Raising the Minimum Wage

Brittany Greenleaf

Composition 2

March 2014

Raising the Minimum Wage

In his essay," Raising the minimum wage is a good idea...well never," George Will's sarcasm aims toward why minimum wage workers should not get higher wages. Will believes three percent of the work force earns minimum wage. He believes these earners are students and teens who are not poor, and making $53,000 a year. Will states, "There are more poor people whose poverty derives from being unemployed than from poor wages." Will's argument is unconvincing because it is based on false statistics and personal opinion. Will incorrectly assumes that raising the minimum wage would have a negative effect on America.

Will's assumption that most minimum wage workers are not poor is an irrational assumption. However, a fulltime worker earning minimum wage makes an average of $14,500 a year. Most live from paycheck to paycheck. Also, Will emphasis that more than half of minimum wage workers are students or other "young," with an income is $53,000 a year. Studies show that nearly 90 percent of them are adults 20 and older, and 53 percent of earners working full time. Women represent 56 percent of them (Bureau of Labor and Statistics). This concludes that the vast majority of those getting raises would not be teenagers with part time jobs.

Will also believes, along with conservatives who have latched on to a report by the Congressional Budget office, that the unemployment rates will increase with higher wages and only a small group of people earn minimum wage. However, more than 35 million Americans earn less than $10 an hour, while 16 million low-wage workers make $7.25 an hour. They would directly benefit from the increase. Eight million workers would also benefit from the increase because of the "ripple effect" of an increase (Bureau of Labor and Statistics).This would add $31 billion to the paychecks of families ranging from poverty level to middle class and lead to increased spending power and raising overall income, including businesses. According to the New York Times article, there is no way of knowing what would happen to employment if the wage goes up or how employers would