Minimum Wage Justification Essay
Nobody Should Be Left Behind
Can a person live a normal life out of poverty with a minimum wage? The federal minimum wage is 7.25 since 2009. Which gives a person about $1,160/month without taking taxes out. This question is only considering a single person. In the aftermath of the basic expenses such as rent, utilities, food, gas, car payment, and car insurance this paycheck scenario based on the real minimum wage would not be enough for one person. Politicians should have into consideration people with family as well. This paycheck will also not give a family or single mom/dad an appropriate living standard. The minimum wage should be raised to an amount that a person can economically adequately live and that will be convenient for the country’s economy.
When the minimum wage is raised, people acquire money to spend, and people react to incentives (EP), without spending/buying the market and our economy would not work the way it does. Consumer spending makes up 68 percent of the US economy. The Circular-Flow diagram (EP) shows how Markets for factors of production take place with firms giving wages/capital to households in exchange for labor/land. The household then buys products from firms, Markets for Goods and Services. This flow demonstrates how our economy works as well as how a higher wage would give people the possibility not only of surviving to pay their bills but to consume. Becoming part of the diagram induces the ripple effect, demand for a product will cause more jobs.
Teens and restaurant workers are two remarkably affected groups by increasing the minimum wage. States such as California have raised the minimum wage showing little to zero impact on those groups. More than half of the workers under minimum wage are between the ages of 25 and 54 years old, 26% of them have children while nearly two-thirds work full time. 56% of those workers are women, therefore, if the minimum wage would increase, it would reduce the gender pay gap (PES). An increase in the minimum wage would also significantly improve the lives of those of different races as 40 percent of African Americans along with 34 percent of Latinos (PES).
Everyone should be able to live a normal life based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by working a full-time job. To achieve a higher living standard for everyone in the USA or Iowa many laws need to change besides the minimum wage, such as where taxes go, tuition costs, and others. The government needs to take action, the first one could be to start increasing the minimum wage according to each state because it exists to protect the workers, in contrast having a low minimum wage benefits the richest pockets. Such a low minimum salary is the alternative to slavery for big firms (NES). It is time to give people a deserved salary in addition to creating a smaller gap between the poor and the rich with a reasonably higher minimum wage. Triggering win to win with more revenue for the government from taxes, higher salaries for workers, and more demand for firms.