So, what happened? Right now, America’s minimum wage is set at $7.25, which allows a full-time worker to make roughly $15,080 annually.That’s a few thousand over the poverty line for a family of one. Alright, that sounds good enough, doesn’t it? Well, not really. Think about it: the minimum wage is intended to keep full-time employees out of poverty, and, to be honest, it’s not doing such an amazing job. Despite the fact that over a quarter of the 15 million affected have children, the minimum wage falls short (annually) by $8,000 for families with two children, according to the Daily Beast. This hasn’t always been true though; the Economic Policy Institute reported that during the 1960s-1970s, “ a full-time, full-year minimum-wage income was above the poverty line for a family of two. At its high point in real value in the late 1960s, a full-time, full-year minimum-wage income was enough to keep a family of three above the poverty line”. Obviously, there’s an issue there; we’re failing not just the workers but also their children. It’s a no brainer that we’d like to help stop poverty, but one of the major issues is its cyclical effect. The Urban Institute's studies found that the longer an individual is in poverty as a child the less likely they are to hold down jobs as adults; they discovered that “persistently poor boys” are less than half as likely as their wealthier counterparts to have a steady job as adults. If we want to assuage the effects of poverty in our nation, we need to take care of these impoverished children and do anything we can to help. Despite the hellish futures opponents of a higher minimum wage depict, there will be no zombies or antichrists or vampires. Noam Scheiber, a senior editor at the New Republic, reports that a study conducted by David Card, an economics professor at the University of California who has won the IZA Labor Economics Award, the Frisch Medal, and the John Bates Clark Prize, and Alan Krueger, a Princeton professor who was formerly the Chief Economist at the US Department of Labor, found that when the minimum wage in New Jersey was enlarged there was no effect on unemployment. On a similar note, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that with the raise of the minimum wage to $10.10, our GDP would grow by $22 billion and 85,000 new jobs would be created. Maybe I’m interpreting this incorrectly, but I’m pretty sure $22 billion is a good thing. If that doesn’t change your mind, think of Australia’s minimum wage of $16.88- and the fact that they haven’t had a recession in 20 years. A popular stigma is that only wealthy teens from suburbia would be affected by an increase, but yet again, this is false. I’m sure that the 18 year old checkout girl would be happy to have her salary increase and so would the 88% of minimum wage earners that are over 20. The 17 year old delivering pizzas on weekends might be pleased and so would the 54% of minimum wage earners who work full time. A CEO’s 16 year old kid working at Rita’s would be excited and so would the 69% of minimum wage earners who are from families that earn less than 60,000. A majority of minimum wage earners depend on this income and to devalue their labor because teenagers benefit from it too is shameful. It’s not a difficult thought process: if you have a choice to help millions of people and create jobs for America, why not take it? Works Cited:Bureau of Labor Statistics , U.S. Department of Labor. Caracteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2012. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. <http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012.pdf>.
Cooper, David. “Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Lift Wages for Millions and Provide a Modest Economic Boost.” Economic Policy Institute. Economic Policy Institute, 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. <http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-federal-minimum-wage-to-1010/#_note1>. Matthews, Dylan. The U.S. has a $7.25 minimum wage. Australia’s is $16.88. The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/19/the-u-s-has-a-7-25-minimum-wage-australias-is-16-88/>. Raise the Minimum Wage. National Employment Law Project, n.d. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. <http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/facts/>. Ratcliffe, Caroline, and Signe-Mary McKernan. “Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences.” Urban Institute. Urban Institute, 14 June 2010. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. <http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412126-child-poverty-persistence.pdf>. Schieber, Noam. “Raising the Minimum Wage Isn’t Just Good Politics. It’s Good Economics, Too.” The New Republic. New Republic, n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2013. <http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116070/raising-minimum-wage-isnt-just-good-politics-its-good-economics>. Sessions, David. “Five Things You Didn’t Know About the Minimum Wage.” The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast Company LLC, 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/15/five-things-you-didn-t-know-about-the-minimum-wage.html>. “Trickle-up economics.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited, 16 Feb. 2013. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. <http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21571894-president-proposes-hefty-increase-minimum-wage-trickle-up-economics>. What are the annual earnings for a full-time minimum wage worker? UC Davis Center for Poverty Research. UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. <http://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-are-annual-earnings-full-time-minimum-wage-worker>.
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