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Morgan Felix

English 15

07 December 2020

The Minimum Wage Debate

One of the most contentious issues in today’s society is the federal minimum wage. Many

people believe it should be raised while many people do not. The federal minimum wage should

be raised because it will boost the economy, improve the lives of low-wage workers and their

families, and help us move towards social equality. Many states have their own laws regarding

minimum wage, however the federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25/ hour. If it had kept

up with inflation since 1968, it would be close to $12/ hour today (Baker).

By raising the minimum wage, our economy would improve vastly. Our economy is in a

position now where it can afford to raise the minimum wage (Zipperer). Raising the minimum

wage is simply putting money right back into the pockets of the people who are more likely to

put their additional income back into the economy (Scott). Minimum wage workers are the ones

that rely on government-funded programs the most, so if their salary would be raised, the

programs would be able to be cut down drastically. “One study by the Economic Policy Institute

found that for every dollar the minimum wage is increased, spending on government assistance

DROPS by 5.2 BILLION dollars!” (Lartaud). In other words, raising the federal minimum wage

would ultimately make the government more money and save them money. The biggest

misconception is that businesses will not be able to afford the pay raise, but Martha White says

“A 10 percent increase in base pay is associated with a 1.5 percentage-point increase in the

likelihood that workers will remain with their current employer, which can translate to

significant cost savings for companies.” Raising the minimum wage, even by a little, will save
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money for companies and will ultimately give more money to the people who put it right back

into the economy.

If the minimum wage would be raised, low-wage workers would be able to afford a more

sustainable lifestyle and would be able to live more comfortably. Cory Ramsay is someone who

lived in poverty for her entire childhood. Her mother had a college diploma and was a pharmacy

technician, yet she only made $6.50/ hour. Cory said “During the school year, I was lucky if I ate

more than one meal a day.” There is a huge difference between the minimum wage and a living

wage. Minimum wage gives families enough money to maybe have two meals a day, if they are

lucky. Even if both parents are working a full-time minimum wage job, that still is not enough

money to cover their bills. Around 20.6 million people (all above the age of 18) are ‘near

minimum wage’ workers. The vast majority of these workers are restaurant and food service

workers (DeSilver). If the minimum wage were raised to just $12 last year, more than 6.2 million

people would have been able to get out of poverty (Zipperer). Rutger Bregman gave a TED Talk

about the misconceptions about poverty. He told the story about a town that increased their

minimum wage and completely eliminated poverty. Increasing the minimum wage encourages

people to stay in school and to stay with their jobs. The main reason that people jump from job to

job is to try and find one that pays more money, so if all jobs had a higher pay they would be

able to keep employees longer. It would also motivate people to want to get jobs since it would

be giving them more money. Benjamin Zipperer said “A $15 minimum wage by 2024 would

ensure that a portion of the country’s productivity gains are translated into higher living

standards for low wage workers.” By raising the minimum wage, it would give millions of

workers the opportunity to provide a better life for their families and would encourage them to

want to work.
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Increasing the minimum wage would help our society move closer to equality. In this day

and age, social equality is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, debates. Women and people of

color are among the ones that get hurt the most by the minimum wage. “In addition to being

older, low-wage workers are much more likely to be a woman or a person of color than the

average worker. As a result, our current national minimum wage of $7.25 hurts women as well as

black and Hispanic workers the most” (Zipperer). Even though women only make up 48% of the

workforce, they would be 56% of people that benefit from the wage increase. This is because

women get paid less than men, making them the majority of ‘low-wage workers’. In a study done

by David Autor, Alan Manning, and Christopher Smith, it shows that the failure to increase the

minimum wage has accounted for 48% of the increase in inequality between women at the

middle and bottom of the wage distribution since 1979. The main argument used when debating

the inequality between men and women is the pay gap, and this study proves that it is real. As

Ben Zipperer said, “Just as the minimum wage can be an important tool for reducing inequality

among women, increases in the minimum wage have led to large reductions in earnings

inequality between black and white workers.” This year has shown us that people are finally

starting to stand up for what they believe in, and a lot of it revolves around inequality. This year

has been full of protests and fighting, and just by increasing the minimum wage by even the

slightest bit, it would help unite us and bring us closer to equality.

There are many people that are against raising the minimum wage. They believe that it

will kill jobs and shut businesses down because nobody will be able to afford to pay their

workers that kind of money. Toggl.com says that it would also cause people to outsource jobs to

other countries with lower standards for minimum wage. This is true if they would raise the

minimum wage straight to $15. If it is done gradually, it will give businesses time to adjust. It is
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believed that small businesses are the ones that are most against this, but in a study done by the

American Sustainable Business Council, 60% of small business owners support raising the

minimum wage to $12 (Scott). J.B. Maverick says that another reason that we shouldn’t raise the

minimum wage is that it will cause inflation. It is true that businesses might have to increase

their price a little bit, but since people will be getting paid more, they will be able to afford these

prices and will be more willing to purchase things.

The subject of minimum wage has shaped our ideas of politics, economics, and social

views. There is and always will be a lot of debate over this matter. By raising the federal

minimum wage, our economy would be boosted, low-wage workers would have an improved

way of living, and we would move closer to social equality. There are a lot of benefits to doing

this. Even by raising our minimum wage by $2, which we can more than afford to do, millions of

lives across the country would be changed for the better.

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Works Cited

Baker, Dean. “If Worker Pay Had Kept Pace With Productivity Gains Since 1968, Today's

Minimum Wage Would Be $24 an Hour.” Common Dreams, 21 Jan. 2020,

www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/21/if-worker-pay-had-kept-pace-productivity-gains

-1968-todays-minimum-wage-would-be-24.

Bregman, Rutger. “Poverty Isn't a Lack of Character; It's a Lack of Cash.” TED, 2017,

www.ted.com/talks/rutger_bregman_poverty_isn_t_a_lack_of_character_it_s_a_lack_of_cash.

Silver, Drew. “5 Facts about the Minimum Wage.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center,

30 May 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage

Lartaud, Derek. “Should We Raise the Federal Minimum Wage?” KQED, KQED, 6 Dec. 2019,

www.kqed.org/education/532986/should-we-raise-the-federal-minimum-wage

Maverick, J.B. “What Are the Pros and Cons of Raising the Minimum Wage?”

Investopedia.com, Dot Dash, 1 Dec. 2020,

www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/090516/what-are-pros-and-cons-

raising-minimum-wage.asp.

“Poverty and the Power of the Living Wage.” Performance by Cori Ramsay, TedX Talk, 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAZqNtGmSBc

“Pros and Cons of Raising Minimum Wage.” Toggl, Toggl Track, 2017,

toggl.com/track/pros-and-cons-of-raising-minimum-wage/

Scott, Robert C. “Raising the Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Businesses, and the

Economy.” Edlabor.house.gov, 2019, edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/FactSheet-Raising

TheMinimumWageIsGoodForWorkers,Businesses,andTheEconomy-FINAL.pdf.

White, Martha C. “Increasing the Minimum Wage Would Help, Not Hurt, the Economy.”
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NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 23 Oct. 2020,

www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/increasing-minimum-wage-would-help-not-hurt-

economy-n1244586

Zipperer, Ben. “Gradually Raising the Minimum Wage to $15 Would Be Good for Workers,

Good for Businesses, and Good for the Economy: Testimony before the U.S. House of

Representatives Committee on Education and Labor.” Economic Policy Institute, Economic

Policy Institute, Feb. 2019, www.epi.org/publication/minimum-wage-testimony-feb-2019/.