Minimum Wage Essay Example for Free

Minimum Wage Essay The minimum wage is the lowest rate at which a worker can be played. There she minimum wage laws pegged to hourly, daily and even monthly rates, although U. S. law is pegged to an hourly wage. Also, a minimum wage law usually makes it illegal for a person to sell his labor for less than the minimum wage rate The general purpose of the minimum wage is to guarantee a living wage to all workers who work a standard period of time, whatever that might be. In theory, any labor who works 40 houses a week on minimum wage should be at or above the poverty level line. However, the minimum wage has not kept up pace with the inflation in the United States and the cost of living increases more than the wage increases that are given and that way behind the standards Minimum wage laws were first started in Australia and New Zealand in the 1890s. The first minimum wage to be law was in Massachusetts in the 1912 but it only applied to children and women. The federal minimum wage was established in 1938 by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Initially set at 25 cents an hour, the wage has been raised periodically to reflect changes in inflation and productivity. That the mimic wages often involve protracted political battles, Did you know that one in five Americans worked in the poverty levels by the guide lines of the federal government,† Paul Oysterman, an economist at the M. I. T. Sloan School of Management wrote in a recent New York Times editorial. He says the current minimum wage is lower, in inflation-adjusted terms, than it was in 1968. Currently, 6 percent of all hourly workers make no more than the federal minimum wage of $7. 25, TIME. com In theory it sounds like a good idea to give everybody a raise, but at what expense? By raising minimum wage it was supposed to make it where people would be able to support themselves and get off of government assistance. Well, they did get a raise and are still on government assist. So my question is: what do you think they should make to be able to totally take care of themselves and their family? Do you think raising minimum wage is the answer? Do you realize that the businesses must be able to meet a payroll? When you raise minimum wage it causes a business to have to raise their prices if all possible which in turns makes their customer base upset, which in turn could cause layoff and less businesses hiring, which in turn means the business will not be properly taken care of because you cannot afford to staff it properly because you cannot afford to pay the higher wages. I own a restaurant which hires people 16 years and older. Now when you hire a person in and they start off earning top wages and there is no bottom, then there is no reason from them to try and do better because you cannot afford to give them raises. I feel like the government is wanting business to be the new welfare system and we cannot afford to be. Please stop this and let the business decide how much an employee is worth. Minimum wage was created to be a starting point in people lives not a living. Our government doesnt want good paying jobs so they are trying to make minimum wage work for the people and it will not! Restaurants and other businesses that pay minimum wage are for a reason. We do not charge a lot for our products, therefore, we cannot afford to pay a lot for our help and you do not need a college education to work at a minimum wage job. Stop this before there are even fewer jobs. Right now I have to raise my prices due to Ohio raising their minimum wage again. Let me decide who gets the raise not the government! Twenty percent of those living on the minimum wage the last time it was raised in 1991 were in poverty, and an additional 13% were near poverty. In 1993, the President expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which raised income for 15 million families, helping many working families move above the poverty line. Yet to complete the goal of insuring that full-time working families are out of poverty, we need to raise the minimum wage. Recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute and preliminary work by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests that 300,000 people would be lifted out of poverty if the minimum wage was raised to $5. 15 per hour. This figure includes 100,000 children who are currently living in poverty. But the debate has been muddied by several myths that anti-minimum wage forces repeat at every opportunity. Myth: The only Americans working for the minimum wage are teenagers. Reality: 63 percent of minimum-wage workers are adults age 20 or over. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics) Myth: Minimum wage workers dont support families. Reality: The last time the federal minimum wage was increased, the average minimum wage worker brought home 51 percent of his or her familys weekly earnings. (Source: Analysis of Census Bureaus Current Population Survey by Professors David Card and Alan Krueger) Myth: Raising the minimum wage hurts the poor by causing job loss. Reality: Nearly 10 million working Americans would get a pay raise if the minimum wage is increased to $5. l5 per hour. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow said, [T]his evidence of job loss is weak. And the fact that the evidence is weak suggests that the impact on jobs is small. (Source: New York Times, January 12, 1995) Myth: The only study showing that raising the minimum wage does not cost jobs was a study funded by the U. S. Labor Department. Reality: One major study conducted in 1992 and financed by Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin was published by two Princeton University economists. One of those economists later joined the Labor Department. (Source: Washington Post, January 11, 1995) Furthermore, a similar conclusion has been reached by at least ten other independent studies. Myth: Raising the minimum wage will have a negligible impact on peoples lives. Reality: A 90-cent per hour increase in the minimum wage means an additional $l,800 for a minimum wage earner who works full-time, year round as much as the average family spends on groceries in more than 7 months. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics) Myth: Increasing the minimum wage has always been a bitter, partisan issue that only Democrats have supported. Reality: In 1989, the last time the minimum wage was increased, the House of Representatives vote in favor of the the current poverty line for a family of 4 is $15,600. A family of 4 with one worker earning $4. 5 an hour and working full-time year round ($8,500) would receive a tax credit of $3,400 under the 1996 provisions of the EITC, will collect food stamps worth $3,5l6, and will pay $650 in payroll taxes. This family would end up $834 below the poverty line. On the other hand, for a family of 4 with one worker earning $l0,300 (a full-time year round worker at $5. l5 per hour), the EITC would provide the maximum tax credit ($3,560), food stamps would provide $2,876, and they would pay $788 in payroll taxes. The increase in the minimum wage along with EITC and food stamps would lift this family out of poverty. Overtime Federal law requires that employees who are not exempt receive overtime pay for any time worked beyond forty hours in any one workweek. The rate of overtime pay is one and one-half times the employees regular rate of pay, and must be paid in wages, not in goods or time off. A workweek is defined as one period of 168 hours, or seven consecutive twenty-four hour periods. The workweek may start at any time, or on any day, as long as the starting day and time are applied consistently. Employees who are eligible for overtime pay may not waive their right to receive overtime