Argument Essay Against Minimum Wage PDF

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The federal government established its first minimum wage, 25 cents an hour, in 1938. Since then, liberals have hailed attempts to raise the minimum wage as blows against worker exploitation, while businesses lament that increases kill jobs. But nearly 80 years later, economists are still unsure how a higher minimum wage affects businesses and their customers. There are many reasons why the minimum wage should not increase; first of all, the probable consequence of businesses increasing prices, thus fueling inflation. Another projected problem resulting from an increased minimum wage is that of potential job losses. Many economists and business executives who point out that labor is a major cost of doing business argue that businesses will be forced to cut jobs to maintain profitability. And finally, most workers in the U.S. would not benefit, since they are full time, and benefits for them are very scarce and weak. Some people argue that millions of people and families would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage for many reasons, however the disvantages of it, overshadow the benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven many businesses particularly small businesses to close permanently or to operate on thin margins even as the economy begins to recover. “This may come in the form of laying off workers, reducing their hours, curbing future hiring, trimming non‐ wage benefits, sweating workers harder, reducing scheduling flexibility, raising prices on customers, or even closing the business entirely.” (Bourne, 2021), according to this, many of these businesses already face a challenging environment, where they have had to absorb costs associated with additional safety precautions and state-mandated business closures while losing revenue from reduced business. Adding the cost of a $15 minimum wage could force the most vulnerable businesses to forgo hiring, reduce worker hours, cut jobs, or simply close altogether. Other industries that have been significantly affected by the pandemic include mining, construction, transportation, and food services. While improvement has occurred, unemployment in these sectors remains high. Being that said, the increase of the minimum wage, should not happen. The current federal minimum wage for workers in covered sectors is $7.25 an hour. As suggested, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would motivate many workers who were already being paid $15 in the old regime to seek employment in less demanding jobs that would now pay the same rate. To retain workers in more skilled, physically, or mentally demanding, dangerous, or unpleasant jobs, employers would need to adjust wages upward to some degree. Still, couriers should not anticipate dramatic increases in their wages following a minimum wage increase. Few couriers would be able to find preferred work in the jobs directly affected by the mandated wage increase. According to Van Dam (2019) “While the CBO report’s headline result still links the minimum wage to job loss, its estimates of those losses range from no significant job loss to 3.7 million job losses.” In any case, a consequence of raising the required pay floor that forcefully, the CBO predicts, will be that 1.4 million less specialists will be in business. That is since, supposing that you raise the pay rate that organizations need to pay, organizations will in general just recruit individuals whose efficiency can order that rate, lessening open positions or hours accessible to youthful, unpracticed, or ineffectively instructed laborers. According to the Economic Policy Institute on data 3: Percent of workers who would benefit from the proposed 15$ minimum wage by worker status, shows that full time workers would not benefit at all from this increase in the minimum wage. It should be noted the 60% of workers are full time, so more people would be negatively affected than positively affected, since only 20.1% of the full-time workers would find profit from this. This is because most people working in this category are already earning more than the current minimum wage, so they would not gain any benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. Some people argue that raising the minimum salary to $15 an hour would reduce the number of Americans living in poverty and improve the earnings of millions of people. Which is true, however, it won’t help those

in poverty. Many proponents of raising the minimum wage think it helps poor people, but, overall, it doesn’t. Most people who earn low wages are not living in poverty, in fact, most live-in families earning more than the average U.S. income. That is because most are the second (or third or fourth) income earners in a family, not the primary one. Most people who live in poverty do not work at all, and only 10 percent of adults in poor households work full time. Even more liberal economists, and some proponents of minimum wage mandates, acknowledge a higher minimum wage is not likely to affect poverty rates. In conclusion, raising the minimum will end up hurting Americans more than helping them. The people that are for raising minimum wage are people who believe that increasing minimum wage can help those people who are unskilled and need an income they can live on. Yet, raising minimum wage would do the opposite and make employers must fire people who earn minimum wage, because they cannot afford the higher wages. It would cause job loss, it would make business close, and it would bring adverse consequences for most of the workers of the US. People need to realize that increasing the minimum wage would hurt people more than help them. In the end increasing minimum wage would result in some people being let go, for the reason, businesses can't afford paying them minimum wage anymore. Considering all the reasons, the minimum wage should not increase to 15$ per hour....