The issues with Minimum Wage

The Issues with Minimum Wage

By: Jameson Janoska 11/06/2021

One of America’s biggest problems at the moment is poverty. Poverty is where one can’t afford to keep up with the minimum level of living standards in a certain country. One of the main factors of this social issue is minimum wage. The current minimum wage in America is $7.25 an hour and has remained the same since 2009.

Most people believe that the minimum wage should be raised, in order to help reduce poverty in America, and some people believe that it should remain at $7.25 to prevent our economy from getting worse.

Back in 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an act called the, “Raise the Wage Act,” which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2025.

The Raise the Wage Act did not make it past the Senate, as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions denied the vote to pass the legislation.

Even though it seems like it’d be a great idea to help reduce poverty in America, it could cause some problems for our economy.

For example, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could affect businesses, which could eventually affect the people of America.

If we were to raise the minimum wage, businesses would obviously have to pay their employees more, and that would lead to businesses paying more to satisfy their employees, which would mean that they would most likely have to raise their prices to actually make a profit. Doing this would lead to inflation.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could also increase unemployment in America because since businesses would be paying their workers more, some businesses might not be able to afford to pay more employees.

Although there could be some bad outcomes from raising the minimum wage, there also could be some good.

For instance, raising the minimum wage could help improve the living standards for people who make minimum wage in the U.S. because instead of getting paid $7.25 an hour and not being able to provide for your family or yourself, they would be making double that every hour and could be able to live and provide for themselves.

Many people are conflicted on what we should do to reduce poverty, and one of the main solutions would be to raise the minimum wage. Raising it would help people all across the country by paying them enough to provide for themselves and their family, but it could also lead to an increase in inflation and unemployment.

Overall, raising the minimum wage could be a risky move for America and its economy.