Hutto 1

Louis Henry Hutto IV

PACE English 101
Professor Alicia Bolton
10 November 2014
With Minimum Skill comes Minimum Wage
One thing that makes America so great is how its citizens can directly influence their
economic fate with their actions. A lower class boy can work hard through school and become
successful from his own hard work and dedication to his dream. And inversely a person from a
higher class can work his way down from his decisions to slack off on his education and not do a
hard days work. In America, economic prosperity is a result of hard work and not of good luck
and through government intervention. Through all of this lies the basis of the American Dream
that all people have the chance to work their hardest and earn their own fortune and be
successful. One big controversy in this day in time is the argument on minimum wage. The
federal minimum wage at this time is $7.25 dollars per hour, and many liberals believe that the
federal minimum wage should be as high as $15 dollars an hour. On paper this idea is very
appealing and looks like nothing could go wrong with raising the minimum wage this drastically,
but as we look more into this issue, it is clear what the right move is. This controversy should be
cared about mostly by the minimum wage workers and business owners in America, but really
by all Americans because it would affect all the citizens of this great country that we live in.
Although this might help the minimum wage workers of America a small amount, the negative
effects such as: giving minimum wage workers less motivation to move up in their workplace,
giving less experienced workers such as high school kids less of a chance to get jobs, and the
inflation of other goods to compensate for the new found circulation of money.

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Some people might say that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour
would put a lot more money into the pockets of Americans to do the things that they need to live
in this day in time, and they would be right. the imposition of a (new) minimum wage has
potentially important effects on the unemployment rate, the labor market participation rate, and
the accepted wage distribution. (Flinn 73). Flinn states that with an increase in minimum wage
it would decrease the unemployment rate and make the earnings of all Americans more equal.
Raising the minimum wage this drastically would give minimum wage workers to put towards
things like rent, car payment, phone payment, groceries, etc. Although this would usually be a
great thing for the minimum wage workers in America to have all of this extra money to do what
they need with, it would increase the price of all of the necessities that people need such as
groceries, food, and all the other basics. Just think, the prices of all the food from restaurants
could double and your weekly visit to the grocery store would also be much more than now.
The cost of a rise in the minimum wage will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher
prices. (Crook). Basically, there would be no point to raise the minimum wage to help the
minimum wage workers pay for necessities because the price of all the necessities would
increase greatly.
The first negative effect that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would be the
decrease in motivation for these workers to move up in their work place. The United States of
America was made on the hard work of many people, and for many, the minimum wage jobs are
a way to work up into the field that they started in and work their way up to receive more money
for their hard work. If the minimum wage workers are getting paid all they need to make ends
meet, then why would they want to work even harder to do better in their workplace? For many
minimum wage workers if they were getting $15 an hour, they would be fine with never moving

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up or getting promoted, but with the minimum wage as it is, it will encourage workers to work
harder and work their way up to a better position in their workplace. Lets say that there is are
two secretaries and one is paid $7.25 an hour and the other is paid $15 an hour because she has a
skill that the other does not, if the minimum wage was raised to $15 dollars an hour then the boss
would want the secretary who was formally paid less to acquire the skills that the other has, but
she would not want to because she does not need to do anything more to get paid a higher rate.
This could also lead to one of the other problems of employers not hiring and firing more
workers.
Another negative effect that could arise from the high increase of the minimum wage
could be the difficulty of obtaining many entry level jobs by the low skilled workers, most
common high schoolers. Why would the businesses hire a worker with little to no skill when
they could hire another worker for the same rate that could have the skills that the business
needs? The National Restaurant Association says, Young people across the country look to
restaurants for their first jobs. A mandatory wage increase could further restrict opportunities for
young and less-skilled individuals. This shows that it would be harder for those lower skilled
workers to be hired for the entry level jobs that are needed to gain experience and work up to a
better career. Without the highschoolers being able to get the entry level jobs that they need, it
could hurt our younger generations by restricting them on what they can achieve later in their
lives. A higher minimum wage increases costs of production for firms that pay [minimum
wage]. In addition, it restricts the freedom of employers to pay wages that they think are fair
(Clayton 44). This explains more on how the employers would be less likely to hire low skilled
workers because of the increase of spending on their employees. Higher wages don't just come
out of corporate profits. They are passed along to consumers in higher prices. And the higher the

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minimum wage, the greater the incentive for restaurant management to replace human cashiers
with computerized kiosks that will do to fast-food jobs what the ATM did to bank tellers (Stoll).
The increase in money that the employers would spend on their employees could also cause them
to look for cheaper alternatives such as machines, which could take away many jobs from many
workers. With this will come the negative effects of high school workers not being able to do
the entry level jobs that allow them to learn how to get into the work force and train them to
become better workers. Also, the businesses would not employ as many workers, and most likely
fire the lower level workers in order to cut their spending costs which would mostly effect the
people that the government is trying to help in the first place.
The final effect that a drastic raise in minimum wage would be the inflation, or The cuss
word of economics as my economics teacher says, that would come with it. With the more
money that is provided to the minimum wage workers, there is an influx of money that is
circulated around in our economy which would cause a devalue of the American dollar leading
to higher prices of goods. This would force business owners and employers to do one of three
things: either fire workers or not hire anymore workers, take a decrease in pay for themselves, or
raise the prices of the goods that they sell. If I was a business owner I would do the easiest of the
three and raise my prices to compensate for the inflation. As I stated in my counter argument, if
the wage in increased, it would cause all of the necessities that people buy in their daily lives to
increase in price, such as groceries and food. I am a minimum wage, high school worker who
pays for a lot of the personal things that I want. I do not think that receiving more money just to
spend more on the things we buy day to day is a very good idea. Just think, McDonalds wouldnt
have a dollar menu, it would be the two dollar menu, and the world would change as we know it.

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This would be senseless since the whole reason to raise minimum wage is to let the minimum
wage workers have more money to buy the things that they need.
One of the biggest controversies in the politics of today is the topic of raising the
minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour. This idea has its upsides by giving the
minimum wage workers more money in their pockets, but the cons of raising the minimum wage
this drastically far outweigh the pros heavily. It could cause things such as a decrease in the
desire to move up in the workplace, it could also make it harder for high schoolers and low
skilled workers get the entry level jobs that they need to move up in their careers and
workplaces, and finally it could cause inflation in our economy and make the prices of our
everyday needs go up which needs to be cared about by people that live in the United States of
America because it would affect all of us in our day to day lives.

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Works Cited
Clayton, Gary E. Glencoe Economics: Principles & Practices. New York, N.Y.:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.
Crook, Clive. "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right." National Journal 38.31 (2006): 14-15.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
Flinn, Christopher J. The Minimum Wage And Labor Market Outcomes. Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
Stoll, Ira. "Higher wages kill jobs, hike prices." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Premier.
Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
"National Restaurant Association" National Restaurant Association. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.