Mar
17
Blog Post #8: The Living Wage
March 17, 2015 | Leave a Comment
There has always been an ongoing battle to raise the minimum wage and the living wage. As stated in the New York Times Article, raising the minimum wage “tends to be more popular with the general public.” Majority of people feel that raising the minimum or living wage will help the working poor and decrease poverty. Just recently, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order to increase the living wage to $11.50 per hour with benefits and $13.13 per hour without benefits. Even Obama is pushing to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10. However, from reading all four articles, I could see that there are strong arguments for and against the increase of minimum wage.
In the Huffington post article, it was interesting to have different wages (minimum, poverty, De Blasio’s Plan, and living) in a side by side comparison. By looking at the graphic, you can see that De Blasio’s plan only really helps single workers and if you have two parents working full time. Single parents with one or more kids barely make half of the living wage. The standard of living has increase over the years, but minimum wage has barely moved. It was also interesting to read that in the Washington Post article, fast food workers protested to be paid $15 an hour. There is a momentum for higher pay, but is that increasing fast food worker’s pay going to help the poor?
James Sherk’s article makes convincing arguments against increasing the minimum wage. Majority of minimum wage workers are from the younger generation who are still in high school or college. Most only work part-time and have not finished their education. However, majority of the poor fit in into this category: they work many part-time jobs and do not have higher education. What shocked me the most was that people below the poverty line do not work or do not work full time throughout the year. It could also be that employers do not want to hire inexperienced workers, making it harder for low-income families to get experience. Increasing the minimum wage can also hinder employers from hiring more staff or if they do hire more people, the cost of goods will go up. Both these side effects hinder low-income families the most.
The New York Times article brings up both sides of the spectrum. One point Romer makes that I can see happening is that increasing minimum wage will attract more efficient workers to the labor pool. However, this also creates more competition for the job and middle-income workers might take the jobs away of the poor. However, he also states that workers who are affected by minimum wage are families who are earning less than $40,000 a year. Increasing the wage can be a good target for the poor, but not only the poor is affected. Romer proposes a better solution where low-income families who earn income can get government payments that supplements wages. I agree that this method is well-targeted and will get people to find work.
It’s great that the minimum wage is increasing slowly, but what are other ways that we can help decrease poverty and the income gap? These articles brought up many interesting points for both sides of the agreement. I think we still need a minimum wage so we have a standard pay, but I don’t think it is an answer to poverty and the growing standard of living.
-JanYing He
