Dear Future President,

My name is Chandler and I am a senior at Newbury Park High School.

Currently in the United States, the highest minimum wage is set at $10.00 an hour in the states of California and Massachusetts. The lowest minimum wage, in Georgia and Wyoming, is set at $5.15 an hour. By 2018, Massachusetts will have the highest minimum wage, $11 an hour and the lowest minimum wage will be $7.25 an hour, in twenty states. Holly Sklar is the Senior Policy Advisor at Let Justice Roll, a campaign to raise minimum wage and reduce poverty. According to Holly Sklar’s interview in the article in Social Justice, she believes that raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour will stimulate the economy by balancing the scale of pay among all workers and therefore keeping the gap from widening from the very rich and the very poor. I disagree with Holly Sklar; raising minimum wage will increase prices on consumer goods, increase unemployment, and create unnecessary economy struggle.

When businesses are forced to pay employees more because the minimum wage is raised, it forces prices of everything to go up. For example, workers at a grocery store will go from $10.00 an hour to $11.00 an hour. It doesn’t seem like much, but when the hours and the days and the weeks add up, it adds up to hundreds of dollars increase in pay for only one employee. So, the grocery store has to raise its prices, but it’s not just the grocery store raising its prices. The products that the stores buy from also have to increase their prices, and they have to pay their workers more… So by increasing minimum wage, workers are not just being paid more, it is increasing the cost of other products.

Some people believe that increasing minimum wage will not affect the unemployment rate. Holly Sklar assumes that raising minimum wage “will speed recovery from economic recessions by giving more spending money to low-income families.” Where are the employers going to get the money to pay their employees more? They are going to fire their least useful workers, usually the ones they already pay the least. The employers will be firing the people that are making minimum wage to pay a greater minimum wage.

Increasing minimum wage will cause more unemployment, raise prices, and will decrease the value of goods. Although some think it will create a solution to many problems, it will actually cause more damage to the world and its economy. The average minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 an hour. If all states changed the minimum wage then the cost of living will also go down.

Sincerely,

Chandler