The minimum wage in Virginia should be increased to reflect the cost of living within the State. The number of working poor are increasing. There are minimum wage jobs available throughout the state, however earned wages are not sufficient to allow for a manageable quality of life. The current minimum wage in Virginia is $7.25 per hour, in keeping with the Federal Minimum Wage rate of the same amount. According to the Labor Law Center (2015), Virginia’s last minimum wage increase was in 2009; the wage increased from $6.55 to the current rate.
Scope of the Problem
History of the problem According to Virginia’s Legislative Information System (2017), Virginia State Code § 40.1-28.10 concerns minimum wage in the state. It states, “Every employer
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“President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) into law in early 1938. The FLSA introduced sweeping regulations to protect American workers from being exploited, and created a mandatory federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour in order to maintain a "minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being, without substantially curtailing employment" (Minimum Wage, 2017). Virginia’s minimum wage policy has always been aligned with the federal guidelines for wages. The last increase in the minimum wage policy was in …show more content…
In addition to the benefit mentioned above that relates to small business, prices for services would be kept low. For example, if lower wage employees were paid at a higher rate, those costs would be passed to the consumer. A hamburger would cost $6.00 instead of two for $3.00. That is a pro for the employee but a con for the consumer.
The cons however, are not worth the pros. The lower wage worker is usually working because he or she needs employment to survive (as do most of us). Because there are not many opportunities, the lower wage worker usually has more stress to try to make ends meet. Because they are paid less, they spend less and do not help stimulate the economy. They usually qualify for public assistance, which can drain the economy. The goal of the United States should be to get rid of poverty. That will never happen with such a low minimum wage. If we want people not to rely on public assistance, they must be able to earn enough to feed their
The topic of minimum wage is one that can lead to heated debates from both sides of the aisle over how much a person should be getting in payment versus how much work they do, or how hard they work to earn the payment. Countless people today are not getting paid the amount they should be based off of the work that they are putting in to their job. There are arguments leaning towards the raising of minimum wage, and there are arguments leaning against the raising of the minimum wage, however one of the arguments I find persuasive. There are some arguments that lean towards the raising of the minimum wage. The first argument presented involves job creation in the United States.
The federal minimum wage has been increased twenty-two times since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill into law in 1938. President Roosevelt was an avid supporter of a federal minimum wage as he says that “no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.” Raising the federal minimum wage has many pros and cons, but is a necessity to thrive in society. People have argued that raising the minimum wage will cause inflation, but it will create various economical benefits, income benefits, production benefits, and improve racial justice.
Currently, the national minimum wage is $7.25 per
Is it ethical to raise the minimum wage when it doesn’t necessarily affect the very poor, the people it’s aimed at helping? The minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer is permitted by law to pay an employee for his work. The current federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 an hour. Across the country, there is an overwhelming push in favor of raising wages for our poorest workers. In January 2016 the minimum wage in California was raised to $10 an hour.
I watched a documentary called “Living on Minimum Wage” in the series Thirty Days. In the series Thirty Days, a man named Morgan Spurlock puts himself into certain situations to experience the problems some Americans face everyday. Mr. Spurlock decided to live off of minimum wage in the state of Ohio. The minimum wage in Ohio now is $8.10 per hour, but in 2005, when the episode was filmed, the minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. He started off with one week worth minimum wage ($300).
Raising the minimum wage would lift many people out of poverty, making opportunities more accessible
The law on minimum wage has become very consequential and has came to light to employees whom are required to work the current wage. The state of Texas has had the same minimum wage since 2009 which it is currently $7.25. It has been numerous complaints throughout the state about the minimum wage in Texas. Employees main concern is that they are simply getting underpaid for their work. Compared to other states the minimum wage Texas seems to have fallen very far behind.
If you have minimum skills, Minimum education, show minimum Motivation, and provide a minimum contribution to the workplace you are going to earn a minimum wage. There are many more opportunity if the federal government did not intervene. The abolishment of the minimum wage can help the economy and add a surplus of jobs. The federal minimum is an outdated concept during a time where corruption and no labor laws were a common theme.
Minimum wage should not be raised because it is not an income that someone sold live off of. Minimum wage in the country is currently $7.25 but some states have changed it in a way that is way too much. For example Washington state currently has the highest minimum wage at $9.32 that’s a $2.07 increase to the current amount minimum wage. Seattle is currently considering to raise their minimum wage to $15 it’s understandable that the city is very large and things cost more money but if they raise minimum wage to $15 that will only bring inflation causing things to cost only more money than it already does. If there is one thing that should not be done to the country it is to cause inflation.
Because taking into account negative employment effects and increases in consumer prices induced by the minimum wage would wipe out any positive direct effects on household affected by the minimum wage. The minimum wage becomes even less effective in reducing income inequality when negative employment effects are taken into account. I will address the negative effects in sociological aspects by the
A person working full time at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour earns $15,080 in a year, which is 20% higher than the 2015 federal poverty level of $12,331 for a one-person household under 65 years of age, but 8% below the 2015 federal poverty level of $16,337 for a single-parent family with a child under 18 years of age (procon.org pro#2). If you put the minimum wage at $9.00, people will be able to live comfortably without unemployment rates going up. However, raising the minimum wage
Should Federal Minimum Wage be $15 an hour? The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 states that workers will be given a livable wage. By definition, a living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet basic needs. In the words of congress, it is “the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being.”
There are a lot of potential benefits for an increase in minimum wage and on the surface it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t want to increase the wage. One of the clearest to see is that an increase to the minimum wage will also increase the spending for each household during the following years. So it works to help stimulate the economy in whatever area you increase the minimum wage. Along those same lines increasing the minimum wage will lead to a decrease in poverty as well. With the decrease in poverty you will also see a decrease in government spending on welfare items because the individuals receiving the higher wage in theory will be able to pay for these services/welfare items without assistance.
This causes job loss for future laborers. Businesses will not be able to financially employ as many individuals, thus, increasing the nation’s overall unemployment rate. Some employers find a means around decreasing the number of employees by limiting the amount of hours each individual can work (“Economists argue about minimum wage”). A second argument in the minimum wage war focuses around the concept of inflation. Critics call to
However, in the long run, many employers will not be able to maintain to stay in business due to the significantly high wages. An increase in minimum wage would cause millions to lose their jobs and put them further in poverty. It would even make it harder for them to obtain jobs after the increase due to the increase of competition in the job market, and most importantly an increase in minimum wage would cause increase in the price level and it will reduce significantly consumption due to the lack of purchasing power that is cause by the higher inflation rate. The minimum wage should not increase because it is unsustainable economically. Another approach of help guide people out of poverty can be a push for an increase in education and knowledge capital instead of continuously increasing the minimum