Raising The Minimum Wage

Raising Minimum Wage One of the heavily debated issues that we are currently seeing is on whether or not minimum wage should increase or not. After conducting research, I feel that minimum wage should not increase for several different reasons. Raising minimum wage will affect the majority of people besides the people earning minimum wage, like students, higher educated people, and the actual business itself. While it may seem beneficial to those who are making minimum wage, raising the minimum wage would hurt these other people. The idea of raising the minimum wage would hurt more people than it would help. An example of this type of issue occurred at the University of Iowa. The University of Iowa decided that they wanted to increase their
minimum wage for all of their employees (Miller, 2016). In return, this caused an increase in everything else, so that the workers could receive higher pay (Miller, 2016). The University decided to raise the student's board and meal plan from $164 to $5,861 so that the University could cover the increased pay for their employees (Miller, 2016). As you can tell, for the University of Iowa to pay their employees more, it increased the cost for the parents and student (Miller, 2016). The situation shows that for minimum wage to increase, the cost of commodities and necessities needed to live off will increase as well (Garcia, 2015). Another reason why the minimum wage should not increase is that it will hurt businesses and employees. Most business owners fear that if the minimum wage is increased, they will not be able to afford to keep all of their employees, and will most likely lay off half of their staff, or cut back everyone hours (Smith & Rampell, 2009). Also, raising the minimum wage will affect how many students a business can hire. Students are typically the ones who are working the minimum wage paid jobs and are not trying to support a family ("Should Congress, 2007). The students are taking the minimum wage paid jobs so that they can gain work experience and earn some extra money (Smith & Rampell, 2009). Businesses will also not be able to support low-skilled workers or people who are working part-time hours (Morgan, 2014). Paying students, low-skilled workers, or even employees who are part-time above minimum wage is something most businesses will not be able to do as a result of the cost. Another reason why people feel that minimum wage should not be raised is that it would not be fair to people who have worked their way up and earned an education (Garcia, 2015).
Workers who have receive an education feel that individuals who have little to no education should not be paid the same amount as they. A majority of the people making minimum wage are under the age of 25, so they have plenty of time to work on getting an education, so they can as well earn more than minimum wage (Garcia, 2015). The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics stated that out of the 3.3 million people employed in 2013, only 4.3% were paid minimum wage (Garcia, 2015). This number shows that the majority of individuals working in the United States already earns, more than minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage would end up encouraging people not to attend high school or college since they would be getting paid almost the same amount of money as people who did receive an education (Garcia,
2015). Some people wonder why, if such a little amount of people are being paid minimum wage then why are they struggling? Studies have shown that most people struggling with money do not know how to be frugal (Garcia, 2015). I have seen several of my friends support their family off of a minimum wage paid jobs, but they do not do or have certain luxuries, like take vacations, or have the latest technology. With that minimum wage paid job, they can keep a roof over their families head, have food on the table, and clothes on everyone's back. They worry about the necessities for their family, and not having all of the newest items. If their minimum wage were to increase, at first it might seem extremely helpful. Most minimum wage workers and non-minimum wage workers believe that if the minimum wage is raised, people will be able to support their families easier, and will not live off of government funding. This will not be the case, since they may lose their job, have their hours cut, or the cost of living will increase. As seen in the story at the University of Iowa, in order for these businesses paying people more, they must raise their cost. Now, people may be getting paid more, but they also are paying more for their necessities, so it all balances out. At first, raising the minimum wage may sound helpful, since it looks like it would help people.
Consequently, raising the minimum wage would hurt more people than it would help, like businesses, students, low-skilled workers, and part-time employees. Businesses would not be able to afford to pay students, low-skilled workers, or part-time workers this increased wage without laying off people, cutting back hours, or raising all of their prices on their commodities. Raising the minimum wage would also not be fair to people who have worked to receive an education, and deserve this higher pay. I believe that increasing the minimum wage would give less of an incentive to people to finish school, since they would be getting paid the same or almost the same as someone who finished school and worked for their higher pay. Increasing the minimum wage would leave people without a job, or in the same situation they are in since most likely the cost of necessities will increase as well. It is important to take all of these facts into consideration when thinking about raising the minimum
wage.