The federal minimum wage has been heavily debated in recent years within the Trump administration. This is mostly due to the fact that the federal minimum wage has remained stagnant since the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2009. Many people have been rallying for a “living wage”, which would mean raising the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, which is a pretty incredible jump. Would raising minimum wage prices reduce poverty? Statistics actually show this to be false. Most people in poverty do not work full time for a multitude of reasons including family, disability, etc. So, raising the minimum wage would not help to reduce poverty. The Democrats, who mainly support raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, claim that anyone who works a full-time job should be able to afford basic living essentials. CNBC News recently reported that some larger, and mostly democratic, cities like San Francisco and Seattle have already implemented a base pay to $15 per hour.
The wage crisis has created a complex and dividing civic issue. However, there is one pressing concern that the republican side of the web has consistently fought on. This concern is that low skilled, experience hungry teenagers dominate the market so to speak. Republicans claim that having a full-time job in a labor heavy or unskilled position is not meant to support an individual’s living expenses because the people in these positions are often minors who do not need to fully support themselves. This opinion is not wrong. According to the Pew Research Center, about 50% of people working minimum wage jobs are between the ages of 16 and 24. Minimum wage earners are also more likely to be women.
Considering these statistics, what would it mean to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour? Many economists claim that companies would simply raise their prices, or in other words, cause inflation. Others think that employers would severely dock their employee’s hours or make up for the higher employment cost by firing half of their employees. Raising the minimum wage could also cause a higher unemployment rate for young people who need experience. This is clearly not the desired effect of raising the minimum wage, but the crisis still remains. Adults working full time at the current minimum wage cannot support themselves.
There has been an array of solutions to this issue and the one I find most compelling is setting a different minimum wage standard for minors. If there were an adult minimum wage separate from teenagers and young adults, young people would be able to get the experience they need while adults trying to support themselves could earn a living wage. Setting a lower minimum wage for minors would also mean less inflation, and companies would not have to fire half of their staff.
Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to raising the minimum wage even if minors have a different minimum wage standard. Minimum wage jobs are usually employing people to do unskilled labor, which the majority of people can do well. If a 17-year-old girl is employed to wash dishes and can do well at this, is it ethical to pay her less than a 40-year-old man? There is a strong argument suggesting that paying minors differently for the same work, especially because they cannot vote, could lead to ageism.
Already, after only considering age in this issue, it can be seen that this is a fairly complicated web. Many citizens are pondering who exactly is getting hurt from raising these price floors. Another solution to the wage crisis is supporting small business. Democrats are claiming larger companies can afford to pay their workers fairly, chalking the crisis up to corporate greed. Some believe it makes sense to set state regulated wages, which is something Mr. Trump has claimed he supports. For example, if you live in a small town in Nebraska, the cost of living is much less than if you live anywhere in New York. It makes sense in this case for New York to set a higher minimum wage than Nebraska. For now, states have set their own separate minimum wages in addition to the federal minimum wage, and it has proven not to be livable. In other words, this solution changes nothing. Within the next two years of the Trump presidency, I think the wage crisis will remain a battle between dismantling corporate greed and lowering wages for minors.
References:
I’m really glad we’re discussing this topic this week, as the minimum wage crisis is obviously an intriguing and complex issue. I personally feel that both sides make equally compelling arguments. While I do agree that everyone has the right to afford the basic costs of living, I don’t think raising the minimum wage will do anything but escalate the issue.
According to the article, “Eight lowest paying jobs in America,” many minimum wage jobs are considered to be “dead end” lines of work. These include positions such as those in food preparation, dish washers, cashiers, hosts, and even farm workers. All of these posts are similar in that none require much training and the positions are designed to have mass amounts of workers performing similar tasks together. If we’re being honest, these positions are perfect and perhaps even designed for teenagers to pursue as their first work opportunity. These positions are simply not meant to be one’s final career path.
Yet, according to MSNBC this isn’t the case for many Americans. Statistics report that the divide of minimum wage workers is almost evenly split between three groups: unmarried workers with no kids (we can assume teenagers are included in this category), married workers, and single parents. Personally, the third category is most alarming to me, since these workers are not only supporting themselves but also others with their meager pay. However, as you discussed, raising the minimum wage would only lead to inflation and unemployment, so we must seek other ways to help these workers. Perhaps we should discuss how these adults find themselves in the position of working in these areas? Many cases are probably due to inadequate education, past criminal status, or even lack of available job opportunities. In the cases of education and past criminal status, perhaps it would be beneficial to fund adult education programs or programs to help those who have been previously incarcerated get back on their feet. Of course, the last case has to do with greater economical issues and the need for more jobs, which is another debate in itself. However, I think it’s clear that simply raising the minimum wage is a faulty short term solution and ignores the root of the real problem of why adults are forced to work in these areas in the first place.
References:
-http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38168029/ns/business-careers/t/lowest-paying-jobs-america/#.XFugI_ZFzIg
-http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/average-minimum-wage-worker-myth
Great post. This topic is usually under the radar in the media, but it still an increasing concern in modern-day politics. Many high schoolers are excited to go out into the workforce, and they are ready to start paying for some of their own things for once. Many of these high schoolers will continue their education at a university and beyond; this will certainly increase their earning potential. But what about the people who are not granted this opportunity? Data from a Forbes article from 2015 shows that only forty percent of American adults have a associates degree or higher (Kelly). With this in mind, about sixty percent of Americans are still working jobs that only require a high school education, some that only pay minimum wage. Although there are a variety of economically sound reasons for keeping the minimum wage at $7.25, including avoiding the overinflation of the markets and the possibility of companies reducing hours and shifts to offset the cost of a higher wage (Perry). However, many, if not all, Americans cannot live on minimum wage. Additionally, rent and mortgage costs, utilities and groceries are not cheap by any means. In order to provide for their families, they sometimes have to work multiple jobs in order to obtain enough hours. This is not a healthy lifestyle. An increase in minimum wage could potentially solve welfare issues if implemented correctly, but there is a debate about the role the federal government should play in this issue. Different states are in different circumstances, and raising the minimum wage could cause more problems in certain states. There are many benefits and also drawbacks to raising the minimum wage, all of which should be considered in order to provide the best support for those who need it.
Steve Andrews
References
https://www.forbes.com/sites/akelly/2015/04/28/the-neglected-majority-what-americans-without-a-college-degree-think-about-higher-education-part-1/#396465e972cf
http://www.aei.org/publication/ten-reasons-economists-object-to-the-minimum-wage/
Hi! Great post. I find your topic of minimum wage super interesting; this issue definitely needs discussed more! To me, it’s very hard to think about how some people are working jobs that pay $7.25 an hour, which only adds up to about $15,000 a year for full time work. There are plenty of adults working for this price, yet they have the responsibilities of paying their bills, for food, and for small things such fees for their child to play a sport at school.
Personally, I believe America should increase the federal minimum wage. As you stated, there are drawbacks to this solution: poverty would not be eliminated. However, I do believe raising the minimum wage could have other benefits. According to an article on CNN, minimum wage hikes in general put more money in workers pockets overall. According to this article, two Census Bureau economists claim that only a 10% increase in minimum wage would “raise income growth for workers in the bottom quarter of wage earners by about 10% — even including any possible reduction in hours”. I found these statistics rather compelling, and believe that this 10% raise could benefit many.
Perhaps another approach to fixing the minimum wage crisis would be taking a route that educates employers (who have the power to set wages). Educating employers on how keeping wages low has had detrimental effects on families could also serve as a solution. According to the same CNN article, when there is low competition for a job (which would be the case in jobs that pay minimum wage), employers will continue to set their wages low. I can understand how employers wouldn’t want to raise their pay for jobs that not many people want to work, but just a slight raise in pay could have the ability to change the lives of many of these hard working employees. I also like the approach that you recommended, which would implementing different minimum wage standards for minors. I had never thought of this approach, but overall, I think it would be a step in the right direction. Regardless of the different approaches to fixing this issue, many can all agree that the minimum wage should probably be adjusted. At this point, the matter of how is where we run into issues. I really enjoyed your post, and I can’t wait to read more from you!
Resources:
https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/27/news/economy/minimum-wage-increase/index.html
https://otherwords.org/fix_the_minimum_wage/