Does
raising a persons’ hourly wage to a federal minimum wage of $10.10 really help?
From my own personal experience I can say that moving from a low wage earner to
a higher wage earner has improved my family’s life. It enabled me to send to my
child to a university and allowed her a career. It has given me the disposable
income to pursue further education myself. This may not have happened overnight
but it happened. Increasing the wage you
earn does improve your chances to not only get what you need, but to also get
what you want. It affords you the ability to pursue happiness, one of the
inalienable rights we as Americans hold so dear. It offers freedom another
inalienable right.
I decided to do a little
research on how the ‘other’ half sees the minimum wage increase. Judith
Sloan , contributing economic editor of The Australian advocates this point of
view by expressing that “…higher minimum wages lead to lower employment, fewer
hours and less training for affected workers” (Sloan, 2013) .
However, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Berkeley
University California, says “Our results indicate that the negative employment
effects in national –level studies reflect spatial heterogeneity and improper
construction of control groups” (Dube A., 2010). Who do you believe? There is no undisputable evidence
that raising the minimum wage causes businesses to shut down or that the loss
of government assistance programs correlates with an increase of $10.10 an
hour.
References
Dube, A. L. (2010, November). IRLE Working Paper
No. 157-07. Retrieved February 2015, from "Minimum Wage Effects
Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties":
http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers/157-07.pdf
Sloan, J. (2013, March 12). At A Minimum, Wage Rises
Are A Cost To Jobs. The Australian, p. 12.
