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Nurul Mohdazhar
CPCC ENG 112 79
Connie Douglas
20th October 2014
Round Table Essay

Would the raise of minimum wage help lower-income workers?


According to George E. Curry, the first federal minimum wage of twenty cents an hour
was established in 1983, and since then it has been raised twenty two times. (Curry 1). Even so,
the state of lower-income workers seems to remain the same which result in more demand to
increase the minimum wage of lower-income workers. The question is, would the raise of
minimum wage help these lower-income workers? This essay explores deeply on three different
voices that is; employers, employee, and the lawmakers.
Employers are a group of business owner who runs their business by hiring the
employees to work for them. These employers paid their employees as a token of gratitude for
working with them by giving them a minimum salary that has been decided by the lawmakers.
The minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009 (Mantel). According to Barbara
Mantel, business group, including the National Restaurant Association, and U.S Chamber of
Commerce, strongly oppose the idea of increasing the minimum wage for one reason that is it
would force fast-food outlets, retailers, and other employers to eliminate jobs for the lowestskilled workers (Mantel). These groups of employers believe that increasing the minimum wage
will only pushed the younger individuals to apply for a job as many employers would want an
experienced workers. Thus, they choose to remain the minimum wage at $7.25.

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On the other hand, the employees have an opposite point of view of how increasing the
minimum wage would not only help them to increase their living expenses, but also to make
them feel acknowledged and recognize. This support can boost their working energy and help to
increase their works performance. Crystal Dupont, twenty five, who worked thirty to forty hours
a week, earned $7.25 an hour, claimed that she had no health insurance and had to take loans in
order for her to cover expenses (Mantel). Angela Coles, forty, who shuttles between homeless
shelter and an apartment, said that she has been working as a low-wage worker forever,
typically makes $5.50 an hour with no benefits (Katel). These two voices showed that lowerincome workers are in need of the increase of the minimum wage. According to Sarah Markey,
an organizer for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a
leading support of higher minimum wages and so-called living-wage ordinances, said that
People who work forty hours a week should not be living in poverty. We should show that we
value work (Katel). The employers believe that increasing the minimum wage would not only
help to increase their daily expense, but also the quality of their work performance.
The federal government has decided that the minimum wage for all the employees is
$7.25 per hour. The lawmakers remained with this amount since 2009 and have no intention to
increase it since then. Most of these lawmakers believe that, increasing the minimum wage
would help the lower-income workers to support their living expenses even better, but not going
to reduce poverty by any means. According to Economist Nathan Newman, policy director of the
newly formed Progressive Legislative Action Network, raising the minimum wage is a direct,
non-bureaucratic way to help the small portion of the work force earning minimum wage to keep
their heads above water, at no cost to the taxpayers. For that 5 to 10 percent of the population,
it's the most important anti-poverty program that exists. (Katel). Also, Fiore of the Ohio

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Chamber of Commerce said in the same article that if employers are paying more, they will want
to hire more experienced or more educated individuals in order to minimize the initial investment
in training. With higher wages, employers won't look at individuals with less skills or who are
less educated to fill entry-level positions. (Katel). The lawmakers believes that increasing the
minimum wage would only give more disadvantages rather than advantage to the lower income
workers, as the employers would only want to hire more experienced and skilled workers.
In conclusion, all of the three voices have their own points of view and opinions on how
increasing the minimum wage would help these lower-income workers. As the demand always
comes from the employees who believe that the value of their work should be paid higher than
what they got because it will help them to boost their energy and improve the quality of their
work performance. On the other hand, the lawmakers and the employees argued that increasing
the minimum wage would only make the employers to hire the skilled workers which most of the
time did not came from the lower-income workers because of their lack of experiences.

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Works Cite

Curry, George E. "Time to Raise Minimum Wage." Washington Informer 21 Nov. 2013: 25+.
Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 3 Nov. 2014
Katel, Peter. "Minimum Wage." CQ Researcher 16 Dec. 2005: 1053-76. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
Mantel, Barbara. "Minimum Wage." CQ Researcher 24 Jan. 2014: 73-96. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

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