be a teenager whose parents have jobs. Other minimum wage workers may include retirees with income from saving and Social Security who own their homes mortgage-free. As stated in Cap Action War Room It would also reduce the incentive for low-income worker to get an education and move up to a higher-paying job. The benefit in raising the minimum wage is that it would eventually make low income families get education so they wouldn't have to live the way they are living then.

The major impact will go straight to the economy if the minimum wage is raised. By raising the minimum wage we will be adding more money to employees’ pockets. A Purdue University study released in July 2015 suggest that paying fast food restaurants employees $15 an hour should lead to high prices. Prices at these businesses should increase by an estimated 4.3% according to the report by John Wihbey in 2016. In February 2014 a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report saying “The effect of a Minimum-Wage increase on Employment and Family Income,” that explores two scenarios: Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 or to $9.00. The report concludes that there are distinct trade-offs. Under the $10.10 scenario, there would likely be a reduction of about 500,000 workers across the labor market, as businesses shed jobs, but about 16.5 million low-wage workers would see substantial gain in their earnings in an average week. Under the $9 scenario, the labor force would see a reduction of 100,000 jobs, but an estimated 7.6 million low-wage workers would see a boost in their weekly earnings. According to Center for American Progress found raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would help 3.5 million Americans get off of food stamps, which saves the American government $46 billion in ten years. Based on research have a minimum wage of $10.10 help families more than a $9 minimum wage. The BLS further notes that in 2015: “ Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represent only about one-fifth of hourly paid workday, they make up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hours, about 11 percent earn the minimum wage or less, compared with about 2 percent of workers age 25 or older.” We need to acknowledge the young youth workers in the work field and by that we could raise the minimum wage.

As Fazzari said in Alternate Cap Action in 2014,“ Despite my support for a $15 wage, I would have to say that an increase of this amount is somewhat risky-- job losses could be more significant than what past research has identified.” The idea of having $15 for the minimum-wage means that we have more money in our pockets but in the long run there are more cons outweigh the pros if we ever have $15 as a minimum wage. According to the Alternate by Cap Action in 2014,Timothy M.Smeeding, Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, said he's willing to take the job loss take off that might follow increase to $10.10. But $15 is too high,” he said “Job losses would be much higher and employment would fall the lowest- skilled workers. Earliest studies have indicated that some businesses will cut jobs to pay employees more.” If the case is true that businesses will cut jobs to pay employers more this will dramatically impact small business owners because they are running off of a small amount of money they are making, they don't have other companies to depend on unlike the bigger industries like Walmart and Target.

People who believe that raising the minimum wage is a poor decision say that it would increase the cost of living according to Free Minds and Free Markets. I say that there are ways to help financially if people are having a difficult time dealing with the cost of items, the government would have applications and programs to help you stay on your feet.

Lya Sorano, Founder, and is an Atlanta Women in Business once said. “In Georgia, one of the reddest of the ‘Red States,’ one might expect an almost universal denouncement of the raise in the minimum wage. In fact, the opposite is true. Business owners and managers I’ve spoken with aren’t concerned. They are glad the wage is going up because workers deserve it, and they believe it will help our local economy.” Raising the minimum wage does impact the lives of people in America, it makes people feel like they are worth something, all I am asking today future President, is that you take a deeper look into raising Americas minimum wage, and how much it would help us.

Thank you for your time,                                                                                                                                           Hawi Dinsa