Raising The Minimum Wage May Not Be Helpful

       I see over the past few years the argument on whether to raise the minimum wage or not, specifically to the fifteen dollar range. Although I have not been outspoken on this issue in the past, I will make my opinion known in this post. I do not think a raise in the minimum wage is going to be helpful. I understand that we have many Americans working minimum wage jobs and much of them struggle to get by, day in and day out. As someone who cares about human welfare, I do not like to see someone who puts in forty plus hours a week still struggle to make a living. Collectively though, I do not think that this steep increase in minimum wage is going to help the economy.

       One of the most common things I hear in favor of not increasing to a fifteen dollar minimum wage is the rise in cost of consumer goods. If companies and smaller local shops are paying more money for employees, one of the easiest ways for them to recoup their money is through raising the prices of their items for purchase. If this happens it will negatively affect anyone above lower class. They do not benefit from wage increases at all, but at the same time they are paying exponentially more for everyday items. Another way for owners to cut costs is to cut staffing; the less employees they have, the less money they need to give out. Yes, large companies such as Wal-Mart should have no problem paying higher wages to its employees and in my opinion it should pay its workers more. I believe this because they make a crazy amount of capital, but they are greedy and keep it to themselves. Smaller places of employment, especially local shops, do not have the luxury of paying a higher wages while maintaining the same cost of operation. Prices will go up.

       Lastly, an increase in minimum wage does not really have an effect on decreasing poverty. I don’t think the wage is the issue. One study found that an increase from $5.15 to $7.25 only benefited fifteen percent of workers that stood to gain form this increase. We also have benefits that low income workers can qualify for. For example, food stamps and Medicaid. If they workers make more money, they will not quality for these aids anymore. The poverty line in the United States for an average household of four people is about $24,000 a year. If the minimum wage goes up, the poverty line goes up as well. Therefore, no drastic help was really done.

       I know for a fact we have a poverty issue in America and it needs to be fixed. I do not want to come across as heartless because I stated earlier, if you are working hard there is no way we as a country should allow that person to struggle. I want to see people succeed or at the very least be able to have a decent living, but raising the minimum wage is not the way to go about it. I see and understand arguments for the increase of a federal minimum wage and some of them are great, but I cannot overlook the issues it presents as well.