In the year of 2014, 1.3 million U.S. workers earned exactly the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, while another 1.7 million workers had wages below the federal minimum. As the presidential elections quickly approach one question appears to be very prevalent, "should minimum wage be raised and exactly how high?" (Krueger). Some say by a dollar or two, meanwhile others say as much as $15.00 which double the current wage. As a teenager who has made minimum wage and struggled to pay bills with what was given, this topic is very important to me. Not only has the low minimum wage level affected me, but it has also effected many teens and adults like myself who have minimum wage jobs. Poverty levels are rising every day and I think a raise in minimum wage would decrease this number. My friend, who is a single mother, is a great example of how this governments' selfishness has caused many single mothers to live in poverty, unable to properly provide for their children. As a front row witness to the effects of minimum wage, I think this country deserves a raise so that we can all rise and become successful together. 

According to Alan B. Krueger of the New York Times, raising the minimum wage would help more than hurt low-wage workers, however a wage as high as $15 will hurt us as a country more than help. In his article titled "The Minimum Wage: How Much Is Too Much?" he goes into detail describing how 60% of the US states have begun leaving behind Congress and raising their own individual minimum wage. Krueger goes even further to state that as an economist, he has found through his research that the argument of raising minimum wage decreases jobs is untrue. If minimum wage is set at a reasonable amount then the outcome will not be that we lose jobs but employers may even be able to fill in their vacancies. His overall argument is that if minimum wage is set at a reasonable amount, it will have little or even no effect on employment levels which is the argument most people against minimum wage raises make. (Krueger).

However, Noah Smith, assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University and a freelance writer for a number of finance and business publications, feels differently about the issue. He believes that many democrats and liberals believe republicans and conservatives only refuse to raise minimum because it will hurt the rich, however the truth is that it will actually hurt the poor. He believes that the suggestion of raising it to $15 may be damaging to the economy because it will eliminate jobs, however the only way to tell is to experiment with it. Smith also argues that if the economy does actually fall after raising the wage, the government would not be able to tell if that was the sole cause because so many things are happening in the economy. Smith believes that minimum wage should be $15 locally, but never federally, otherwise we are taking a big risk. (Smith).

Another opinion about this issue comes from Jonathon M. Trugman, a writer and economist for the New York Post. He believes that minimum wage workers are underpaid and they do deserve more. However, he believes that the concept of a fifteen dollar raise is too high and will put many people out of a job. He also puts in statistics that say that as many as 6.6 million people will lose their job if the fifteen dollar raise is put into place. Trugman believes that the solution to the issue of underpaid workers is not to raise minimum age but to lower taxes. He believes that the amount of funds taken away from citizens for taxes exceeds normal and is the reason for poverty in the US. (Trugman).

Overall, minimum wage is an issue that holds many stakeholders which is why the issue is so argumentative. This is the year of the presidential election and people have questions that need to be answered about the issue. There are so many different opinions regarding what we should do, including the views I have previously discussed. However, there seems to be no right or wrong answer, just a matter of what will best suit our countries people and economy as well. All of my sources seem to share the common agreement that fifteen dollars is too high and will damage rather than repair workers. Their arguments make me question the whether the fifteen dollars may actually be excessive. Not only will I need to answer the question of should it be raised but also I need to decide what price is actually reasonable. Raising minimum wage can either make or break our country. Our next move has to be the right one which is why we need to be careful on what decision we make. 

