Minimum Wage Argument Analysis

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On April 4, 2016, Matt Zwolinski published his column, 3 Reasons why the Minimum Wage is a Bad Way to Help the Poor, on the domain Fee.org. Zwolinski provides three claims to bolster his argument: minimum wages target workers instead of the poor; minimum wages hurt marginalized groups; some minimum wages cause unemployment. I believe that research to support anything can be found if one looks hard enough, but that the fallacy of Zwolinski's claims are due to his lack of evidence of each of his claims. Based on some of my own personal research, I have found evidence that the raising of minimum wage is a good thing economically as well as in terms of the general welfare.

One of the longest standing arguments against the raising of the minimum
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In Zwolinski's column he states that, "Obviously, there’s some point at which a minimum wage is going to start causing unemployment – otherwise, why not set it at $100 an hour? And a lot of economists –even those who support a minimum wage in principle – believe that $15 crosses the line." Zwolinski is correct in a sense, but there is no evidence to back-up his claim that $15 does in fact cross the line. In fact, most areas that have raised the minimum wage have implemented it to where it is raised over a number of years to reach that $15 level. This means that companies will be allowed an adjusting period to where they have enough time to adjust their profits and expenses correctly in order to avoid having to fire workers. This, however, is an untested field all around, and only time will be able to provide any hard …show more content…
He states, "Minimum wage policies affect people wth traditional, wage-paying jobs. The problem with this is that the class of low-wage workers and the class of poor people only partially overlap. There are large segments of the poor that receive no direct benefit at all from the minimum wage – the unemployed, stay-at-home parents, Uber drivers and other “gig” employees, etc." The problem with this is that the idea of raising minimum wage is to help people with lower-class jobs be able to support their family efficiently, not to help the poor. Parents trying to support their kids are the main priority of raising minimum wage, and it would be effective in doing so. Moreover, the class of poor people would have more incentive to try and get jobs as wages would vastly out-do their current government