Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jordan Moss Annotated Bibliography
Jordan Moss Annotated Bibliography
Jordan Moss
Professor Mitchell
25 September 2017
Annotated Bibliography
Rogan, Tom. Why We Shouldn't Raise the Minimum Wage. The Huffington Post,
shouldnt-raise-the_b_4688701.html.
This popular-type source is a blog post written by Tom Rogan for the Huffington Post.
In this post, Rogan discusses why he believes raising the minimum wage would not be a
good idea for the US economy. His first main point is that while supporters of a wage
increase claim there would be no effect on employment, as a study by David Card and Alan
Krueger suggests, a later study by David Neumark and William Wascher shows that a raise
in minimum wage does affect employment. Rogan says that theres strong evidence to
suggest that an increase in minimum wage has the largest effect on the employment of
younger Americans. According to Gary Becker and Richard Posner, minimum wage
increases can become a form of income segregation for the poor. Later in the post, Rogan
describes some alternative ways of increasing social mobility, like making sure people who
work in low-wage jobs have more opportunities for promotion. He also says the US needs
to provide more funding for programs that can teach skills to workers, and that the US
education system needs to be reformed so that less-wealthy counties can still have good
schools.
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This source was written by Tom Rogan, a political journalist who has written articles
for various news organizations, like Fox News, USA Today, The Guardian, and CNN. He
may have been slightly biased in his post, since some parts of it seemed to be opinion-
based, like when he was listing some ways of increasing social mobility besides raising
minimum wage. For the most part, he had sources for research he was referencing, which
gave him a bit of credibility. However, because hes a political journalist instead of an
economist, he may not be a totally credible source of information. He said that minimum
wage increases would affect employment, and to back up this statement, he used the
However, there have actually been many studies done over the last several decades to prove
that employment is in fact not affected by modest increases in minimum wage (other
sources in this bibliography prove this). Although, Rogan did make some interesting points.
I found it interesting how he tried to show that social mobility was at risk, and provide
opposing side, and helped me understand why some people may be against raising
minimum wage, even though it wasnt enough to change my stance on it. I will not be using
it in my research essay. Some parts of it, like the part about the effect on employment,
seemed like it may be factually inaccurate, possibly due to the fact that Rogan is not an
economist. Also, even though I liked the part where he discussed ways of increasing social
mobility, I dont currently see how that would fit into my essay.
Schmitt, John. Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?
Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2013, Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No
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02.pdf.
This source is an academic report done by John Schmitt for the Center for Economic
and Policy Research. In this report, Schmitt describes various research studies done by
economists since the late 1970s. Almost every one of the studies has found that when the
minimum wage is raised a modest amount, there is almost no effect on employment. There
were some studies that found otherwise, but the vast majority, no matter how the study was
conducted, found that minimum wage increases do not generally effect the employment
rate very much. However, it is difficult to come to this conclusion exactly because of how
employment rate could potentially go down a lot in just a few years, but it may not be
related to a minimum wage hike at all. Schmitt then tries to explain why these studies have
employers respond to a minimum wage increase in many different ways. They may cut
hours or employee benefits, or they may raise prices for customers. Some will even just
accept lower profits. Sometimes, the employees start working harder. Its been found that
some of the methods employers use reduce the benefit of the minimum wage, but most
John Schmitt is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Schmitt was very objective in his report. He didnt seem biased at all. The information
from this source is very reliable. There is a long list of references at the end, and the author
is an economist for a credible association. The source is a scholarly academic report. The
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purpose of it is to inform the reader of how minimum wage affects employment, and to
This source is very relevant to my research. It is a very helpful resource. When I first
began to research raising the minimum wage, the most common argument I saw against it
was that it would be bad for employment, and this source proves why that argument doesnt
really work. This source has helped form my opinion about my research by showing that
modest increases in minimum wage do not have a negative impact the US employment
rate. This source will definitely be appearing in my final research essay because it is a very
Spielberg, Ben. Think a $15 Minimum Wage Is Too High? Think Again. The Huffington Post,
minimum-wage-i_b_9062534.html.
This source is a blog post from Ben Spielberg for the Huffington Post. In this post,
Spielberg is commenting on another article, written by Jordan Weissmann for Slate, about
the New York Times editorial boards endorsement of a $15 federal minimum wage.
Weissmann felt that this is too high, and he wrote about why he thinks so. Spielberg wrote
in his post about why he believes Weissmann is wrong about the points he made in his
article. In his post, Spielberg says that the most-used argument against raising minimum
wage is that it would kill jobs. He then goes on to explain that this argument is incorrect,
based on a large amount of research conducted in the last twenty years. Most research
shows that there is little or no effect on employment. He says that while there are studies
that have found small effects, there are also theories that a raise in the minimum wage
would actually lead to an increase in employment. Spielberg also points out that research
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suggests corporate profits are near an all-time high, and thus most businesses that employ
low-wage workers would be able to absorb the cost of labor fairly easily, which would
mean they likely wouldnt need to fire employees or cut their hours by much. Spielberg
believes minimum wage needs to be raised to $15 an hour. He emphasizes the danger of
not raising the minimum wage high enough, saying it would lock in insufficient income
support for millions of low-wage workers who desperately need additional money.
This is a popular-type source is written by Ben Spielberg. His LinkedIn page says that
Services. He currently works as a Research Associate and Project Manager for the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, and he works with Jared Bernstein, the Chief Economist
to former Vice President Joe Biden. In his blog post, he seems fairly objective. He doesnt
seem biased, he just presents facts that explain why Weissmanns arguments against raising
minimum wage are not supported by research. Normally, a blog post wouldnt feel like a
credible source to use for a research essay, but given Spielbergs credentials and the fact
that he links to different sources that support his arguments, I think this source is suitably
credible for my essay. The purpose of Spielbergs blog post is to present information that
proves that the other articles claims are not supported by evidence, and to persuade the
reader that raising minimum wage to $15 would help Americans. The intended audience is
likely people who oppose raising minimum wage, since Spielberg seems to be proving why
This source was helpful for my research. It helped shape my argument by providing
evidence against some of the arguments people opposing a minimum wage increase often
use. I dont know for sure yet if it will appear in my final research essay. I like the points
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that Spielberg makes, and I especially like the quote, The minimum wage does not exist
in a vacuum; it is one policy among many that can be used to help low-wage workers. I
think this post could help me a lot in my research paper, so I will probably be using it.
Why America Needs a $15 Minimum Wage. Economic Policy Institute, 26 Apr. 2017,
www.epi.org/publication/why-america-needs-a-15-minimum-wage/.
This source is a fact sheet from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit
association that proposes public policies that would improve the economic conditions of
people in the US who work middle and low-income jobs. In this source, the EPI is
proposing the Raise the Wage Act of 2017. The plan they are suggesting is to raise the
federal minimum wage from where it currently is at $7.25 to $9.25 by the end of 2017.
Then, it would be gradually increased every year over the next seven years until it reaches
$15 an hour in the year 2024. Their plan is for the minimum wage to then be adjusted every
year to keep up with the growth of the typical workers wages. They believe the separate
minimum wage for tipped workers, which has been at $2.13 since 1991, should be
eliminated completely and they should receive the same minimum wage other workers do.
The EPI provides their arguments for why they believe this act should be adopted by the
US federal government, then presents statistics and facts as evidence to support them. One
of the main points they made is that the benefits of raising minimum wage to $15 by 2024
would far outweigh the costs. It would lift pay for 41 million workers across America,
which is nearly 30 percent of the workforce. Another point they made is that currently,
workers in many skilled, middle-class jobs can barely get by on a minimum wage that is
less than $15. They also said that employers who pay their employees low wages force
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their workers to turn to government programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, which
cost federal and state taxpayers more than $150 billion every year.
This source is from an associations website. The sources author is not listed on the
webpage, but they seem somewhat unbiased. They have taken a particular stance on raising
minimum wage, but they are able to back up all of their arguments with sources at the
bottom of the page, so this is likely a credible source with reliable information. This
webpage was written with the purpose of providing readers with data and statistics about
the issue of minimum wage and persuading them that the Act they were proposing to raise
This source was really helpful, and the information from it will be very important in my
research. I plan to write my research essay about how raising the federal minimum wage
in America would impact the economy, and whether or not it should be raised given the
effects it would have. This source fits in perfectly, because it provides facts that I can use
as evidence for why minimum wage should be raised. This source has affected how I
thought about my topic. When I first started my research, I was unbiased, and did not have
much of an idea of my stance on raising minimum wage. This source, and several others,
have led me to believe that the federal minimum wage should absolutely be raised. I think
I will most likely be using this source in my research essay, unless I do more research and
come across a better one. I like that this source is so heavily based on statistics.