Costs of Increase in Minimum Wage

Costs
Opponents of the minimum wage claim it has these effects:

  • Reduces demand for workers. This may manifest itself through a reduction in the number of hours worked by individuals, or through a reduction in the number of jobs.
  • Hurts the least employable by making them unemployable, in effect pricing them out of the market.
  • Reduces profit margins of business owners employing minimum wage workers, thus encouraging a move to businesses that do not employ low skill workers.
  • Is a limit on the freedom of both employers and employees. Minimum wage laws make it illegal for employers to pay workers less than the minimum wage.
  • Decreases opportunities for low-skilled workers to gain the training and responsibility they need to move up the wage ladder.
  • It is important to recognize that the jobs lost are mainly entry-level jobs. By destroying entry-level jobs, a higher minimum wage harms the lifetime earnings prospects of low-skilled workers.
  • increases the number of high-school students who drop out.

2 comments:

Gina socks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gina socks said...

Before i read your blog, and did some research to help you, i was pro- raising the minimum wage. After reading and researching i have changed my mind. Too many risks are involved and the website below discusses them further. Some of them include:
-incentives against college
-helps corporations/hurts small businesses
-creates unemployment
-blunt anti-povety tool
These risks and costs of increasng the minimm wage simply outweigh any arguements for raising it.
Hope the site helps =]

http://www.examiner.com/a-376994~Max_Borders__Five_reasons_not_to_raise_the_minimum_wage.html