Let’s be honest, living in this modern world has become even more cost effective than it used to be several years ago. The prices of almost all commodities and services have surmounted, leaving the people with no choice but to work harder and double time just so they can keep up with all their expenses. However, situation is made even worse by the fact that minimum wages are not even enough to sustain the workers’ needs as well as that of their families.
The prospect of increasing the minimum wage became the cause of considerable controversy and debate ever since the federal set has been last set at 7.25 dollars per hour in the year 2009. According to the conservatives, an increase in minimum wage will only be placing more burdens on the employers, particularly the small companies that can result to decreased employment levels and slower growth. Meanwhile, liberals claim that the present minimum wage is not keeping up with the current inflation and most of the workers with minimum wage are actually impoverished.
What are the pros of raising minimum wage? What are its cons?
The 5 Pros of Raising the Minimum Wage
1. A raise in minimum wage can be spent by the consumers and this will then ripple throughout the entire economy once the whole budgets for the salary will be increased under gradual raise in the scenario of minimum wage.
2. Increasing the minimum wage will also boost the living standard, particularly of those impoverished workers. The current minimum wage has failed to keep up with the inflation. As a consequence, the pay of most workers, those whose families have 3 or more members, is actually way below the average poverty level.
3. According to studies, a graduated raise in minimum wage has very low impact on the unemployment.
4. The expenses of the government for those social programs geared towards the poor will be remarkably lessened, which can then result to decreased taxes for the rest of the citizens.
5. There will be a slight increase in the government’s revenue that will be generated from the payroll taxes for the social security.
The 6 Cons of Raising the Minimum Wage
1. The employers might be inclined of hiring fewer workers on entry job levels required for starting a career.
2. There are possible layoffs to those workers at the employers that follow a fixed standard compensation budget.
3. The employers will be provided with an incentive on investing in machinery, technology and automated processes for increasing of productivity instead of putting it on human resources.
4. For the small companies, already stressed operators or owners might be required of taking on more responsibilities.
5. The prices might only increase for offsetting the higher costs of labor.
6. The wages for the workers with higher pay might already be suppressed, with the increases in salary being lower for the ones that were not affected by an increased minimum wage.
How Do You Feel About Raising Minimum Wage?
Increasing the minimum wage does carry so many benefits but at the same time, this can also be detrimental in some instances. So, what do you think about increasing minimum wage?
