Understanding Conservative and Liberal Views on Minimum Wage LawsThere are many conflicting reports on whether minimum wage increases can or not have adverse effects on the economy, such as increased unemployment. By selectively citing data, it's very easy to convince someone that minimum wage increases could either help or hurt the economy, depending on what you want that person to believe. For example, 75 leading economists signed a petition to President Obama for an increase in the minimum wage, saying their individual studies have shown that minimum wage increases do not increase unemployment. On the other hand, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour — which is what Obama had proposed — would have a two-in-three chance of resulting in a reduction in employment that could reach one million workers. That being said, an essay of this length could not sift through all the conflicting data available on the subject. Instead, it will focus on the two dominant schools of thought on the minimum wage and the reasoning each of these groups uses to support its position on the minimum wage issue. The more liberal view is that the federal minimum wage should be raised, if only to reflect rising inflation. More conservative individuals who tend to believe that the minimum wage should be kept at $7.25 an hour, or even lowered, will constitute our second school of thought. For the sake of clarity, these groups of people will simply be referred to as liberals and conservatives, even though it is obvious that not all individuals affiliated with these positions agree on minimum wage laws. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Let's begin with a review of the liberal position on the minimum wage. Perhaps the most obvious position of proponents of raising the minimum wage is that it would eliminate poverty. In 2014, when President Obama signed an executive order requiring the minimum wage for federal contract workers to increase to $10.10 an hour, he summed up his position quite succinctly: "In the richest country in the planet, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty. » A full-time minimum wage worker can be expected to earn around $15,000 per year. For a single person, this may be enough, since the federal poverty level for a single person is estimated at around $11,000 per year. However, at this pay level, any unforeseen mishaps can be disastrous for the individual's budget. Unexpected expenses such as car problems or health problems can be very costly, and if a person only has an annual safety net of about $4,000, they may find that extra money insufficient to cover the costs. costs of such events. Additionally, consider a family of four; the poverty line is approaching $24,000 per year, which confirms President Obama's statement. It is certain that a single parent who must support three children cannot lift their family out of poverty by working for minimum wage, even if they work full time. Liberals are very compassionate toward people in such situations, and this sentiment leads them to support raising the minimum wage. Of course, this doesn't mean that feeling is the only motivationLiberals for their position on the minimum wage. We often hear conservatives argue that raising the minimum wage will lead to job losses, but it's worth noting that some "Democrats, like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, forcefully argue the opposite: raising the minimum wage promotes job creation and is a good thing from an economic point of view. ", because minimum wage increases can lead to an increase in the number of jobs and can help the economy by increasing the purchasing power of minimum wage workers. As we mentioned, everyone within one party disagrees on all these issues For example, Jerry Brown, the liberal Governor of California, fought very hard against raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. , fearing that this will lead to job losses That aside, perhaps liberals don't value economic growth as much as egalitarianism and equality in our society. , which might explain why they are willing to implement policies that could hinder economic growth to achieve certain goals Liberals and conservatives generally agree that income inequality is a problem in our country. , although some people would disagree. Regardless, much of the disagreement over income inequality in our country is not about whether or not the problem should be solved, but rather how to solve it. Many economists agree that raising the minimum wage would obviously do little to change the difference between the top 1% and other upper-class workers, and perhaps not even between the upper class and the middle class, as these groups are generally made up of individuals. who earn more than the minimum wage. By raising the minimum wage, the gap between the lower and middle classes would be affected the most, but even this change would be negligible. Liberals may argue that some progress toward creating equality is nonetheless progress, but they would also argue for other policies that would address income inequality among all upper, middle, and lower classes. In addition to pursuing this goal of equality, liberals often support raising the minimum wage for the sake of consistency. The White House website explains that “today, the real value of the minimum wage is about 20 percent lower than it was when Reagan took office. Tipped workers have an even lower minimum wage: $2.13 an hour, unchanged for more than 25 years. Liberals often argue that if we can't all agree to substantially increase the federal minimum wage, we should at least account for inflation to maintain the real value of the minimum hourly wage. For example, the federal minimum wage has been set at $7.25 per hour since 2009. In 2016, $8.07 is estimated to have the same value as $7.25 in 2016, effectively resulting in a decrease in 82 cents of minimum wage over the past seven years. . Liberals would say that if we cannot raise the minimum wage, we should at least implement policies to increase the dollar amount in order to maintain a fixed value, and thus grant minimum wage workers purchasing power constant. There are certainly many other arguments that must be made. made on behalf of those who would like to raise the minimum wage, but we have reviewed many of the argumentsmost popular and we can now look at the conservative point of view. Conservatives generally believe that the minimum wage should either be maintained at its current rate or even reduced. Now let's see how this group justifies its attitude. We have seen that the Liberals want to increase the minimum wage so that no one who works full time lives in poverty. Although conservatives may be sympathetic to the plight of a person who has had a difficult life, most would say that if an adult searches hard for a good job and works hard for that job, it shouldn't take much time. this person needs to get a raise or find a better paying job. In fact, as of May 2016, it was estimated that there were 5.8 million jobs available. With the median salary for a truck driver for a private fleet at $73,000 and a national shortage of about 50,000 truckers, it makes sense that conservatives are skeptical of how single parents who work for minimum wage work hard to find a better job. Of course, being a truck driver isn't the most glamorous job, and it comes with long hours on the road and away from family. However, the only qualification for this position is having a business license and being able to pass a drug test. You would certainly think that a truly motivated person would be willing to sacrifice family time to lift their family out of poverty by working for a raise from $15,000 to $73,000 – a salary with which one could certainly afford to keep their income. children while remaining well above the poverty line. Of course, not everyone can become a truck driver and a commercial license is not that easy to obtain, but this profession simply serves as an example of the type of jobs available to motivated people – jobs that don't require any degree university and relatively little training. Again, some conservatives would favor the idea of ​​a single parent raising multiple children on minimum wage; they would once again recognize that this is an unfortunate circumstance, but the fact remains that minimum wages are not intended to support entire families. Minimum wage jobs are intended to be entry-level positions for unskilled workers and young people just entering the workforce, which is why increases in the minimum wage lead to increased unemployment among young people more than any other demographic group. Conservatives argue that young people who are entirely dependent on their parents do not need to earn more than $7.25. These people do not work to provide for their families, or even for themselves. A high school student may simply be hired for a menial job after school so they can earn some money to go out or to start a college fund. In fact, only 1% of minimum wage earners are adult heads of household. So it's understandable that conservatives don't believe that raising the minimum wage in all jobs would help everyone, especially considering how some businesses respond to minimum wage increases. Conservatives often cite small business owners to explain why minimum wage hikes have negative economic consequences. A small business owner may not be able to afford to pay their employees more than $7.25 an hour. Additionally, a large company can afford to pay its employees above the current minimum wage, but an increase in the minimum wagecould still lead to job losses in large companies. There are several reasons for this. Consider a menial job that is worth just $7.25 an hour, as in the case where the labor involved in that job barely allows the company to make a substantial profit, but perhaps the company values ​​job creation and has a sense of duty to the community and wishes to hire young people to offer them professional experience. A substantial increase in the minimum wage could cause employers to eliminate positions that are not absolutely necessary to support profits, or they could simply respond by automating some positions using computers. An increase in the minimum wage could lead to the destruction of many minimum wage jobs – jobs for unskilled workers, the very people a minimum wage increase would aim to help. So, one possible outcome would be that it becomes that much more difficult for an unskilled worker to find decent employment, because when an employer has to pay an individual $10 or $15 an hour, it becomes more likely that Business owners will simply want to hire more. qualified or more educated individuals. Another reasonable response from business owners is to simply raise the prices of the goods and services they provide. Conservatives argue that it would be very naive to assume that employers would simply take the extra money from their own pockets to give raises to many of their employees. That being said, an increase in the minimum wage may increase the purchasing power of minimum wage workers, but this change may be negated by the unintended consequence of an increase in prices of goods and services across the board. This sums up the standard conservative claim that minimum wage increases hurt the very people they are supposed to help. The final element of the conservative attitude toward minimum wage laws that we will examine includes the ideas of freedom of contract and the right to work. This is based on the idea that if an individual, let's call him Robert, is willing to work for $5 an hour, the government should not tell him that he is not allowed to do so. Whatever his reasons, if Robert wants to work for $5 an hour, and an employer agrees to pay him that amount, there is no reason to force these two willing parties to create a mutually beneficial contract. By preventing Robert from doing this, the government could infringe on Robert's right to work. Let's consider a more concrete example of this concept; I will illustrate this idea with a personal example. Last summer I worked full time at a Christian summer camp. The work began at 9 a.m. every Monday morning and continued until 5 p.m. on Saturday. I lived at camp that summer, and while there were of course times when I had some respites, all the staff – mostly students – were mostly working whenever we weren't sleeping or let's not eat. That being said, we all worked about 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, giving us a 72 hour work week. Our pay for our work was $270 every two weeks. That brings our pay to $1.88 an hour before taxes, and no, we didn't get a tip. Some may read this and think that our employers were selfish, that we weren't paid fairly at all, but that wasn't how our employees felt. In fact, most employees enjoy the experience so much that they return to work there the following summer...