http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/02/13/the-minimum-wage-fight-explained/
In President Obama's State of the Union Address, he proposed the idea of raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. While some find this increase dramatic and unnecessary, others are fighting to raise it even higher, up to $10 an hour. Most individuals are in favor of this increase, two-thirds of Americans and even half of Republicans. House Speaker, John Boehner, is opposed to this increase and thinks it will raise unemployment, which is likely if employers are forced to pay their employees more. Although this increase is quite controversial at the moment, it is important to keep in mind that a minimum wage increase will not effect very many people, mostly teenagers.
This article is very relevant to one of the focuses of our discussion in class of Wednesday. The higher minimum wage will most likely increase unemployment and although we believe that it will not effect many workers or maybe just teenage workers, I would be interested to learn about what the actual effects of this minimum wage increase would be if it were to be implemented.
ReplyDeleteA question worth keeping in mind here is what we seek to achieve by raising the minimum wage. The important point is that raising the minimum wage is a very poor antipoverty strategy, if that is the intent behind it. In general, it holds that poor households are no more likely to have minimum wage earners than nonpoor households since most teenagers work at the minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteThe implication is that the minimum wage is a poorly targeted antipoverty measure that will likely cause some employment issues. If the govt. is seeking a measure to reduce poverty, they should look to a more targeted measure, perhaps, than mostly hitting teenagers of middle-income families.
This could affect many people especially within our age bracket and younger. If the minimum wage increases, the likelihood of finding a job will be less, causing more unemployment. I know in my state (NV) the minimum wage is $8.25 whereas here in Ohio it is less at approximately %7.75. If the national minimum wage were to increase, would states still be willing to offer a higher minimum wage than that of the national minimum wage? It will be interesting to see what happens in the near future.
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