Minimum wage is the least wages that employers are supposed to pay the employees. It also refers to the lowest values at which the employees are expected to sell their labor. Various nations throughout the world have adopted the minimum wage laws. The issue of minimum wage has been a controversial one in for many decades. This is a global problem because heated debates have existed on whether the minimum wage should be raised or not. The people who support laws concerning minimum wage argue that it raises the living standards of the employees, helps the economy and alleviates poverty. The opponents assert when the minimum wage is increased, the unemployment rates are increased, and this favors the high skilled employees at the …show more content…
To support their claim, they assert that the purpose of the living wage is to ensure that needs such as food, water, clothing, healthcare, and transportation are met. Thus, the proponents of raising minimum wage argue that it leads to the reduction of poverty levels. Poverty has increased in the United States because an increasing number of the employees take low-wage jobs. 12.6% of the Americans were living in poverty in 2005. In 2012, the rate was higher since it hiked 15.7%. Therefore, when the minimum wage is raised, the poverty levels tend to be reduced. Besides, a higher minimum wage is seen to benefit the economy by increasing customer consuming. Economists assert that every dollar that was added to the minimum hourly wage translated to $2800 annual consumer spending. Lastly, they argue that the workers who earn more than the set minimum wage also seen an increase in their …show more content…
Card and Krueger (1993) give statistics on how minimum wage has been since its inception. For instance, they state that in New Jersey, the initial minimum wage was $4.25 to $5.05 an hour. The bill of increasing the minimum wage in Jersey was passed in April 1990. In 1991, the minimum wage was further increased. In 1992, business leaders opposed these laws. Despite this opposition, this law was finally passed. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage was $3.80 in 1991 and $4.25 in 1992. From this data, it is clear that New Jersey had the highest minimum wage rate as compared to Pennsylvania. As stated by the authors, this had no effect on employment. This could mean that whenever the there was an increase in minimum wage, the two restaurants passed the burden to the consumers. The limitation of Card and Krueger 's research is that the effect of the minimum wage has not been scientifically proven. This has led to the current controversial issues about the topic. Therefore, further research needs to be done on the effect of minimum wage on