Daiquon B.

Minimum wage

In this letter, I assert that minimum wage needs to be increased and why the next president should address this issue . Parents making minimum wage cannot fully support their families and their hard work should be acknowledged with a reasonable salary.

October 20, 2016

Dear future President,

What happens when parents have a family and can't provide for their children because they are making minimum wage? It's very challenging trying to provide for a family with an inadequate salary . If parents are making minimum wage it would be difficult  to buy the necessities they want and need. Due to the minimum wage being so low, people have to work more than one job just to make ends meet and as a result they spend less time with their family.  The next administration should raise minimum wage by one or two dollars an hour. 

The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour. Many people believe that it should be substantially higher and others believe that increasing it would harm small businesses and the economy. According to Heather Boushey, Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth “raising the minimum wage is an important anti-poverty measure. A person earning the current minimum wage and working a 40-hour week makes $15,080 per year, which is barely above the poverty line for single adults and is well below it for someone supporting children.

Even though raising minimum wage is a good idea, some people might think it's a bad idea. According to ProCon.org,”The congressional Budget office projected that a minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $10.10 would result in a loss of 500,000 jobs. All of these jobs being loss could mean even more money being lost. George Reisman,PhD professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University states: The higher costs of production are, the higher prices are. The higher prices are, the smaller the quantities of good and services demanded and the number of workers employed in producing them. What happens to the people that are not working ? What do they do if they're not making money?

I hope you can understand what people go through when they're on minimum wage. People live on minimum wage. It's not fair people have to be on budget all the time. People should be able to live freely instead of being so tight about their money.

Sincerely,

Daiquon Banks

Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School

Sanchez

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