Essay about Macroeconomics: Minimum Wage Increase

Submitted By BabyGirl_80
Words: 1277
Pages: 6
Open Document
Kristin Staats
Macroeconomics
Doctor Flemming
April 8, 2014

Macro Economics: Increasing minimum wages in the United States

Throughout the 21st century, our views have drastically changed on minimum wage with some of these things in mind: cost of living, consumer index prices, education, health care and many other issues. The start of minimum wage occurred when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the 121 bills while in office, one of them being on June 25th, “The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.” This act was established with an hourly wage of .25 cents per hour, with a maximum of 44 hours per week. This all started because the President asked Francis Perkins to become the Secretary of Labor. She told the President this “ I would accept if I could advocate a law to put a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours of work and to abolish abuses of child labor”. Did you know that on average a car cost $860.00 and a home was $3,900.00 in 1938. We will see a rise in prices for these items in the coming years. This is a part of today’s history and still continues to make for a very wide spread discussion throughout the general public and legislation in our nation. Now today we look to see what has changed throughout the years and how increasing the minimum wage today would benefit our economy. My opinion on this is that the minimum wage increases should occur however there is a course of action that needs to be directed properly for this to make an effective change over all. What value are we to see by increasing the minimum wage throughout the United States or will there be none? The first point to discuss is how the dollar amount of minimum wage has evolved in America and the history behind it. To show a value of increase here are a few years of peak growth within wage increases; during 1957 it was $1.00 and in 1974 equaled $2.00 and in 1981 the average was $3.85 When I was a child I started working in 1996 and this is also when President Clinton signed and made effective “The Minimum Wage Increase Act” on October 1st. This jumped from $4.25 and had an increase of $4.75 after the act then it had a growth of $5.15 in 1997. This change in 1997 also made a subminimum wage of $4.25 an hour for young adults 20 year old and younger totaling $4.25 during their first consecutive 90 days of work with the same employer. Now we look into the year 2013, the minimum wage is $7.25 and remains in some states in the current year of 2014. Most wonder how we figure out how minimum wage is decided. Some states use the cost of living formula and the consumer price index. Some states do not establish a dollar amount for its own minimum wage but adopts federal minimum wage by reference. For example: currently Nevada has a minimum wage rate of $8.35 without healthcare benefits and the rate is $7.25 with healthcare. Now the District of Columbia the rate and wage is set automatically at one dollar above the federal minimum wage rate if lower when increased. Today President Obama has a proposal that minimum wage be increased yet again to an average projection for the year 2014 at $10.10 for the federal minimum wage. Many feel that this bill will not passed by congress so each state is taking its own action to tackle the increase. Currently there are a few states that have established their new minimum wage rates. The state of California has identified in July 1st, 2014 of an increase up to $9.00 and then January 1st, 2016 it will be set at $10.00. Delaware has decided as of June 1st, 2014 in the amount of $7.75 to follow in the year 2015 with $10.50. The last example I will give is New York State. The state has decided upon a wage of $8.75 as of December 31st, 2014 to follow the same time the next year with $9.00. I bring forth a Senator and his thoughts. Mr. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on March 29th, 2014 discussed his generated plan the “Rebuild America Act.” “This involves an increase in our current $7.25 (we have held for 3 years) to a new
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about Macroeconomics: Minimum Wage Increase

A Brief Note On Macroeconomic Theory

Macroeconomic Theory Mr. Wofford December 4 , 2014 Chicago hikes minimum wage to $13 by Linda Ollivier ‘ SECTION I Chicago increased the minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2019. The increase will be steady and it will go slowly increasing so it will not affect the economy in any other manner. By July 2015, the minimum wage will already be $10 an hour and it will keep slowly growing until $13 an hour by 2019. Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed the increase and it had an unbelievable support by 44-5 votes…

Words 488 - Pages 2

Chapter 6 Essay

N. Gregory Mankiw PowerPoint® Slides by Ron Cronovich CHAPTER 6 Unemployment © 2010 Worth Publishers, all rights reserved SEVENTH EDITION MACROECONOMICS In this chapter, you will learn: …about the natural rate of unemployment:  what it means  what causes it  understanding its behavior in the real world CHAPTER 6 Unemployment 2 Natural rate of unemployment  Natural rate of unemployment: The average rate of unemployment around which the economy fluctuates.  In a recession, the actual…

Words 2031 - Pages 9

minimum wage Essay

Professor Dobie Final Persuasive Draft 23 April 2014 $7.25 equals two gallons of gas, a couple of school supplies, or a fast food meal. With this current minimum wage you must work one hour to earn these small necessities. This seems like it isn’t even worth your time right? It may seem like this, but I would have to most certainly disagree. The minimum wage should not be raised because it does not reduce poverty, it kills jobs, it leads to fewer jobs for young people, and it causes prices on nearly every…

Words 1050 - Pages 5

priciples of economic Essay

worked instead You lose four years of salary in hopes to earn more due to the education you are receiving to make up for the lost wages  What is the opportunity cost of you coming to class today? Me giving up sleep to learn something that will be beneficial in my future career. 3. Identify each of the following topics as being part of microeconomic or macroeconomics. a. The impact of a change in consumer income on the purchase of luxury automobiles. Microeconomics b. The effect of a change…

Words 326 - Pages 2

Against Minimum Wage

Minimum wage is the lowest legal wage, or price floor, that employers may pay to workers. Minimum wage laws are in place to help protect workers.1 There are differences of opinions on the drawbacks and benefits of having a minimum wage in effect. Those who support the minimum wage believe it increases the standard of living of the employees, reduces poverty and inequality, boosts morale and forces businesses to be more economically efficient. Those who are against the minimum wage say it increases…

Words 1096 - Pages 5

Minimum Wage Paper

Mr. Szymanowski Macroeconomics Course Trident Technical College 28 October 2014 Minimum Wage Economically speaking, minimum wage can be denoted as “the lowest amount that employers can legally pay their workers per hour of labor” (History), and is a heavily debated between various political groups as well as economists. There are pros and cons to lowering and raising the minimum wage, even if it should be in existence in today’s economy. Pros to the inclusion of the minimum wage include that it…

Words 614 - Pages 3

Minimum Wage Research Paper

Research Essay Minimum wage Jacob R Pettry Zane State College Minimum Wage As early as 6.00 am in a dark and cold morning of Midwest winter, a few people walking on an icy sidewalk. Under chilling wind, those people walk to a large, old building. Inside the building, the people work for repetitive, backbreaking low waged jobs. In the same day, late at night, you can see similar scene: some people walking out of the building under heavy snowstorm. Like all workers, they feel exhausted after…

Words 1396 - Pages 6

Essay on 352 Mankiw8e Chap07 SV

workers find jobs (f = 0.19)  Find the natural rate of unemployment: U s 0.01    0.05, or 5% L s f 0.01  0.19 CHAPTER 7 Unemployment 10 Policy implication  A policy will reduce the natural rate of unemployment only if it lowers s or increases f. CHAPTER 7 Unemployment 11 Why is there unemployment?  If job finding were instantaneous (f = 1), then all spells of unemployment would be brief, and the natural rate would be near zero.  There are two reasons why f < 1: Why? CHAPTER 7…

Words 1824 - Pages 8

Questions On Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics unit 1 homework Pg.18 REVIEW Three examples of trade offs that we can face in life include getting a job and working for a number of years to earn money or don’t get a job and spend your money to get a better degree. A second example is to spend your money on raising a family or use the money for leisurely expenses. A third example is to retire today or to continue to work for a few more years. Pg.19 REVIEW 8. If you would split the chores and cooking evenly it would…

Words 374 - Pages 2

Economics Paper

Nick Scannell Paper 2 In “Principle of Macroeconomics”, Case, Fair, and Oster present their intellectual studies of macroeconomics to produce better economy for the future. In pursuit of doing so, they are spill their knowledge out about the money demand and equilibrium interest rate, aggregate demand in the goods and money market, aggregate supply and the equilibrium price level, the labor market in the macroeconomy, and the financial crisis, stabilization, and deficits within the economy.…

Words 4389 - Pages 18