Raising Minimum Wage

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Many workers worldwide are stuck in low-income jobs that don’t pay enough to make ends meet. Even though minimum wage workers work full time, the current wage rate is often not enough to bring them above the poverty threshold. Over time a strategy needs to be created and implemented to create ways for minimum wage workers to move out of the low-wage economy. Until that occurs, an immediate boost can take place by raising the minimum wage from the current pay of $7.25 an hour. This most recent push to increase the minimum wage has been taking place among workers throughout the last few years, not only in the United States, but in more than 30 countries around the world. In the United States, workers are demanding an increase from $7.25 to of …show more content…
The United States is the richest country, and the most unequal in terms of income inequality; with only Chile, Mexico, and Turkey having higher rates (Sherman, 2015). By raising the minimum wage, the pay gap between higher and lower paid workers will begin to close by having a lower number of individuals living below the poverty threshold. Currently, Australia has the highest federal mandated minimum wage and falls into one of the top 10 countries with highest global wealth. In terms of income inequality, Australia has a rate of 8.8, compared to 18.8 held by the United States (Holodny, 2015). Using this data, it is shown that raising the minimum wage will have positive effects on income inequality and move the United States closer to closing the wage …show more content…
Although economists agree and data shows that a minimum raise increase from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour will create an influx of income into the economy, opponents of the increase believe that businesses cannot afford to pay workers more and will be forced to either close, reduce hiring and/or hours, or be forced to lay off workers; thus having a negative effect on the economy. In a survey of employers conducted in 2014 by Express Employment Professionals, 38 percent of employers who pay employees minimum wage say they would have to lay-off some workers if the minimum wage was raised to $10.10 an hour. In addition, 54 percent indicate they would reduce hiring, while 65 percent would raise prices on their goods and services (Kast, 2014). With these projections, a rise in the minimum wage could very much backfire and turn the economy upside down, instead of boosting
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