Minimum_Wage

Minimum Wage COM /220 August 18, 2010 Minimum Wage a poor Persons prison Minimum wage must be raised. The cost of living has gone up tremendous and People should not have to fight for a decent pay. Minimum wage is the least amount of money a company can pay an individual. The minimum wage is set by either state government or federal government. Companies should be forced to pay workers a decent salary instead of keeping all the profits. In the United States minimum wage is at record low. Even with increases, inflation is one of the main reasons workers is being paid less. Raising a family on minimum wage is impossible. A family living on minimum wage can barely afford clothing, food and shelter for one’s family. An increase in minimum wage would raise the salaries of many workers and ensure their children would not be raised in poverty. While increasing the minimum wage may have may have a negative effect on the economy, not increasing minimum wage will keep people struggling to meet their basic needs. According to The United States Department of Labor Year. “The Fair Labor Standard Act was enacted in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The act applied to companies whose employment represented one fifth of the labor force. It banned the use of child labor and set the minimum age at .25 cents for a maximum workweek of 44 hours. Below is a map of the states with federal minimum wage as described by states.” [pic]    | |States with minimum wage rates higher than the Federal |  |States with no minimum wage law | | |States with minimum wage rates the same as the Federal |  |States with minimum wage rates lower than the Federal | | |American Samoa has special minimum wage rates |  | “People who make minimum wage spend less on basic needs. Working parents who make $5 OR $6 dollars and hour cannot make enough to meet their families’ needs even with full- time work” (Duffy, 2000, p.). Individuals, who earn minimum wage, spend less than the average household but the minimum wage household spends higher than average total spending because necessity rather than impulse dictates ones purchase behavior. The working poor save their income by buying clothing from secondhand stores. The working poor make do with everything from used clothing, vehicles, and rented homes (Mergenhagen, 1996). Out- of- pocket health care cost adds up a higher share of total spending for minimum wage workers. One reason out- of- pocket health care cost takes up a share of one’s income because the older poor have greater expenses and the working poor are underinsured (Mergenhagen, 1996). Individuals that constitute the working poor are employees who work for low wages without health care, pensions, and sick days. When paychecks fall short minimum wage workers have turned to food banks and homeless shelters. Children who live in working poor families face challenges. They often do not have health insurance because they are not poor enough to receive Medicaid but their parents have full- time employment. More than half of the increase in child poverty is accounted by children living in families where one parent worked more than 50 or more weeks during the year (O'Hare, & Schwartz., 1997). Only ten percent is accounted for by families completely dependent on public assistance (O'Hare, & Schwartz., 1997). One may say the large increase in child poverty is due to the increase in the difficulty to one finding a job than dependency on public assistance. A study was done and research says 26% of children in working poor families lacked health insurance, compared to 18% of children in families with nonworking parents (O'Hare, & Schwartz., 1997). Minimum wage does not cover necessities and people should not have to decide among eating, heating, and health care, childcare. According to the Economic Institute for a family of four living in Baltimore the budget breaks down as follows. $500 dollars for meals prepared at home (Duffy, 2000, p.). Housing one pays $628 dollars for a two- bedroom apartment (Duffy, 2000, p.). Health care for a family of four is $268 dollars without health care from one’s employer (Duffy, 2000, p.). Transportation and miles driven to work is $222 dollars (Duffy, 2000, p.). A childcare expense for a family of four is $628 dollars in a child approved center (Duffy, 2000, p.). Personal items, telephone, and household items are $338 dollars (Duffy, 2000, p.). A family of four pays $313 dollars in federal, state, and local taxes (Duffy, 2000, p.). These figures do not included restaurant meals, vacation, movies, savings, education, and retirement. A grand total annual income for a family of four living in Baltimore is 34,732.28 (Duffy, 2000, p.). “An individual who earns 5:15an hour and works 52 weeks makes 10,712 a year. This is 32% below the 2005 federal poverty line for a family of three.”According to Copadis (2007) (p). |The 2009 Poverty Guidelines for the | |48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia | |Persons in family |Poverty guideline | |1 |$10,830 | |2 |14,570 | |3 |18,310 | The above is the poverty lines in 2009 from the Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). “We have gone so far backward that one out of four workers makes the $9-and-change-equivalent of the minimum wage of 1968. This includes nearly one out of three Women workers, one out of three Black workers and more than one out of three Latino workers. We are living the American dream in reverse. The minimum wage reached its peak in 1968. It would take nine dollars to match the minimum wage peak of 1968. The cost of housing, health care, and education have all risen since then but the minimum wage has 43% less buying power than in 1968” (Sklar & Sherry, 2005, p. ) Over the last decade there was a rise in income disparities and wealth in the United States. Income inequalities has sky rocketed. The well off has become better off in the United States and middle and lower class struggle to find their place. The shift in income inequality is because of power relationships and policy which favors the rich. Capital has grabbed power from labor and corporations have taken power from society. One way to place a bottom on downward minimum wage is to maintain the minimum wage (Kallen, 2003). Because minimum wage is set periodically not in conjunction to inflation, it is always losing value. One way to keep a respectable minimum wage is to tie it to inflation so it rises with the cost of living (Kallen, 2003). There is a debate in the United States in which employers should be forced to pay employees a just minimum wage. Some individual say raising the minimum wage is counterproductive to the economy. The price of goods increases the demand decreases thus the price of labor goes up because of minimun wage and an employer cannot hire and will be forced to lay off workers (Balkin, 2001). Increasing minimum wage can lead to higher unemployment, lower productivity, and eventually inflation (Balkin, 2001). Lower income families may bear the burden of a minimum wage increase because business may be forced to raise prices. Business may have to cuts employees hours to make up for the higher labor cost. Also one can say increasing minimum wage will have unintended consequences such as the lower wage worker may bear the brunt of the increase because employers faced with higher labor cost will seek out workers with a higher skill level and higher productivity and the minimum wage worker may fall by the wayside and have to compete for low wage jobs. Others say raising the minimum wage will help the economy by increasing consumer spending. If the low wage worker has more to spend this is good for the economy in a recession. Boosting the minimum wage is the same as giving a pay raise for 10 million Americans ("Raise the Minimum Wage'," 1996). People who earn low wages will gain $1800 dollars in additional salaries this adds up to seven months of groceries and nine months of utility bills for a family who earns minimum wage ("Raise the Minimum Wage'," 1996). Increasing minimum wage can be good for business by decreasing employees turnover as a result of this one will find a decrease in recruitment and decreased training cost. Also business will gain from reduced employee absenteeism and an increase in moral all of this increases productivity (Copadis, 2007). The minimum wage increase may not seem like much to some but for single families raising ones children this is the difference between being able to by new toys instead of hand me down toys from neighbors (O'Hare, & Schwartz., 1997). Though the earnings of most workers increase as they grow older prospects for advancement for those who earn minimum wage is not as bright. The reality is a low wage earner must work to survive and must accept whatever wages employers pay. Employers should not be allowed to make big profits by exploiting the lack of negotiating powers of the minimum wage worker. At a time when many Americans are concerned with the gap between the haves and the have not’s an increase in minimum wage plays to a person’s sense of fairness. Raising the minimum wage will reduce income disparities and will outweigh any job losses and price increases. Minimum wage earners work hard yet their jobs fail to provide a decent life. Not increasing minimum wage leaves individuals and their families in poverty. Not increasing minimum wage will leave individuals struggling to meet their basic needs. Minimum wage earners work jobs with the fewest benefits and are their jobs are hard. The American dream is if one works hard one can provide enough to support a family this does not happen for the minimum wage earner. When minimum wage is not increased people are stuck in jobs that provide no training, promotions, flextime, and no job security. The question maybe is does one live in a just society where people who work hard deserve a living wage for their efforts' and the criteria for this wage is the minimal substance. References Copadis, G. N. (2007 Jan 19). Employees, employers gain from minimum wage hike.(Department of Labor). New Hampshire Business Week, 29(2), 21. Duffy, M. P. (2000, Month Day). Parents Labor Below the Poverty Line: Low- Wage Earners: Trapped in Poverty. . Progessive Populist., p. . Mergenhagen, P. (1996). What Can Minimum Wage Buy' American Demographics (18th ed.). O'Hare, W., & Schwartz., J. ( 1997, Sep ). One step forward, two steps back. American Demographics, 19(9), 53 4. Sklar, H., & Sherry, P. (2005, Month Day). Raising the Minimum Wage Is Necessary to Combat Poverty. Friendship Press, p. . Kallen, S. A. (2003). Corporations Use Their Power to Benefit the Rich. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press. Raise the Minimum Wage' (1996 April 29). U.S. New & World Report, 120(17), 54. Balkin, K. (2001 August 20). Increasing the minimum Wage is Counterproductive (17th ed.). Detroit, MI: Insight on News Greenhaven Press.  The United States Department of Labor. (n.d.). The U.S Department of Labor of Labor. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov. United States Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). U.S. Depart. of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov