How increasing minimum wage would affect America
If passes, the Raise the Wage Act would increase the minimum wage to $15. The increase in minimum wage would help many people who are struggling during the pandemic, but some think it might cause the unemployment rate to go up along with other impacts.
Many people in the U.S. work jobs that pay minimum wage. Since the pandemic has started, some of these people have had trouble making enough money to live their everyday lives. That’s why Joe Biden wants to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.
The Raise the Wage Act was a bill passed by the House in 2019, but it was held up by the Senate. This year, Democrats reintroduced the bill. If passed, the raise would be in full effect by 2025. It would increase minimum wage gradually each year until it is $15 in 2025. It would also give around 27 million Americans a raise.
There are two different ways to view the change. One is that everyone working minimum wage will have a substantial pay increase. They would then be able to afford their bills and provide for themselves and their families. It could also raise more people out of poverty.
“I have family members who work minimum wage jobs, one of them has kids and it would definitely help them a lot,” Isabella Huth, ‘23, said.
On top of adults, many students at WHHS would benefit from the increase. The students who work minimum wage jobs would make more money that could be used to help pay for college.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the increase would generate about $107 million dollars in higher wages. Workers also tend to spend a lot of their extra wages, which would in turn help stimulate the economy and increase job growth.
“Businesses that can’t afford to pay all of their employees the new minimum wage will have to lay people off and small businesses will be hit harder than large corporations,
— SENIOR Jack Gigilia
Another way to view the situation is that many people will lose their jobs and some businesses will be shut down because the people working minimum wage will be paid more, but the salary budget for the company will stay the same. This means that employers won’t be able to pay for a lot of workers because the salary budget won’t allow them to, and smaller businesses will go out of business because they don’t make enough money to pay a small set of workers.
“Businesses that can’t afford to pay all of their employees the new minimum wage will have to lay people off and small businesses will be hit harder than large corporations,” SENIOR Jack Giglia said.
Employers may also try to automate the jobs to reduce the cost of workers. This could lead to people being unemployed longer because employers do not want to spend more money on more workers.
Even for people who don’t work a minimum wage job, the change will affect everyone by increasing pay for those in minimum wage jobs, which will stimulate the economy. It could also cause many people to lose their jobs and could have negative impacts on the economy.
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