Raising Minimum Wage
One of the biggest problems in America, affecting over 45 million citizens, is poverty. There is seemingly no solution to this, but many people are working very hard to come up with a way to lessen the sheer amount of poor people in the U.S. One of the solutions that has come up many times recently is that if the minimum wage was raised to an amount that would be substantial to care for a family, then the working poor could get out of poverty. Though this sounds great, there are some saying that this would not be beneficial to the economy, as it would cause inflation, and that the supposed “living wage” is not enough to buy an average apartment. However, minimum wage should ultimately be raised because it could help the poor get the money they
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This is backed by the notion that the living wage that is being created, is not necessary. The argument is that “These new “living wage” minimums were expected to enable a working mother with one child to maintain a standard of living [...] however, a worker with a wife and two children [...] would remain in poverty” (Karp 90).This means that simple families of four would not be affected by the living wage that was proposed by the government. This could be an example of how it is not possible to give everyone in poverty a decent life without spending too much money. Karp argues that this could be hazardous because the country doesn't need anymore debt on its hands. However, this also helps to show the necessity of a salary raise. If the living wage is not increased, then there will be more and more people living in poverty every year. Also, the value of minimum wage has not been properly annexed to account for inflation. What that means is that “today, the real value of the minimum wage is about 20 percent less than when Reagan took office. Workers that receive tips have an even lower minimum wage: $2.13 per hour, unchanged since 1991” (Raise the Wage 1). If the poor people in the 90’s were struggling with poverty, and minimum wage has been “unchanged since 1991”, then there is obviously something wrong with the amount it is at now. If minimum wage was properly increased to account for inflation, then the wage in 1968, $1.60 per hour, would translate to about $10.90 today. Knowing this, there should be no reason not to raise minimum
This is backed by the notion that the living wage that is being created, is not necessary. The argument is that “These new “living wage” minimums were expected to enable a working mother with one child to maintain a standard of living [...] however, a worker with a wife and two children [...] would remain in poverty” (Karp 90).This means that simple families of four would not be affected by the living wage that was proposed by the government. This could be an example of how it is not possible to give everyone in poverty a decent life without spending too much money. Karp argues that this could be hazardous because the country doesn't need anymore debt on its hands. However, this also helps to show the necessity of a salary raise. If the living wage is not increased, then there will be more and more people living in poverty every year. Also, the value of minimum wage has not been properly annexed to account for inflation. What that means is that “today, the real value of the minimum wage is about 20 percent less than when Reagan took office. Workers that receive tips have an even lower minimum wage: $2.13 per hour, unchanged since 1991” (Raise the Wage 1). If the poor people in the 90’s were struggling with poverty, and minimum wage has been “unchanged since 1991”, then there is obviously something wrong with the amount it is at now. If minimum wage was properly increased to account for inflation, then the wage in 1968, $1.60 per hour, would translate to about $10.90 today. Knowing this, there should be no reason not to raise minimum