Transcript Democrat: Increasing Minimum Wage

Democrat: Increasing
Minimum Wage
By: Mary Gulla, Jordan Coop, Attra Shamon, Craig
Garwood
2nd Hour
Pros of Increasing Minimum Wage
Raising the minimum wage means minimum wage
workers have more money to spend which means
more money ripples throughout the economy as
minimum wage employees are able to spend
more.
Pros of Increasing Minimum Wage Cont.
Employees who are making a higher minimum
wage feel more comfortable and satisfied in their
minimum wage jobs meaning they are less likely
to quit. This means there would be a lower
turnover rate, which results in fewer expenses to
hire and train new employees.
Pros of Increasing Minimum Wage Cont.
There will be more opportunities for jobs because
if these minimum wage employees are spending
more, then businesses are earning more and need
to hire more employees to keep up with the
increased sales from the minimum wage
employees who are buying more.
Pros of Increasing Minimum Wage Cont.
Employees surviving at minimum wage are also often the
same people who must rely on additional support of
government run social programs to support themselves
and their families on such a small amount of income.
Raising minimum wage means some of these people would
be able to better support themselves without leaning as
heavily on social programs and this would ultimately mean
lower taxes or a reallocation of those funds to support
other needs.
Pros of Increasing Minimum Wage Cont.
Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would raise
almost a million people above the poverty line. Also, families
earning more than $7.25 but below $10.10 who are barely
above the poverty threshold would be lifted up as well. There
are 17 million workers who earn less than $10.10 an hour who
would directly benefit from the increase to $10.10. Another 11
million workers would indirectly benefit from raising the current
minimum wage as their wages would increase relative to the
difference that their wages were from the old minimum wage.
Of our nation's more than 25 million low-wage workers
who would benefit from an increase—nine million who are
parents supporting roughly 14 million children —most are
paid wages so low that they bring home incomes below or
just above the federal poverty level. Most are not
teenagers; their average age is 35.
It's wrong that someone in the United States of America
who works hard for long hours to support their family can
still be stuck in poverty today. It is time for Congress to give
the working poor a raise and take the politics out of this
issue by linking future increases in the minimum wage to
the cost of living.