Sum Blog 6
Minimum Wage increase?
Whether to raise the minimum wage is a hot topic right now.
There are two differing sides. Mainstream media seems to focus on one side.
This side is taking a look at the struggling workers who can’t make ends meet.
It focuses on the single parents and struggling families that can’t put food on
the table for their kids. This YouTube
video brings up an opposing side. The video shows very logically that if the
minimum wage is raised, each worker will get more money. In the end however,
the most unproductive worker, lowest in the company, and the one’s that need
the wage increase the most, are the workers that are going to get hurt.
Companies will not be able to afford small increases, much less large
increases, so they will have to downsize and let workers go. A large minimum
wage increase could actually increase unemployment in the group of people that
need work the most.
In class we looked at the videos that romanticized low
income and minimum wage jobs, trying to show the need to raise wages. I do see the view point however I think there
are more strings attached than people think. It is important to look as companies and the
economy as a whole as well. A large increase could actually put companies out
of business. I run a small construction company. I currently employ only
myself, but I crunched some numbers on if I could afford to hire workers. The
difference between a $7.25 minimum wage and even a $9 minimum wage would be
huge. For 3 employees for one year’s work that change would be a difference of
$10,000! As a small business my budget would be gone and I would go out of
business almost immediately. I think a wage increase needs to be very slow and
maybe needs to be subsidized by the government, since they are the ones that
haven’t kept up with inflation. There isn't really a good answer to the current
situation.
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