Should Minimum Wage Be Raised Essay

Minimum wage must be raised for us to survive in our very modern society.
The minimum wage must be raised today because the cost of living has gone up drastically. Education is essential today, and that price tag has increased drastically in the past twenty years as well. People should not have to fight for equal pay for equal work. Companies should be forced to pay their workers what they deserve, and that is more than minimum wage is now. With our new technology and the technology in the future work is harder and more complicated. A minimum wage increase would raise the wages of many workers and increase benefits to those disadvantaged workers. Because the cost of living has sky rocketed, it has become almost impossible to raise
a family on a minimum wage job. A person living on his or her own cannot 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. Evidence from 1996 and 1997 minimum wage increase shows that an average minimum wage worker brings home more than half of his or her family's weekly earnings. In 1998 one million single mothers with children under 18 would have benefited from a minimum wage increase to $6.15. Single mothers are 10% of workers affected by an increase but they make up only 5.7 of the overall work force. More than two million married men and women with children under age 18 would also benefit from a one-dollar increase. Adults make up the largest share of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase. Adults age 20 and over will make up approximately sixty-eight percent of the workforce affected by a minimum wage increase to $6.75 by 2003. Close to half of the workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase work full time and another third work between twenty and thirty four hours a week. The minimum wage needs to be increased for families to survive in our society today. The cost of education is a lot more today. Not only has the price of college gone up but also the price of many private and catholic schools. A college education is essential
In today's world. Children cannot better themselves if their parents cannot pay for their education. Thus leading to inadequate education of children as well as adults in college. Some children have to rely on themselves to pay for college. They don't get to go, because they cant afford it on their minimum wage job. This is just not fair to our young kids who are the key to our future. If the minimum wage was increased, many people would be allowed the opportunity for a better education for themselves and their children. In the future you are going need a college degree to do almost anything. As technology gets better and more advanced the people are going to have to understand and learn more. Some businesses need educated people so bad that they are willing to pay for their worker to go to college. As the demand for and educated worker gets higher so does the price of education. In order for the average person to go to college they need more than a minimum wage job to get there. Minimum wage would raise the wages of many workers and increase benefits what disadvantaged workers.
An estimated 6.9 million workers would receive an increase in their hourly wage if the minimum rage were raised to $6.75 by 2003. Due to the spill over effect the 10.5 million workers earning up to a dollar above minimum wage would also be likely to benefit from an increase. Women are the largest group of beneficiaries from a minimum wage increase. Sixty percent of workers who would benefit from an increase to $6.75 by 2003 are women. In 1998, an estimated 12% of workingwomen would have benefited from a one-dollar increase in minimum wage. A disproportionate share of minorities would benefit from a minimum wage increase. African Americans represent 12% of the total work force, but are 18% of workers affected by an increase. Similarly, 11% of the total work force is Hispanic, but Hispanics are 14% of workers affected by an increase. In 1998, half of the benefits of a minimum wage increase to $6.15 would have gone to workers in households with an annual income of less than $25,000. In fact, 18% of the benefits would go to households with an annual income less than $10,000. Benefits of an increase disproportionately help those working households at the bottom of the scale. Although households in the bottom 20% receive only 5% of national income. Benefits of the 1996-1997 minimum wage increase went to these workers. A majority of the benefits went to families
with working, prime adults, the bottom 40% of the income distribution. Relatively large shares of the work force in some southern and western states would benefit from an increase to $6.75 by 2003. The minimum wage needs to be increased for people to survive today. Everything costs more from education, food, and medicine. $6.75 just does not cut it anymore. As welfare reform forces more poor families to rely on their earnings from low paying jobs, I believe an increased minimum wage increase is likely to have a profound affect on reducing poverty. An increase would also encourage people to go get jobs. They would feel that they are getting fair pay for their work. As technology gets better and more complicated people need to know more and work harder. By raising minimum wage you are encouraging a more educated and skilled person to come work for you.