In the United States, The proposal for raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars has begun to gain momentum and is already being implemented in some areas of the country. The reason for a minimum wage is to make sure business owners pay their employees a decent wage, but in fact its main purpose is simply to fight against poverty. Raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars would have economic backlashes that would only increase the rate of poverty, lead to unemployment, and an increase the prices of consumer products. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the minimum wage act in 1938 to help the economy recover in response to the great depression. America was in the worst economic condition it has ever endured and many new programs were being constructed to battle the hardships. With the crash of the stock market in 1929, everyone pulled out their money from stocks and from this business took a hard hit. Business’s couldn’t afford to keep all their employees and the ones that were left weren’t able to earn enough to even put food on the table. “The first minimum wage was $0.25 per hour (equivalent to $4.18 today)” (Patton). The minimum wage started off as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act which includes things youth employment, overtime pay, and record keeping. It was started as a way to get more money back in the hands of citizens, which they could in return invest back in the economy by purchasing more and giving business’s more profits which they could use to hire more people.

Over the time since the minimum wage has been enacted in the United States, it has been raised twenty-two times. Each time it has been raised was to compensate for the growing inflation of the economy. Over time the cost of living grows. From this more money must be put towards the minimum wage so it can still serve the purpose it was created for; to fight against poverty. However raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars in our current economy would be detrimental. That is too big of jump from what it currently is and the effects of raising the minimum wage that much will have more negative consequences that it would have benefits.      If the minimum wage is increased to 15$ an hour federally business’s will have to make accommodations to keep a profit. Business’s will be forced to raise the prices on their goods and services. After the price increase on minimum wage jobs consumers who usually attend these establishments, will likely attend them less frequently, resulting in less revenue. From here to make up for the loss in revenue, business’s will be forced to reduce the number of employees they can take on. Now businesses are taking losses in profits, consumers are paying more for their goods, and more people are out of work earning nothing versus the lower wage they once were making. All around it would be a negative consequence to increase the minimum wage to more than double what it is now. “A study by economists David Neumark and William Wascher found that while some poor workers who kept their jobs after minimum wage increases were lifted out of poverty, others lost their jobs and fell into poverty” (Edwards). Raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars sounds nice and would indeed help employees greatly by having double the money they were once making. However, in order to be able to pay those employees fifteen dollars an hour means that businesses won’t be able to afford to pay the same number of employees so now there is some people making double the money while others are left with nothing. 

This spike in the minimum wage is already happening in certain areas of the country in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Here in these more liberal cities the idea was to put more money in the hands of these low level employees so that they could have a higher standard of living. They believed that by putting more money in the hands of people that by them spending this extra money in their local economy, things would balance out. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. “While major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle have already adopted similar wage increases, data actually suggests that there has been a negative economic impact”(Lindner).These affects are mostly job loss in the minimum wage sector. It is because the business’s are now having to pay their workers double what they were, it’s as if they hired twice as many people, while still having the same number of employees to delegate all of their same responsibilities to.

After paying for the rent of the building, food, and paying workers the average McDonalds only take in about six cents of profit for every dollar they make. (Forbes) Companies simply cannot afford to keep paying all their workers if they are forced to double their pay. This means cut backs and layoffs for many workers. Now instead of these fast food restaurants being beginner level jobs for teenagers, and part time jobs for college kids trying to earn some spending money, they will be viewed as a stopping point. Once minimum skilled jobs are paid such a high wage, what motivation is there to pursue other employment further than fast food.

In today’s society, minimum wage jobs are not intended to be jobs that supports entire families. They are minimum skilled jobs. Minimum wage jobs, like fast food restaurants, do not require any serious skill sets. They are simple and easily managed jobs. Jobs perfect for young people trying to get job experience, and also for students to earn some pocket money while they’re still in school. The idea is that these people will not be at these jobs for very long because they will either go to college and earn a degree, or enter in different areas of the workforce learning new skills and becoming productive members of society. “The core of the argument here is that the minimum wage is meant to be commensurate with the work skills, education and productivity — at that point in time — of people entering the workforce. The goal, then, is to get in at that wage, develop skills and quickly work your way out of minimum wage and up the pay scale” (Huppke). These jobs are starting steps. These are not the jobs that America holds to a high status and to reward these low skilled jobs with fifteen dollars an hour is saying it’s okay to do the bare minimum. Too often now we are afraid to say the tough things that must be said for fear of harsh rebuttal, but fast food jobs and others that pay minimum wage, pay that little for a reason. As Allen Sanderson says “I want people to have more command in the workplace, and I want them to have much more than $7.25 an hour. I just don't want McDonald's to be the place where they can make that"(Huppke). As Americans, it is not fair to tell our youth that McDonalds is an okay stopping point in your career. We should not be rewarding this group with a wage that exceeds the pay of more important jobs.

It comes down to politics and how America is going to deal with the problem of poverty. Through debates it is clear that this issue is very divided, but also its divided by political groups. Most democratic voters tend to lean for fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage, while most republican and independent voters lean towards denying the minimum wage to be increased that much. Overall, 52% of people favored increasing the federal minimum to fifteen dollars an hour, but that idea was favored by just 21% of Trump supporters, versus 82% of Clinton backers” (DeSilver). A federal minimum wage is a socialistic program so it only makes sense that it would receive most of its support for an increase in the democratic party. It also makes sense that it would receive a great deal of opposition from the conservative party. 

This topic is talked about too politically. It is talked about mostly as an issue of what is fair. Politicians and public activist play on people’s emotions too strongly when debating a fifteen-dollar minimum wage. Instead of looking at the numbers and how raising the minimum wage would affect other aspects of the economy, advocates of the raise only see the surface level of the issue. In a study, members of congress were asked to step into the shoes of those who were trying to live off minimum wage jobs. “Today we are issuing a challenge to those in congress who oppose raising the minimum wage: Step into the shoes of a minimum wage worker and live the wage for one week” (Thurber). The author of this article took the challenge herself with her and her husband and were able to make it through the week. They said it was difficult and they did use some of their food they had saved up in their pantry. The responses to her and her husband completing the challenge were harsh, but really they just distort further conversation for how to actually make the situation better and improve it. “Since we weren’t starving or suffering, we failed the challenge. And for doing so, we were mocked, ridiculed and verbally attacked. People who didn’t know me said I lacked compassion. They called me a right-wing yuppie and accused us of driving new foreign hybrid cars. They said I was mocking the poor. (Thurber) 

This is when topics of debate become to personal and too emotionally attached to see the bigger picture. Proponents for fifteen dollars argue on emotions. They will argue that it isn’t fair to keep people working full time jobs to still stay below the poverty level. They say that minimum wage jobs aren’t enough to support a family and take care of all their needs. Of course, supporting a family on minimum wage would be an incredibly difficult and disciplined thing to do. There is no arguing that. However, most Americans are not supporting families off of these jobs. “Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau show that most minimum-wage earners are young, part-time workers and that relatively few of them live below the poverty line” (Sherk). Most people working these jobs are not supporting families and do not live below the poverty line. “Only 22 percent live at or below the poverty line, while 68 percent enjoy family incomes over 150 percent of the poverty line, which is $33,500 for a family of four” (Sherk)

For the ones that do find themselves in a situation where they are trying to take care of their families and themselves and are stuck in a minimum wage job, there are safety nets available from the government already to help them through the tough times. Welfare programs, tax breaks, and other resources are available to those who seek to move up the economic ladder and create a better future for themselves, rather than crawling through the system and not making any changes.

It is understandable that not everyone is perfect and people will make mistakes. Some people are given better opportunities than others. Some people are born into better situations, where employment and education are better and come easier than other areas. It is important to remember that on both sides of the debate, everyone still wants what is best for the country and for the people in it. That is why it is so important to fully understand how much worse things will be if a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage is enacted federally. That only deals with the problem on a very immediate level and cannot possibly be a long term solution to poverty in the United States, and will really do more damage than it will help in the long run. 

The minimum wage is not a bad thing. It keeps business from undermining their employees, and making sure all employees are paid a fair wage for the work they do. Its original purpose was to help fight against poverty during the great depression but now has evolved into something more. It has become something that people can depend on. At any job no matter what it is, you will be paid a decent wage for what you work. It has become a part of how America operates and is something we need to preserve. Raising it to fifteen dollars an hour on a federal level is not the way to do it though. It takes balance to keep the economy right. The minimum wage has been raised many times in respect to inflation and increase living cost, which is how it should be continued. Gradual, slow, and small increases to the minimum wage is what is going to keep it going.

Raising the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour would be an amazing thing for employees who work at these jobs. We do not live in a perfect world though. We start small and have to work hard in order to progress in our careers. Minimum wage jobs are not careers. They are just a stop on our way to something greater. If the federal minimum wage increases to fifteen dollars an hour, Business will have to increase the price of their products to be able to afford to pay their employees. Once their prices increase, people will visit their business’s left often and create less revenue. From here business’s will start laying people off and now more people will be out of work and poverty would become even worse than it is now.
