Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased

Should the federal Minimum Wage be increased

Minimum Wage in the U.S. was first introduced in the 1938 during the great depression during FDR’s presidency(1). Since then it has been one of the most controversial issues on whether it should be raised or not. Some policy makers are wanting to raise the minimum wage, Research shows businesses would respond to the increased costs by reducing employment, particularly for low-skilled workers. Some businesses may pass the higher costs onto consumers. Despite the hope of proponents, the minimum wage does little, if anything, to decrease poverty, and even reduce the likelihood of upward mobility. The minimum wage should not be increased as increasing it would only lead to negative consequences that heavily outweigh the positive impacts.

First and foremost, Minimum wage proponents want to minimum wage in order to help people who are unable to make a good living because of the low paying job, although they have right mindset to help poor people(3), raising minimum wage is not the way it should be done. They misunderstand that minimum wage jobs are to gain experience and get higher paying jobs through the experience. But raising the minimum wage does the opposite. Unemployment actually increases causing many poor workers to be jobless. This is because increasing the minimum wage would force businesses to lay off employees. For example many want the wage should be increased from 7.25 to $10.10, bt this alone would result in a loss of 500,000 jobs(2).

In a survey of over 1200 businesses, 38% of the employers said that they would lay of some employees if the minimum wage were to be raised to $10.10 and more if it's raised more. This was even shown when minimum wage was first put into place in 1938(4). Teenagers and young adults may also be shut out of the workforce. The minimum wage workers are disproportionately young, so this would affect them the most(2). According to the Pew Research Center, 16- to 24-year-olds make up 50.4% of minimum wage earners, despite representing only 13.7% of the workforce as a whole. Matthew Rousu, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics at Susquehanna University, wrote in a 2014 article that the federal minimum wage "has a devastating impact on teenagers" because many small and big businesses will not pay many young workers with no skills or experience minimum wage, let alone a higher wage(2). This is can affect them in the long term, research shows that teenegers that are fired at young age have an increased chance of unemployment in the future. A 2012 analysis of the New York State minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $6.75 per hour found a “20.2 to 21.8 percent reduction in the employment of younger less-educated individuals.”(4). It's not just teenagers, it will hurt low-skilled workers as well. This is just one of the few reasons why it's not practical to raise the minimum wage.

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