During my short life, I have held two jobs paying minimum wage. My first job was as a fry cook at Chick Fil-a when I was 16, and my second and current job is at Sports Authority. Minimum wage is defined as “the lowest amount that employers can offer their employees for each hour of work.” As minimum wage jobs, they were seen, in my case at least, as a way to have extra change and gas money. And that's how most Americans view jobs like fast food: as a place where teenagers can earn money through high school and college and maybe even learn the value of a dollar. The minimum wage was initially created to reduce poverty. It was also invented to suppress sweatshops and companies that do not pay fair wages to miners and others. Some policymakers may believe that businesses simply absorb the costs of the minimum wage by reducing profits, but this is rarely the case. Instead, companies respond rationally to these mandates by cutting staff and making other decisions to maintain their bottom line. These behavioral responses generally offset the positive labor market outcomes that policymakers hope for. "The positive labor market outcomes that policymakers hope for" are points such as "Raising the minimum wage encourages harder workers" and that an increase "will stimulate the economy by putting more money in the hands of employees so they can spend more.” » Which, however, is not possible with inflation, because everything continues to become more and more expensive. Another downside to raising the minimum wage is that the value of even a minimum wage job increases, meaning employers will seek much more production from their employees. Currently, the mandatory minimum wage in the United States is $7.25. Even the most unskilled worker can find employment at McDonald's, Burger King or other restaurants. However, with an increase in the minimum wage, as I said earlier about quality over quantity, employers will look for higher quality workers and impose much higher standards on who they recruit into the workforce. 'business. An increase in the minimum wage to $10.10, which is the current proposal nationally, would see the value of a job, even that of a fry cook, rise, posing a problem for unskilled people.