Pros And Cons Of Increasing Minimum Wage

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Increasing Minimum Wage The debate of whether or not to increase the minimum wage has much controversy surrounding it, but the facts support an increase. The facts show that the cost of living and inflation quickly erode the value of minimum wage without regular increases in the minimum wage. The people that would be slightly hurt by an increase when compared to the massive amount of people that an increase in the minimum wage would help is minute. Poverty in the United States is a problem that people constantly face, but with a higher minimum wage, poverty would be lessened. The many arguments for an increase in minimum wage clearly show that an increase is desperately needed in the near future. Although some people argue that raising…show more content…
The majority, seventy-two percent, of minimum wage workers are aged twenty or older. The remaining Sixty percent of all minimum wage workers are women, and a combined thirty-three percent of minimum wage workers are either African-American or Hispanic. Nearly forty percent of these workers are the sole source of income in their household. Earning less than $11,000 a year is well below the poverty level for a two-person household. Clearly, the people that would be affected by an increase in minimum wage are the people already in poverty, and the increase would help them to climb out of…show more content…
Analysts estimate that an increase in minimum wage would add up to an extra $20 billion to the incomes of minimum wage workers. This increased income will help them climb out of poverty, and let them spend more. A higher wage helps expand “the pool of potential workers, improves the morale of current workers, reduces turnover, and helps strengthen productivity, thereby offsetting the cost of the higher compensation” (Ginsburg). In 1998, President Clinton realized the need to increase the minimum wage saying, “In an economy that honors opportunity, all Americans must be able to reap the rewards of prosperity. Because these times are good, we can afford to take one simple, sensible step to help millions of workers struggling to provide for their families. We should raise the minimum wage.” Even with the President Clinton’s support, there has yet to be an increase in the minimum wage. This has been a major folly in recent

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