The U.

S should not increase the minimum wage for the following reasons:
1. It would decrease employment
2. It would cause inflation
3. It would not help the poor

1. It would decrease employment

Businesses, who provide the jobs to the people on minimum wage, are struggling to make
money in this terrible economy. By raising the minimum wage, they would start to lose profit
because of their labor costs.
This would force businesses to fire workers just so they could make profits. In fact, the
Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, issued a report showing that following Obamas plan
would result in 900,000 people rising out of poverty however 1 million jobs would be lost.
Senators, the people we are trying to help could lose their entire income because of a raise in their
salaries. The last thing we need is an increase in unemployment. This would cost the government
more money.
Raising minimum wage would only kill jobs which are held by the people we are trying to help.

2. It would cause inflation.

If businesses are not able to fire off employees, inflation will occur. Because businesses
have to make money in order to be alive, they would have to increase the prices of their
products.

Then the extra money that is made by the minimum wage workers will only buy the same
amount they did before the raise. The rising prices of products would only offset the
money created by increasing minimum wage.

Senators we cannot have an increase in minimum wage because there would be more
inflation in this nation. It would hurt all consumers and do nothing for poor because their
purchasing power would decrease.

3. It would not help the poor.
Research published in 2010 by economists Joseph Sabia and Richard Burkhauser concluded that if the
federal minimum wage were increased from $7.25 an hour to $9.50 an hour only 11.3% of workers who
would gain from the increase belong to poor households.
How is this possible?
Well many people who live in poverty do not work, and would thus be unaffected by an increase in the
minimum wage. In addition, workers who earn the minimum wage are generally not the primary earners
in their households.
They are secondary earners - an elderly parent earning some retirement income or a spouse with a part-
time job. Or they are young people living with their parents. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
show that while workers under age 25 make up only about 20% of those who earn hourly wages, they
constitute about half of all workers earning the minimum wage or less. Raising the minimum wage is
therefore an ineffective anti-poverty proposal.

Senators although there are benefits to this increase in minimum wage, too many unintended
consequences will occur and even harm the people who are on minimum wage.
I urge you to vote in affirmation of this bill because:
1. It would decrease employment
2. It would cause inflation
3. It would not help the poor