The Minimum Wage
The Minimum Wage: Who does it really affect?
A very controversial question that often comes up is whether or not we should increase, decrease, or eliminate the minimum wage. The Last time we saw a change in the federal minimum wage was July, 24 2009. It was set to $7.25 and we haven’t seen a change since. “The average cost-of-living increase over the past decade is about 26 percent. This means that an item purchased ten years ago would have cost about 26 percent less than it costs to purchase that same item now.”(What has been the Cost-of-living) Yet we still haven’t seen a change in the minimum wage. Paying people a living wage could help increase productivity and happiness of millions of workers across the United States.
The minimum wage …show more content…
has seen 22 raises since the original 25 cent minimum wage in 1938. (Should Teen Earn Less than Adults) Teens face the highest unemployment of all age groups in the United States. Employers don’t have a big incentive to hire teens because they would have to pay them the same amount as an adult that had more experience. A solution someone had to this was to pay teens less than the minimum wage. It wouldn’t be fair to pay teens less just because they are not 18 years old that is why we have a minimum wage in place. (Should Teen Earn Less than Adults) No matter the age all employers should pay their employees equally. This quote from the article shows what the average teen would make during their summer job.
“How much do you really earn? And how far does it go? We crunched the numbers.
*YOUR SUMMER JOB: Working at a fast-food restaurant
* YOUR PAY: $7.25 an hour (the current federal minimum wage)
* YOUR HOURS: 20 hours/week
* YOUR GROSS PAY: $290 (20 hours x $7.25, every two weeks)
* YOUR PAYCHECK: $247 (your net pay, or the amount you take home after deductions for things like taxes, Social Security, and Medicare)
If you were to put every last penny in the bank (no movie tickets or video games!), it would take you:
1.5 to 2 months to save for a new iPhone, depending on the model ($700-1,000)
2 months to save for prom expenses ($920)
13 months to pay for two years of community college ($6,880)
10.5 months to buy a used car (valued at $5,000)” (Should Teen Earn Less Than Adults).
I don’t think teens should be making a fortune by any means, but I do think that they should be paid equally and fairly. I have been working since I was 15 and for a long time I was making minimum wage, and from experience I can tell you it is very discouraging to know that people that work not nearly as hard as you make nearly 5 dollars an hour more. That being said I believe that you should be paid based upon your work ethic not your age. Now no employer is going to pay a 15 year an outrageous amount, but they should be rewarded for the quality of work they do.
The Cost of living is something that should always be taken into consideration when discussing the minimum wage. Over the years with the rise in the cost of living we have also seen an incline in the minimum wage. But has the minimum wage vs. the cost of living proportion always stayed the same? This book covers the exact number as to the cost of living a century ago. According to “The Cost of Living among Wage Earners” in 1919 the average yearly cost of living was $353.60. This includes to work, shopping, recreation, movies, medical care, insurance, church, candy, tobacco, reading material, household furnishing, supplies, and organization. Nearly a century later the cost of living is nearly $30,000. Also stated in the book to live comfortably in 1919 you would need to make $30.27 a week or $1,573.90 per year. “From the results of this brief survey of the cost of living among the mill operatives in Fall River, it appears that to maintain a family consisting of man, wife and three children under the age of fourteen, at a minimum American standard of living but without any allowance for savings, $1267.76 per year will be required, or a steady income of $24.38 per week.”(17) We can see how much things have changed over a century the cost of living has increased by 2244% and the minimum wage has increased from $0.28 to $7.25 or 2589%. Which shows that the minimum wage has increased at a steady rate with the minimum wage, but today’s minimum wage has many more factors and things that need to be paid. It looks as if the proportion between these two factors are relatively the same, but does this give us an accurate representation of what the cost of living should be today? No, there are many more factors in today’s minimum wage than there were a century ago. We can see how these statistics form 1919 give us a view into how much money was required to live a century ago.
According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics “minimum wage workers tend to be young.
Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, about 11 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 2 percent of workers age 25 and older.” Nearly half of all working people in 2015 who made minimum wage were under the age of 25. About seven percent of part time workers (those who work 35 hours or less) made minimum wage, compared to about two percent of full time workers. (Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers) The industry that employed the most amounts of minimum wage workers was leisure and hospitality. Nearly 3/5 of all workers paid at or below the minimum wage were employed in leisure and hospitality. This industry mainly includes fast food places and restaurants. The total percent of men ages 16-24 that were paid at or below minimum wage was 5.4 percent. For women 9.5 percent were paid at or below minimum wage in 2015. 7 percent of part time workers that are men were paid at or below minimum wage. 7.5 percent of part time workers that are women were paid at or below minimum wage in …show more content…
2015.
The minimum wage is mainly directed towards people aging from 16-24, working part-time, in the food industry. Many people may argue against an increase in the minimum wage because of this fact. They don’t want to pay high school drive through workers any more than they need. I do agree that you should be getting paid 15 dollars an hour when your 16, but on the other hand what if you are from the middle class and trying to go to college. But your parents don’t have the money saved to put you through school, and they make too much money for you to get financial aid. Then everything changes, and you can’t pay for college on minimum wage. At the end of the day you should be paid based upon your work quality. Not your gander, age, or financial status. That being said not every high school teenager is going to have a great work ethic, but those who do should be rewarded for their efforts.
I was able to interview a co-worker of mine: Jake L. He currently is 22 years old and making minimum wage. He is also living by himself and working another job just to get by. The first thing I asked him was does he think he should make minimum wage. He said that he feels that he should be making more than minimum wage, and that he shouldn’t have to work two jobs just to get by. I then asked him if he tried to pursue an education as a way to make more money in the future, He also explained that because he has to work two jobs he doesn’t have the money or time to try to get back to school to pursue an education. This is a major problem for him because he is now stuck in this routine of either not having enough time for school or not having enough money for school. He said he had done some research of his own on the topic of minimum wage workers and found that the majority of people he knew that were making minimum wage couldn’t afford to stay in school, so they had to drop out.
This interview really opened my eyes to what is happening to many young adults in the United States. Without having the money to pursue an education it can make your life a lot more difficult than it may be for others. It is a real shame that he has to work two jobs just to get by; it makes me feel very fortunate that my parents allow me to stay with them until I can finish getting my degree. All of the research I had found thus far had been numbers and sometimes it is hard to make a decision based upon numbers, but in this situation I can see the guy I work with is struggling and doesn’t have any sort of means to get back on track. If the minimum wage was increased he might be able to quit one of his jobs and start working towards a degree again, but that is only if he is making a livable wage on one job. This interview really made me think about the decisions I have made to be the most cost effective way of getting a degree. I think we either need to make a change in the minimum wage to make it livable or make college tuition more affordable.
Works Cited
“Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2015 : BLS Reports.” U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Apr. 2016, www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm. Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.(Primary Source)
L, Jake. “MInimum Wage.” 26 Mar. 2017. (Formal Interview)
"Should Teens Earn Less Than Adults? Some Lawmakers Believe That Lowering the Minimum Wage for Young People Will Encourage More Businesses to Hire Them. Would You Say This Is a Smart Move to Help Teens Get Jobs--or Is It Fundamentally Unfair? Scholastic Choices, 0883475X, Feb2017, Vol. 32, no. 5," Feb. 2017: n. pag. Primary Search [EBSCO]. 1 Mar. 2017.(Database Source)
The Cost of Living among Wage-earners: Fall River, Massachusetts, October, 1919. Boston, MA: National Industrial Conference Board, 1919. Print. (Book Source)
"What Has Been the Cost-of-living Increase for the past Ten Years?" Reference. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017. (Internet
source)
A very controversial question that often comes up is whether or not we should increase, decrease, or eliminate the minimum wage. The Last time we saw a change in the federal minimum wage was July, 24 2009. It was set to $7.25 and we haven’t seen a change since. “The average cost-of-living increase over the past decade is about 26 percent. This means that an item purchased ten years ago would have cost about 26 percent less than it costs to purchase that same item now.”(What has been the Cost-of-living) Yet we still haven’t seen a change in the minimum wage. Paying people a living wage could help increase productivity and happiness of millions of workers across the United States.
The minimum wage …show more content…
has seen 22 raises since the original 25 cent minimum wage in 1938. (Should Teen Earn Less than Adults) Teens face the highest unemployment of all age groups in the United States. Employers don’t have a big incentive to hire teens because they would have to pay them the same amount as an adult that had more experience. A solution someone had to this was to pay teens less than the minimum wage. It wouldn’t be fair to pay teens less just because they are not 18 years old that is why we have a minimum wage in place. (Should Teen Earn Less than Adults) No matter the age all employers should pay their employees equally. This quote from the article shows what the average teen would make during their summer job.
“How much do you really earn? And how far does it go? We crunched the numbers.
*YOUR SUMMER JOB: Working at a fast-food restaurant
* YOUR PAY: $7.25 an hour (the current federal minimum wage)
* YOUR HOURS: 20 hours/week
* YOUR GROSS PAY: $290 (20 hours x $7.25, every two weeks)
* YOUR PAYCHECK: $247 (your net pay, or the amount you take home after deductions for things like taxes, Social Security, and Medicare)
If you were to put every last penny in the bank (no movie tickets or video games!), it would take you:
1.5 to 2 months to save for a new iPhone, depending on the model ($700-1,000)
2 months to save for prom expenses ($920)
13 months to pay for two years of community college ($6,880)
10.5 months to buy a used car (valued at $5,000)” (Should Teen Earn Less Than Adults).
I don’t think teens should be making a fortune by any means, but I do think that they should be paid equally and fairly. I have been working since I was 15 and for a long time I was making minimum wage, and from experience I can tell you it is very discouraging to know that people that work not nearly as hard as you make nearly 5 dollars an hour more. That being said I believe that you should be paid based upon your work ethic not your age. Now no employer is going to pay a 15 year an outrageous amount, but they should be rewarded for the quality of work they do.
The Cost of living is something that should always be taken into consideration when discussing the minimum wage. Over the years with the rise in the cost of living we have also seen an incline in the minimum wage. But has the minimum wage vs. the cost of living proportion always stayed the same? This book covers the exact number as to the cost of living a century ago. According to “The Cost of Living among Wage Earners” in 1919 the average yearly cost of living was $353.60. This includes to work, shopping, recreation, movies, medical care, insurance, church, candy, tobacco, reading material, household furnishing, supplies, and organization. Nearly a century later the cost of living is nearly $30,000. Also stated in the book to live comfortably in 1919 you would need to make $30.27 a week or $1,573.90 per year. “From the results of this brief survey of the cost of living among the mill operatives in Fall River, it appears that to maintain a family consisting of man, wife and three children under the age of fourteen, at a minimum American standard of living but without any allowance for savings, $1267.76 per year will be required, or a steady income of $24.38 per week.”(17) We can see how much things have changed over a century the cost of living has increased by 2244% and the minimum wage has increased from $0.28 to $7.25 or 2589%. Which shows that the minimum wage has increased at a steady rate with the minimum wage, but today’s minimum wage has many more factors and things that need to be paid. It looks as if the proportion between these two factors are relatively the same, but does this give us an accurate representation of what the cost of living should be today? No, there are many more factors in today’s minimum wage than there were a century ago. We can see how these statistics form 1919 give us a view into how much money was required to live a century ago.
According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics “minimum wage workers tend to be young.
Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, about 11 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 2 percent of workers age 25 and older.” Nearly half of all working people in 2015 who made minimum wage were under the age of 25. About seven percent of part time workers (those who work 35 hours or less) made minimum wage, compared to about two percent of full time workers. (Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers) The industry that employed the most amounts of minimum wage workers was leisure and hospitality. Nearly 3/5 of all workers paid at or below the minimum wage were employed in leisure and hospitality. This industry mainly includes fast food places and restaurants. The total percent of men ages 16-24 that were paid at or below minimum wage was 5.4 percent. For women 9.5 percent were paid at or below minimum wage in 2015. 7 percent of part time workers that are men were paid at or below minimum wage. 7.5 percent of part time workers that are women were paid at or below minimum wage in …show more content…
2015.
The minimum wage is mainly directed towards people aging from 16-24, working part-time, in the food industry. Many people may argue against an increase in the minimum wage because of this fact. They don’t want to pay high school drive through workers any more than they need. I do agree that you should be getting paid 15 dollars an hour when your 16, but on the other hand what if you are from the middle class and trying to go to college. But your parents don’t have the money saved to put you through school, and they make too much money for you to get financial aid. Then everything changes, and you can’t pay for college on minimum wage. At the end of the day you should be paid based upon your work quality. Not your gander, age, or financial status. That being said not every high school teenager is going to have a great work ethic, but those who do should be rewarded for their efforts.
I was able to interview a co-worker of mine: Jake L. He currently is 22 years old and making minimum wage. He is also living by himself and working another job just to get by. The first thing I asked him was does he think he should make minimum wage. He said that he feels that he should be making more than minimum wage, and that he shouldn’t have to work two jobs just to get by. I then asked him if he tried to pursue an education as a way to make more money in the future, He also explained that because he has to work two jobs he doesn’t have the money or time to try to get back to school to pursue an education. This is a major problem for him because he is now stuck in this routine of either not having enough time for school or not having enough money for school. He said he had done some research of his own on the topic of minimum wage workers and found that the majority of people he knew that were making minimum wage couldn’t afford to stay in school, so they had to drop out.
This interview really opened my eyes to what is happening to many young adults in the United States. Without having the money to pursue an education it can make your life a lot more difficult than it may be for others. It is a real shame that he has to work two jobs just to get by; it makes me feel very fortunate that my parents allow me to stay with them until I can finish getting my degree. All of the research I had found thus far had been numbers and sometimes it is hard to make a decision based upon numbers, but in this situation I can see the guy I work with is struggling and doesn’t have any sort of means to get back on track. If the minimum wage was increased he might be able to quit one of his jobs and start working towards a degree again, but that is only if he is making a livable wage on one job. This interview really made me think about the decisions I have made to be the most cost effective way of getting a degree. I think we either need to make a change in the minimum wage to make it livable or make college tuition more affordable.
Works Cited
“Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2015 : BLS Reports.” U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Apr. 2016, www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm. Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.(Primary Source)
L, Jake. “MInimum Wage.” 26 Mar. 2017. (Formal Interview)
"Should Teens Earn Less Than Adults? Some Lawmakers Believe That Lowering the Minimum Wage for Young People Will Encourage More Businesses to Hire Them. Would You Say This Is a Smart Move to Help Teens Get Jobs--or Is It Fundamentally Unfair? Scholastic Choices, 0883475X, Feb2017, Vol. 32, no. 5," Feb. 2017: n. pag. Primary Search [EBSCO]. 1 Mar. 2017.(Database Source)
The Cost of Living among Wage-earners: Fall River, Massachusetts, October, 1919. Boston, MA: National Industrial Conference Board, 1919. Print. (Book Source)
"What Has Been the Cost-of-living Increase for the past Ten Years?" Reference. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017. (Internet
source)