Preview

James Surowiecki's The Pay Is Too Low

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
355 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
James Surowiecki's The Pay Is Too Low
In “The Pay is Too Damn Low”, by James Surowiecki, he makes a claim saying that the minimum wage is too low regarding low wage jobs like McDonald’s. In response to this article, I completely agree with the author, these types of jobs are not only occupied by teenagers, but also by adults that need jobs. The author made me feel that minimum wage jobs were not made for adults that need to provide for their families, unfortunately though, these are the types of jobs that are always easily available. Surowiecki reasons that the minimum wage needs to be raised so that low wage jobs can turn into the type of employment that can support a middle-class family. The warrant from this article that I pick up is that the current minimum wage is too low.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hana Mandefro

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Page

    The cost of living has sky rocketed,it has become almost impossible to rais afamily on a minimum wage job. A person live on his or her own can not survive on minimum wage job either. Their living expense would just be too much. The earnings of minimum wage workers are crucial to their families well being. That is way the minimum wage should raised.…

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many business owners have argued that raising the minimum wage would cause hardship and cause businesses to raise their prices, but many workers argue that raising the minimum wage is necessary to help low-income workers to get out of poverty. Two main issues that workers face are insufficient wages to support their families which causes them to depend on government funding. Secondly, workers are faced with decreased job satisfaction due to making low wages. In my opinion, minimum wages should be increased because it will allow workers to feel that they have job security. Additionally, increased pay will allow people to further support themselves and avoid taking benefits from the government and can use…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the piece “At the edge of Poverty” David Shipler tells about the world of “the forgotten Americans”. The people who can’t save, can’t get a better job, and cannot move on to a better life. He shows us how hard it is to be someone like that, to be on the edge of poverty. He brings us to a different level of understanding of what these people go though and how they are almost are stuck in society, only to dream for a better future. In this well written piece, Shipler does a wonderful job of grabbing and keeping the attention of the reader with many techniques. He uses metaphors, pathos, dramatically short sentences, imagery and many more techniques. Shipler does, though, have two of his best techniques that he uses to really make this piece…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the minimum wage increases, so does inflation. If an employer has to pay higher wages, then the price of the product or service being produced will have to cost more in order to pay the employee. In return the prices of all goods and services will rise, and the person earning higher wages, makes no gain. In some instances, a pay hike would not make a livable wage, but in fact could make it worse. People who normally get tax breaks for having a low income, would now end up paying more in taxes and may actually end up making less money overall. Higher minimum wages force employers to cut back on training, which deprive low wage workers of any chance of long-term advancement, in return for a small increase in current income. Having higher wages for low-paid positions might also discourage workers from gaining new skills. In most circumstances, minimum wage workers may start off at minimum wage and then as time goes on and their skills are refined, they end up getting paid more. So while many people may start off at minimum wage, many of these people don't necessarily stay fixed at minimum wage. There are many minimum wage jobs that offer advancement…

    • 2607 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Granted minimum wage workers will always be needed. I feel like if minimum wage isn’t raised them it will encourage people to improve their education. We can earn more money as long as we work for it. Minimum wage is a stepping-stone; it’s not something you are supposed to rely on our whole life.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    (Hanauer)Some people may think that is so crazy. However, the result is great. Seattle is the fastest-growing big city in the America. Washington state is generating small business jobs at a higher rate than any other major state in the nation. And the restaurant business in Seattle is also growing rapidly. The one of the reason is because the fundamental law of capitalism is when workers have more money, businesses have more customers and need more workers. If the employers can pay more money to workers, the workers will have more positive attitude on their work and bring more profits for their company. Nonetheless, there is also someone against to raise the minimum wage. The video named Does the minimum wage hurt workers? Antony Davies says “Minimum wage often hurts those who are most in need of our help.” (Davies, 2012)In this video, he uses an example to explain his opinion. Here are three people work at a same restaurant, Bob, Tom and Derek. The minimum wage of them is $8 per hour. Their income is depending on how many works they done. As the result, you can…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rogerian paper-minium wage

    • 1015 Words
    • 3 Pages

    While people working fast food jobs are mandating 15 dollars an hour, no one addresses the consequences that can be expected from the increased wages for little to no skill jobs. If the minimum wage was increased across the board, it would force companies to overpay for labor which is not good for economy because it does not allow for efficient markets. When markets are not efficient prices of goods and services can experience negative upward and downward pressures on the prices of the factors of production. Overall, if wages were increased too high and too quickly, it would have an instant negative Impact and serious Long-term ramifications…

    • 1015 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A main controversial issue in todays society is whether or not to raise minimum wage and how much to raise it by. There comes both benefits and consequences to raising the minimum wage price. In an article written by David Henderson titled, “ Raising the Minimum Wage Will Not Reduce Poverty” Henderson discusses the consequences to raising minimum wage and how it may affect the youth and currently employed. In another related article found on the New York Post by Jonathan M. Trugman titled, “Raising minimum wage would cost a million people their jobs” Trugman confronts, “ The American worker is grossly underpaid, by about 25 percent to 30 percent — heck, wages have been stagnant for almost a decade.” (CITE) According to both David Henderson and Jonathon M. Trugman the consequence of raising minimum wage could amount to thousands to millions of Americans loosing their jobs and becoming unemployed. Though I concede that the minimum wage price should…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When you hear high school and college students talk about their employment experiences, all they seem to say is how they don't get paid enough. I've even said that myself quite a few times. Well, in a way, they are right; but this statement does not only include that average student, it also includes many adults and families who are trying to live on minimum wage jobs. In today's society, this is almost impossible. An increase in the federal minimum wage is in the interest of the nation as a whole, although it will impose some costs.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fast food workers at McDonald’s want their wage to be raised to fifteen dollars an hour. The workers go on strike and protest for these wages and McDonald’s is slowly giving into their preposterous task. President Barack Obama has signed laws to raise wages by 2020, him and seventeen other states have passed laws to raise the wage by that year too. The lowest minimum wages in the country right now are in Georgia and Wyoming at a whopping five dollars and fifteen cents an hour. Let us be honest, a fast food job is not a hard job at all, really the only thing difficult would have to be dealing with the occasional rude customer. Many other minimum wage jobs do not require much skill at all, it is not worth the fifteen dollars that they keep asking for. Many laboring jobs such as an electrician and plumbers make around thirteen dollars an hour including health benefits, with a job that is obviously much harder than flipping burgers to the extent that the two are not nearly comparable. Blue collar workers, such as plumbers, mechanics, or construction workers electricians, have to get down and dirty and do what others would not do to make thirteen an hour. Although, this does not apply to all plumbers and electricians because their wages start to increase. So why should a worker restocking shelves and scanning groceries deserve fifteen dollars an hour? Many workers who are for raising the wage are workers who have to support a family on a decently low…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The earnings of minimum wage workers are crucial to their family’s wellbeing. Raising the minimum wage would help uphold some working families exceed the poverty line by mostly solving the primary problem with current minimum wage rate: it has failed to keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living. In addition to providing a much-needed boost to low-wage families, increasing the minimum wage would also have other positive economic effects.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As of 2014, 21 states have larger minimum wages than the federal minimum of $7.25, but our national government still has not gotten the message that America needs its minimum wage to be raised (Jost 76). Raising minimum wage has been a hot topic ever since its conception in 1938, back when minimum wage was only $0.25 (“Minimum Wage”). Although it is a successful tradition to raise minimum wage to match inflation and match people’s needs, some individuals believe there is no need to raise it. Many others believe that raising wages will boost the lifestyle of those who support themselves off of minimum wage and even everyday consumers who use products made by minimum wage workers. Because it minimizes the cost for employers, it helps the government,…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Minimum Wage Changes

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “My mom worked at McDonald's, and she decided she wanted to make more money, so she got into the management program at McDonald's. And that's how you move up the chain. It's not by demanding that minimum wage is raised; it's by actually acquiring the skills. That's the way that people get ahead in life.” Politian Raul Labrador expresses. According to At Issue from the SIRS data base, in 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act successfully re-established a national minimum wage after it was battled between 1933 and 1935 by the Supreme Court. Critics of minimum we say it is not sufficient. They believe it should be changed to a living wage standard, which accommodates for economic factors that determine a wage that is able to provide the necessities…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Raising the minimum wage… would ensure… that a family of four with a parent working full-time at the minimum wage does not have to raise its children in poverty.” (Furman and Parrot) Fear and worry are very strong and powerful emotions that are often caused by monetary issues. If minimum wage was raised part of that fear and worry would disappear and a mother or father would be able to rest easy knowing they could provide for their family. A surprising fact is that 2/3rd of people earning the minimum wage have been below the poverty line since 1959 (Sanghoee). If people have lived below the poverty line since 1959 then there must be something wrong with the standard minimum wage. Just as adults struggle living with minimum wage, college students do as…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the minimum wage

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    People believe if government raises the minimum wage that people could earn more money. According to the article “The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage,” “An estimated 27.8 million people would earn more money under the Democratic proposal to lift the hourly minimum from $7.25 today to $10.10 by 2016. And most of them do not fit the low-wage stereotype of a teenager with a summer job.” Today, everything of the price is rising, no matter car, house, food and gas. If the minimum wage didn’t rise, there will lots of people lose their families, and then people can’t keep their most basic life. Many people do the job of minimum wage, even some people need to work pick up a few jobs at the same time that maintain the economy with the family. In addition, raising the minimum wage can relax between employers and low-wage workers that can push wages down to poverty levels. It also can reduce the cost of the government to low-income families.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays