Liana Matute

Mr. Farrell

ELA

7 December 2015

Should the Minimum Wage of NYC be raised?

Why do numerous people of today’s society believe that working at McDonald’s or Burger King is

something humorous, and something that we should ridicule people about? Sometimes working at low-paying

jobs at fast food restaurants is the only choice a person has. Not everyone has the ability to go to college, get a

career, and earn enough money to survive life’s obstacles. As stated in nationalhomeless.org, “Poor people are

frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education… If you are poor, you are

essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets. In 2007, 12.5% of the U.S.

population, or 37,300,00 million people, lived in poverty.” How do you feel living in a nation, in a city, in

which people suffer everyday in order to provide food, clothes, and a home for themselves and their family? It

isn’t a joyful feeling to know that a vast amount of people in our city are working desperately everyday and can

not afford the basic necessities that every person should have access to. “And right now, a full-time minimum

wage worker makes $14,500 a year, which leaves too many families struggling to make ends meet.” states

https://www.whitehouse.gov/raise-the-wage.

In 2012, “hundreds of workers at dozens of fast-food chain stores are walking out on strike, demanding

better of those jobs.” states theatlantic.com. “They want a raise, to $15-an-hour from their current near-

minimum wage pay, and recognition for their independent union, the Fast Food Workers Committee…”

Saavedra Jantuah, who worked at a Burger King in Manhattan, expressed that the $7.30 she earned per hour

after two years on the job wasn’t enough to support her son. “I’m doing it for him,” she claims. “I’m going on a
strike so I can bring my family together underneath one household.” Although this occurred about two years

ago, the inadequate amount of $8.75 is still a substantial complication to this day. In order to help workers and

their families get passed this barrier, we must do something. A low minimum wage that doesn’t support

families, can lead to unequal educational opportunities, and even homelessness. “Corruption and poverty often

hinder educational opportunities… poor families simply do not have the financial means to pay for school

tuition, books, or school uniforms.” states http://www.dw.com/en/what-does-educational-equality-mean-

anyway/a-15927951.

It is exceedingly unreasonable for families that work long hours to be paid insufficiently. We must raise

awareness. USA Today (http://bcove.me/7ufuxdjm) communicates that New York is the state with the highest

poverty rate, with a percentage of 15.9, it is the state with the widest gap between rich and poor. We cannot

continue to ignore this income inequality. According to http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-

estate/impossible-afford-nyc-rents-minimum-wage-article-1.2352294, “Rent is considered affordable if it

doesn’t exceed 40% of income — but good luck finding an apartment on those terms: In Manhattan, where the

median rent is $3,092, workers would have to make at least $44.60 an hour to reach that threshold. Even in the

other boroughs, where apartments tend to be less expensive, the numbers are still shocking: A worker would

need to earn $35.87 an hour to afford the median Brooklyn pad; $29.21 in Queens; $26.21 in Staten Island, and

$21.26 in the Bronx.” We need to everything we are able to, in order to raise the minimum wage, and save

many families from poverty. Signing petitions, joining protests, taking part in industrial actions- every action

counts. How are workers expected to afford living in New York with a minimum wage of $8.75? We must not

ignore this difficulty. We must not let this barrier be the cause of families not being able to receive the same

opportunities as everyone else. We must not let this problem tear families apart, causing them to live on the

streets. We must not let New York be torn apart because of $8.75 an hour.

TASK RUBRIC
 Learning 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0
Goals

PROBLEM
FORMULATIO
N
(Not Graded):
Considers multiple
approaches to Students will select one of the following citizenship topics:
complex real-world
problems, and Should New York City’s minimum wage be raised?
generates a feasible How might New York City take care of its homeless population?
plan of action to
implement it (an How could New York City expand educational opportunities for young residents?
appropriate
approach), applying
prior knowledge and
discipline-specific
considerations.

RESEARCH:
Collects information I can I can attempt to
and data necessary demonstrate I can attempt to demonstrate
to solve the problem With help, I can Even with help, I
ethos through a demonstrate ethos by
as formulated, attempt to cannot
personal ethos by linking identifying
drawing evidence demonstrate demonstrate
from informational investigation of my injustice to credible
ethos. ethos.
texts, conducting my selected audience values. evidence related
an investigation, or injustice. to my topic.
generating data.

INTERPRETAT I can
ION: demonstrate I can I can attempt to
Looks for patterns logos by demonstrate demonstrate
With help, I can Even with help, I
and relationships as developing an logos by logos by clearly
the basis for attempt to cannot
evidence-based clarifying the describing why I
developing demonstrate demonstrate
explanations strategy to relationship believe my
logos. logos.
relevant to the address my between my injustice is a
problem and its selected ideas. problem.
solution. injustice.

I can
demonstrate
COMMUNICATI I can
pathos through I can attempt to
ON: demonstrate
the use of demonstrate
Incorporates ideas pathos through With help, I can Even with help, I
and supporting rhetorical pathos through
the use of attempt to cannot
evidence devices the use of
rhetorical demonstrate demonstrate
purposefully using (anecdotes, emotionally-
structures that devices such as pathos. pathos.
allusions) that charged
demonstrate the line repetition and
of reasoning. connect to the language.
parallelism.
specific
audience.

PRECISION: I can write,

Assures that the I can write and
revise, and I can draft an
final product meets revise an original With help, I can Even with help, I
all discipline-specific deliver an original speech,
speech, write and revise cannot write or
standards for original speech, attending to
language, terms, attending to all an original revise an original
attending to all some aspects of
expressions, rules, aspects of the speech. speech.
aspects of the the task.
terminology, and task.
conventions. task.

Proper online submission of this assignment is also evidence of sufficient progress toward ELA-Literacy Standard W.9-10.6:
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage
of
technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.