Free Paper on Rising Tides: Examining Minimum Wage, Debates, and the Call for Change

Minimum pay is the lowest salary that workers can receive from their bosses. Many nations had established minimum wage rules in the late 20th century. A suggestion from supply and demand models states that there could be prosperity and job losses from minimum pay. The state of monopsony; the availability of only one employer hiring, and the minimum salary can surge the efficacy of the market. A debate has been started concerning the full impacts of minimum salaries.

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The minimum wage drive was first inspired as a means to cease manipulation of employees in factories, by managers who were believed to have biased trading authority over workers. Eventually, minimum wages were seen as a method of assisting families earning a low income. Current national rules imposing compulsory union affiliation that prescribed minimum salaries for the workers were first approved in New Zealand and Australia in the 1890s.

Although minimum wage rules have been affected by many authorities, people still differ on the importance and disadvantages of a minimum wage. Those who support minimum wage say that it improves the worker’s standard of living, decreases poverty, lessens disparity, and increases morale. However, those opposing the minimum wage argue that it raises poverty, and increases the rate of joblessness because low-wage employees will not be able to find jobs and will be forced into the positions of the jobless and this greatly affects trades because extremely high minimum wages require businesses to increase the costs of products and service to put up with the added expenditure of offering an increased wage.

The subject of minimum wage and how it affects employment is the most studied and discussed strategy issue in American employment economics (Jardin et. al,2017). The United States’ minimum wage is low as compared to the international standards, presently covering a small proportion of the labor force, and in reality, it is not as high as historic standards. Economists are captivated by the minimum pay, although, partially due to the continued debate on its experiential effects and also because the topic gives a chance to examine some of the ground’s basic models and plans. Analysis shift has contributed to the discussion of channels of adjustment (CoA). This method (CoA) studies Minimum Wage experiential effects along with several scopes, with a focus on modification networks in which competing models can produce diverse predictions.

Benefits of minimum wage increase

Currently, many Americans take part in strenuous jobs but earn too little and offer minimal benefits. These jobs include serving food, office cleaning, caring for children and the aged, stocking shelves, and food deliveries. As they continuously do these jobs, they are also saving for their college education and sorting out their bills. Despite their efforts, they are still lagging due to the payment of low wages (Meer & West,2016). The national minimum pay of $7.25/hr. is leading millions of women and single parents especially those of color in poverty, this is according to a new Oxfam interactive map.

It is long overdue to increase minimum wages. The least earnings have not been able to compete along with the increase, in average pay, and incomes of the top job titles and CEOs, leading to an increase in disparity in America (Giuliano,2013). Due to this, low-pay employees are not advancing in the growing economy and productivity. The minimum wage would have been $20/hr. if at all it had kept pace with the increase in productivity. The average wage difference between CEOs and employees was 59 to 1 in the past 30 years, in the past year it increased to 361 to 1. The normal salary earned by a CEO is $13,940,000 whereas the least paid employee earns $15,080/: the ratio difference being 924:1.

A wage increase would address the existing biases in race and gender. Historically sidelined citizens would disproportionately benefit from the increase (Jardim et. al,2017). Although 27% of all US labor force would profit from the increase;39% of Latina and Black women would be advantaged versus 18%of White men,38% of African Americans would benefit,33% of Latino females would be advantaged, and also 32% of women employees would benefit versus 22% men. This would reduce the poverty rate as the increase from $290 to $600 weekly would get many families out of poverty. Over a quarter of the staff;40 million employees would have an increase in their pay.

The minimum wage increase would lead to development in the economy. Almost $120 billion extra given to employees would be taken to the economy to cater to basic needs such as food, rent, and clothes(Meer,2016). Economists have realized that increasing the power of purchase by directly placing money in people's pockets to be spent by consumers has a positive wave of effects on the whole economy. In a recent poll, 67% of small business managers are supporting the minimum wage rise to $15/hour. They argue that this would increase the demand by consumers hence they would retain or employ other workers. Wage increase does not appear to force employers to reduce jobs. Studies have not found any statistically major influence on the workforce, as cities and states across the nation have increased pay.

Increased wages would reduce the use of government plans and save the taxpayer’s money. Employers are always forced to seek assistance from the government when they are not being paid enough to survive, this means that taxpayers are funding the corporations (Meer,2016). In 2016, the Economic Policy Institute discovered that, amongst the recipients of public help, the majority are employed or have a working member of the family; they are found at the lowest part of the wage scale. If workers are offered a wage increase, it would explicitly reduce the total spending on public aid, mostly among employees impacted by a national minimum salary raise.

A huge majority of Americans are for the idea of a wage increase. More than half of the states have increased the minimum pay to reinstate simple equity in the labor force. Every job has pride and value. After 10 years of hard work, employees earning low wages warrant a rise to prevent them from poverty.

There is no doubt that the minimum wage has been a success. It has been greatly supported by those in the political arena and the public at large; although a shockingly small number of employees receive it, appears to be having more universal effects on pay inequity than expected. It has continued doing so without clear hostile effects on labor. Despite the success, we are in a bizarre position of opposition. Our direct attention is paid to low economic conditions. However, with the predictions now recommending a unique constant squeeze on incomes, even after advanced revenues, there has been a shocking minimal proposition of a more determined, long-lasting approach on how the NMW might be used, one of the few recognized gears for raising low-end payments, after the return of economic growth.

The failure to increase the States' minimum income has for the longest time-deprived American laborers' improvement in terms of their quality of life. Even after regulating the increase, the lowest-earning employer still receives a salary lower than what their colleagues were paid in the previous years. Increasing the national minimum salary will ensure that even the least paid employers are not living in poverty. Additionally, automatically increasing the minimum wage will raise the median salary increase, and low-earning employees will share a similar route of salary increase with the labor market at large.

References

Meer, J., & West, J. (2016). Effects of the minimum wage on employment dynamics. Journal of Human Resources, 51(2), 500-522. DOI: 10.3368/jhr.51.2.0414-6298R1

Jardim, E., Long, M. C., Plotnick, R., Van Inwegen, E., Vigdor, J., & Wething, H. (2017). Minimum wage increases, wages, and low-wage employment: Evidence from Seattle (No. w23532). National Bureau of Economic Research. (DOI): 10.3386/w23532

Giuliano, L. (2013). Minimum wage effects on employment, substitution, and the teenage labor supply: Evidence from personnel data. Journal of Labor Economics, 31(1), 155-194.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/666921

Manning, A. (2012). Minimum wage: maximum impact. The Resolution Foundation.