The Pros And Cons Of Increasing Minimum Wage

Many people working at minimum wage could benefit from increases in the minimum wage. However, can the minimum wage be too high? The minimum wage controls the gap between the rich and the poor: a gap that many think is too large and could be lowered by increasing the minimum wage. Although they are correct in saying that increasing the minimum wage could reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, the minimum wage can still be too high. I argue not upon the question of raising or lowering the minimum wage, but upon setting limitations upon it. The minimum wage can be too high if the prices of goods start to rise too much along with it, if the gap between the rich and the poor becomes nonexistent, or if businesses start to fail because they
People lose their jobs by increases in the minimum wage. As stated in the New York Times, increasing the minimum wage too much could lead to employees being gradually replaced by self-order kiosks that use touchscreens instead of cashiers in restaurants, and self-scanning checkout booths in drugstores and supermarkets (Furchtgott-Roth). A moderate minimum wage is shown to have little or no effect on employment (Krueger). Businesses would have to use more money to pay the workers, causing them to either take their business to other countries or raise their prices: both would hurt the economy. However, this does not mean that the minimum wage should never be increased. Each effect of a radically increased minimum wage leads to the other in a cycle that can destroy the economy. Eliminating the gap between the rich and the poor causes prices to rise because the rich want to get rich again, which causes the businesses to fail because no one would buy something if it costs too much, which eliminates the gap between the rich and the poor, and so on. Therefore, the minimum wage has limits, and if these limits are exceeded, the economy can drastically