Minimum Wage essays

Minimum Wage essays A public outcry over wages and working conditions led to the first minimum wage policy in the United States. A national minimum wage was created in 1938 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The basic goal of minimum wage was to guarantee workers a fair wage. In recent months, there has been much controversy and debate over raising the minimum wage. Most people have a tendency to assume that when the minimum wage is increased, people will benefit. They do not stop to think of the consequences. The following paper presents an overview of various problems. Many people do not stop to consider the costs of minimum wage increases. For example, where does the increase in wages come from? It certainly doesnt come from taxes or government funding. It comes from employers, whether they are large or small. In a conversation regarding minimum wage increases with a neighborhood bakery owner, she the following: I took the hit completely the first time; the last time, I raised my prices. The owner Angela Constantino employs eight people at minimum wage. Thats how things work. If your costs go up, youre going to have to pass some of that along to the customer. I dont pass all of it along. Basically I try to offset some of my costs" Angela said. Employers somehow must come up with the money to pay the wage increase. They must raise prices, therefore, charging all consumers more, and they may even have to let go of some of their employees in order to have the ability to pay the rate hike. The primary reason most people are willing to increase the minimum wage is to assist poor people. There are many studies that indicate that the positive benefits are just as numerous as the negative ones. According to James Kaz, the majority of those who are paid minimum wage are not poor, but rather an additional income on top of the sole p...