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Nova Crays

Mrs. Brower

Advanced Composition

22 Feb. 2021

The Minimum Wage: Raise it or not?

Is raising the minimum wage good for the economy? Experts and economists alike have

been arguing over the answer to that question ever since it was introduced. There are many that

think we need to raise the minimum wage badly, and there are others that fear raising it will

destroy our economy. With a topic that affects so many people and has so many sides to it, it can

be hard to come up with a correct answer to that question. So, I encourage you to listen to the

facts and opinions below and come up with a decision for yourself about the minimum wage.

The history of the minimum wage is long. It was first introduced in the Fair Labor

Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938 (Minimum 1). The first minimum wage passed into law was set at

$0.25 per hour which, when you account for inflation, would be worth around $4.76 an hour

today. Over time, the US Congress has passed many modifications to the FLSA increasing the

minimum wage leading to the current rate (Minimum 3).

The current federal minimum wage, which came into effect on July 24, 2009, is $7.25 per

hour (Minimum 1). A worker earning minimum wage makes approximately $15,080 a year. The

poverty line is a certain annual income rate that defines whether or not you are considered to be

in poverty. If you make under the line, you are considered poor. The poverty line for an

individual is $13,064 a year which means that minimum wage workers are $2,016 above the

poverty line. However, the poverty line for a family is $25,465 a year which means that workers

earning minimum wage are $10,385 under the poverty line for a family (Gale 13).
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Even with a federal minimum wage, states and cities can have their own minimum wages

too. 29 states, including Washington DC, have minimum wages that are higher than the federal

minimum. However, 21 states have minimum wages that are equal to or lower than the federal

minimum (Gale 3). Different cities also have different minimum wages too. Seattle, Washington

has recently raised its minimum wage to $12 an hour, and some cities in California have raised

theirs to $12-13 an hour (Times 4). With all of these different minimum wages, it can be hard to

know which one employers have to follow. When calculating payment, employers must give

workers pay equal to or higher than the minimum wage that is highest whether it be the local,

state, or federal minimum (Minimum 1). Using all of this information, many people have

concluded that there are many good reasons to raise the minimum wage.

The first argument that raising the minimum wage is a good idea is that it gives

lower-wage workers the financial needs to take care of their families. If lower-wage workers earn

more money, they have more money to help provide for their families who may be struggling

(Gale 5). When accounting for inflation, $7.25 an hour in 2009 has the same buying power as

$8.98 in 2021. The value of the minimum wage has decreased over the years (Minimum 5). With

the poverty line raising every year because of inflation, many people are afraid that the $15,080 a

year made by minimum-wage workers will soon be worth nothing, and they would be unable to

provide for themselves and their families (Gale 5).

Another argument is that raising the minimum wage is a wildly popular idea and that

many places are already doing it. When a poll was conducted by Hill-HarrisX, it found that only

5% of Americans think that the minimum wage should be lowered or scrapped while a majority

pointed out that it should be raised. Many people have said that raising the minimum wage could

also improve morale and efficiency in workers, effectively improving the companies’ profits and
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outputs. Thanks to these reasons and more, many companies have also started raising the wage

they pay starting employees. Target, for example, has raised its starting wage to $15 an hour

while Bank of America has raised it to $17 an hour. Other companies like Walmart and Amazon

have done the same thing and openly expressed that others should too (Olen 4).

The last argument for raising the minimum wage is how many people and programs it

will affect. According to the Center for American Progressed, programs like the Supplemental

Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Welfare could save billions of dollars every year if

the minimum wage is raised because fewer people would need to rely on those programs. Olen

also writes that if the minimum wage is raised, more than 40 million workers in the United States

would receive better pay and better benefits, such as healthcare, retirement money, or vacation

days (8). Even with all of the benefits of the minimum wage, many people do oppose the idea of

raising the minimum wage.

The first argument for not raising the minimum wage is that it will affect unemployment

negatively. Companies like to keep their costs at a minimum, but when the minimum wage is

raised, their costs for hiring people go through the roof. Many companies will do one of many

things. First, they could lay off many employees because they simply can’t or don’t want to pay

them for their services rendered (Gale 5). They could also fire people that don’t have as much to

offer to them like teenagers, single-moms, or released felons. These are the type of people who

often can’t get high-end jobs, so raising the minimum wage could take the only jobs they can get

from them (Meer 6). Another thing companies could do to their employees is give them fewer

benefits. If a company has to pay more for your work, they will try to offset costs by giving

employees fewer vacation days or fewer retirement benefits. This could negatively impact many

workers who already don’t get many benefits like health care or retirement (Meer 5). The last
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thing companies could do is have their employees do more work during their job. If companies

want to offset costs, instead of hiring two people to do two different jobs, they could make a

single employee do both jobs simultaneously. This can cause more stress for workers and prove

to lower the morale and productivity in workers (Kreutzer 6). While companies can do all of

these things to their employees, there is another problem with raising the minimum wage.

Another argument that raising the minimum wage is not a good idea is that companies

can work toward automation. If companies have to pay their employees for all of the work they

do, they lose out on a lot of money. Building robots that can do some of the tasks that employees

do will cost a lot of money, but once they are installed, companies do not have to pay a bunch of

workers to do their jobs; instead; they could have robots do all of the work and only pay for

engineers to come in and maintain the robots. This could lead to a drastic increase in the

unemployment rate as companies seek to boost their profits. This means that more people would

lack crucial benefits like health care and retirement, and more people are likely to use social

programs like welfare and social security which could lead to our government going bankrupt

(Meer 5).

A third argument for raising the minimum wage is that it will not do what many people

think it will do. Many people like the minimum wage because it makes sure that big businesses

don’t take advantage of their workers and it helps poor households have a better quality of life.

Economists have stated that raising the minimum wage would be devastating to small businesses

that are starting up because they do not yet have the revenue to pay all of their workers; while

that is happening, most big businesses have the money and are able to pay their workers the

minimum wage, but big companies can also find ways to offset costs that will inevitably hurt the

workers more than the companies (Kreutzer 11). Along with that, a study done in the Journal of
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Political Economy found that an increase of pay from the minimum wage is just as likely to go to

a middle-class or rich household, as it is to go to a poor one. So, the minimum wage will affect

the people who really need it the same amount as the people who don’t need it (Kreutzer 8).

Even with these possibilities, there is one last reason why many people disagree with raising the

minimum wage.

The last argument for not raising the minimum wage is that many low-wage workers do

not need the raise. Many low-wage workers are teenagers who are just starting to work, college

students who are just looking to help pay for basic expenses, and part-time workers who are

working to earn a little money but not a living wage. Many proponents of the minimum wage say

that it should be raised because all workers need to make a wage that they can live off of;

however, many people say that these low-wage workers don’t need to make a living wage yet.

Once they finish school or are looking to start making a living wage, they can either find a

higher-paying job or work their way up the corporate ladder. As for part-time workers, they can

start either working a full-time job or leave to find one. These kinds of low-wage workers are not

the people who need a raise in the minimum wage to help them support themselves. They just

need a little money to pay for simple living expenses like food (Scaliger 8).

As you can see, there are many different arguments for both raising the minimum wage

and not raising it. So, what is the answer to the question: is raising the minimum wage good for

the economy? Well, there is no answer. While there are many people out there who will argue

that there is a definitive answer, the reality is that it’s all opinion. People have to absorb the

information and decide for themselves what their answer is to the question. So now I ask, what

do you think about raising the minimum wage? Should the United States Congress pass a new

law to raise the minimum wage? Or should it leave that subject alone and keep it where it is?
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Works Cited

Kreutzer, David W. "The Fight for Fifteen Movement Is a Costly Job Killer." Gale Opposing
Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/EPGFSM483520647/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=OVIC&xid=d2217
2f4. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. Originally published as "Point: Fight for Fifteen Is a Job Killer,"
InsideSources, 12 May 2017.

Meer, Jonathan. "The Hidden Costs of the Minimum Wage." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online
Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/SNQOCJ181060194/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=OVIC&xid=11c7c
1f7. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. Originally published as "The Hidden Costs of the Minimum Wage,"
Foundation for Economic Education, 11 Apr. 2019.

"Minimum Wage." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context:
Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/PC3010999333/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=OVIC&xid=aeb5e9e4.
Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.

“Minimum Wage.” U.S. Department of Labor Seal, www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage.

Olen, Helaine. "It's long past time to raise the minimum wage." Washington Post, 14 June 2019.
Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A589029154/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=OVIC&xid=84c93830.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

Scaliger, Charles. "Are minimum-wage laws good policy?" The New American, vol. 33, no. 16,
21 Aug. 2017, p. 31. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A503464734/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=OVIC&xid=e56b69a1.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.

The Times Editorial Board. "It’s Too Early to Determine Whether Minimum Wage Hikes Help or
Harm Workers." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context:
Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/GTXWHQ098683981/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=OVIC&xid=9548
3037. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. Originally published as "What’s the right minimum wage? We still
don’t have the answer," Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2017.