People start their career lives by working at a low paying job and then work their way up into a higher paying one, it is normal. As a teenager and a person who can only get a job that pays minimum wage, the increase in minimum wage is a good thing for the fact that they are getting paid more. People in this category find that the increase in minimum wage is a good thing because not only are they getting paid more, but they are helping support their families. Some people, like mentioned above, think it is a great thing to have minimum wage go up, but little do they know there are some negative effects that come from increasing, which some do not see. An increase in minimum wage not only means an increase in taxes and consumer goods, but it also means an increase of layoffs or unemployment.
According to Levin-Weldman and Oren M.’s book The Minimum Wage: A Reference Handbook: A Reference Handbook, “Those who support the minimum wage claim that it helps the working poor” (Weldman 57). What Weldman is saying is true, but others need to realize at a broader perspective. For example, if minimum wage increases then the fairness of this paying action would not exist anymore. Say for example, a construction worker gets paid sixteen, almost seventeen dollars an hour and a person who works at a fast food industry like McDonalds gets paid ten, almost eleven dollars an hour. If minimum wage is increased little by little then that person that is working at McDonalds, flipping burgers or taking orders, will soon be getting paid roughly the same as a construction worker, who is out in the heat working really hard.
According to an article written by Francis Heylighen The Newtonian World View, “At best, economic science has managed to avoid the problem by postulating the principle of rational choice, which assumes that an agent will always choose the option that maximizes its utility” (Heylighen). This piece from the article can relate to this controversial topic because it is saying that the government also leaves the voting to the people. According to the article LA minimum wage increases to $10.50 and $12 per hour on Saturday located in the Los Angeles Times written by Elizabeth Chao, “Under the city’s minimum wage law, the larger businesses were also required to begin offering six days of paid sick leave”(Chao). Not only does an increase in minimum wage mean that workers will lose their jobs, it also means that businesses are required to have their employees take paid sick days.
Minimum wage has been a very controversial topic for a number of years, but has not yet been set in stone at what pay should minimum wage be. It has been said that minimum wage will soon be up to fifteen dollars by the year of two thousand and twenty. People need to realize that if minimum wage is increased then not only taxes increase, but there will be an increase in unemployment and layoffs as well. The increase of minimum wage may have some positive effects to it, but the majority of it is negative.
Chao, Elizabeth. LA minimum wage increases to $10.50 and $12 per hour on Saturday. Los Angeles Daily Times. 30 June 2017. Web
Heylighen, Francis. The Newtonian World. Principia Cybernetica. 19 April 2006. Print.
Levin-Waldman, Oren M. The Minimum Wage: A Reference Handbook: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO, 2015.
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