Minimum Wage does not need to be raised

It seems that every time I watch the news there is always a story on how people are protesting for a higher minimum wage. This angers me because this is that last thing your economy need. Let me start by addressing the "but people cant live off of minimum wage" mentality. Minimum wage is not meant to be a living wage, jobs that pay minimum wage are meant for teen ages and college students, not people trying to support a family of five.

Raising minimum wage hurts the economy in the long run, because if producers have to pay their workers more, then they will raise prices. This does not only balance out the raise in minimum wage, but it hurts people with fixed wages because their wages remain the same while prices rise.

One big misconception about raising minimum is that it will tackle corporate greed, but it actually attacks small businesses. Big corporations can afford to lay off employees or cut them to part time positions. Small business cant do this because they have less employees.

In the end with out government intervention minimum wage will correct its self because, companies will always be looking for the best employees. An example is Target and Walmart, Walmart raised their minimum wage to attack the best employees from other companies, as a result Target also had to raise its minimum wage so they did not lose all of their employees to Walmart.

Unfortunately you are wrong about the minimum wage and living wage being different. The point of the minimum wage when it was established in 1938 was to provide a basic living standard. (Exert from US Department of Labor) On Saturday, June 25, 1938, to avoid pocket vetoes 9 days after Congress had adjourned, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills. Among these bills was a landmark law in the Nation's social and economic development -- Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Against a history of judicial opposition, the depression-born FLSA had survived, not unscathed, more than a year of Congressional altercation. In its final form, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented only about one-fifth of the labor force. In these industries, it banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and the maximum workweek at 44 hours.1
Forty years later, a distinguished news commentator asked incredulously: "My God! 25 cents an hour! Why all the fuss?" President Roosevelt expressed a similar sentiment in a "fireside chat" the night before the signing. He warned: "Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry."2 In light of the social legislation of 1978, Americans today may be astonished that a law with such moderate standards could have been thought so revolutionary.

Translation, the entire point and purpose of the minimum wage when it was first established was to allow any individual regardless of age the ability to live on it. The media and corporations have begun to ridicule and downgrade this viewpoint in order to make their own profits skyrocket needlessly. Furthermore, it is far cheaper to outsource a basic job (such as a Walmart clerk) to an illegal immigrant. Also, the corporation takes a massive tax cut as a result by stashing 3/4 of their yearly income within foreign banks. This enables them to take massive tax cuts being their money is not even in the united states.

With all respect to Walmart's increase in minimum wage, the amount that it has raised to is only $10 an hour, starting june 2016 (New york Times/Dailynews/Walmart). Realistically, this amount no matter what state you are in does not allow you a living wage. In addition to this level of "generosity", Walmart refuses to allow any of it's members to organize in any form of a union.

Citing 2015, 5 Walmart stores closed the same month for the exact same reason across the country, citing "plumbing issues" for the cause of closure. The workers had 2 hours notice and were promptly informed they could not return to work for 6 months, but would receive paid time off for 2. The coincidence of this matter is that all 5 stories had unions organized within them for workers bargaining for better work ethic and higher wages for living standards.

Target is little better in it's treatment of employees, (Citing Glassdoor, prefered salary site for major coroprations), the average employee makes between $8.90-9.50 an hour. Once you make it up to management positions, the number changes up to $15.00 an hour. In fact, Target has several training videos it provides to it's employees as a scare tactic for anti union concepts, citing "unions are a business and they are bad." Unfortunately these two corporations are considered the worst companys to work for overall and are staunchly against any organization that will help defend it's workers.

I agree, I think you should provide evidence for your argument to strengthen it. When you explain the increase of minimum wage on how it impacts the economy in the long run I think you should expand. Your introduction is well written and your argument overall is short and gets straight to the point.

i kindly completely disagree with you. The minimum wage should be way higher then it is today. You claim that it is only for college and teenagers. But college costs a lot of money and since the minimum wage is so low a lot of college students have to get two jobs to pay off some of the debt. through the economic point of view, the productivity of this country has increasingly gone up therefore the minimum wage should go up as well. this article will give you more information on my point of view.
the huffington post. / minimum wage productivity

I can just agree with the previous comments. I always thought that the minimum wage got implemented to enable people to live with the money they earn even in bad paid jobs. I can also not agree with the statement that minimum wage jobs are only for college student and teen ages. I am sure that in our economy exist far more minimum wage jobs than college students can take! The minimum wage is created to support the working people and it is clear that with a growing economy also the living wages rise what causes a need of a higher minimum wage to enable them still to live with this amount of money.

I disagree with you. I think minimum wage should be increased because students usually require to work more more hours to pay their college fees. This reduces the amount of time that they can put in their studies. Many people also rely on minimum wage to fulfill the needs of their family as they are not qualified to work in job with high pay.

I also disagree with what you are saying in your argument. Minimum wage is not always aimed on jobs for young adults, but rather older people as well. At times, McDonald's, restaurants or other places that  pay minimum wage are the option people have to work and receive income. It is not the ideal situation, but many have to take what they can get. I did some research and if you look for the article titled, "Why the Minimum Wage Should Really Be Raised to $15 an Hour" by Robert Reich you will be able to find reasons why minimum wage should be lifted. I also feel you should have had some evidence that you have in arguing with this rather then just stating your opinion.

Hello!
I agree with the author here. I also believe minimum wage should no be raised. While minimitable wage is a mere $8.50 an hour, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only a total of 3.6 million Americans in the Labor Force are making wages at or below the federal minimum wage. That 3.6 million Americans doesn't even make up 5% of the total labor force.

Let's say 2 employees work 30 hours each at the $8.50 an hour rate. Those two employees make $510 combined ($255 Each) a week before taxes. Raise the minimum wage rate to $15 an hour, and the employee that was once making $255 a week now makes $450 a week before taxes. That LONE employee is now making nearly the equivalent what 2 employees once made before the minimum wage rate went up. Businesses aren't going to be able to afford to pay all of their employees the new rate, and odds are people are going to lose jobs through layoffs.

The rise in the new minimum wage will also prevent the hiring of new employees - fewer businesses will be willing to hire employees simply because they can't afford them.

If the company is going to support the new wages of their employees they're going to have to raise the prices of their goods and services, potentially harming business. With the increase of the minimum wage the price of goods and services will rise, causing for the value of the dollar to fall - inflation. A set amount of currency now buys less than what it used to before.

While it once was intended to provide a basic standard of living, as unfortunate as it is today the minimum wage is simply a starting wage.

I'm definitely going to have to disagree with what you are saying. The minimum wage should be raised and for exactly the opposite of what you are saying. Many of the jobs that are paying minimum wage are jobs that are not going to disappear anytime soon. For example, fast food restaurants and retail jobs are always in demand in every part of the country.

The minimum wage of NM is 8.50 which is an amount no one can live off of by themselves. If you were to work 40 hour work weeks (full-time) you can't make more than $340 a week before taxes, which is $1,340 a month which after taxes is more like $900. You mentioned that many minimum wage jobs are for high school and college students. This is exactly why many students mess up early on in life because it is actually really hard for someone to go to school full time while working full time. Either the student chooses to drop out and take time off from school or they don't get the grades they want or need. It is easy to say the minimum wage is high enough for young adults but that is only if you have help from parents but keep in mind that isn't always the case for everyone.

According to the National Employment Law Project, nearly 40% of Americans make less than $15 dollars. That is almost double our minimum wage which make it sound like a lot, however, let's break it down a bit. Working full time for an entire year off of that wage only earns you $30,000 for the entire year. Many people have a hard time getting by with that, yet you think it is okay for people to be making almost half of that?