JEANNETTE DIANNODJI
English 100
Assignment #3 I-Search paper draft
IS RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE BAD FOR BUSINESS?
When I was given the blog assignment about the New York Times room for debate site, I chose to read about the Minimum Wage. First of all, I care about this topic because I know how hard it is to survive on the minimum wage. I used to work at the Hotel Clarion as a housekeeper, and there they hired mostly immigrants because they are willing to work for minimum wage. Even though I worked for lot of hours, I still was not able to earn enough money to pay my rent and eat and save some money for school. I was only able to go to school with help of friends and church
I also found that the issues raised on the site were of interest to me and would help me write a good paper. On the forum for debate site, I read many experts’ opinions about the minimum wage. Some argued that raising the minimum wage would be bad for the economy. Some said that older workers and younger workers should be treated differently. Some argued that if people have more money, they will spend more money. Some argued it would hurt business; some argued that it would help business. The article was about Seattle where the minimum wage was raised to $ 15 an hour. One expert suggested that it would be good to watch what happens in Seattle to test which opinions are more correct. After reading all of these opinions, what I wondered the most was “is raising the minimum wage really bad for business?” In order to research the answer to this question, I would need to find actual examples of where and when the minimum wage was raised and statistics about the effect on businesses. I will use search engines to look for this information. I can also find out when the minimum wage was last raised in Pennsylvania and interview some local business owners about how raising the minimum wage has affected their business in the past.
To research my topic, I began to type questions that related to my topic into Google. Some of the questions that I asked were: Is raising the minimum wage bad for economy? How does raising the minimum wage affect employee turnover? What do the small business owners feel about the minimum wage? Who works for the minimum wage? What is the federal minimum wage? What are the state minimum wages? I hoped these questions would lead me to good information.
Another strategy I used to get the information is to interview my manager at work. In order to that, I made up a series of questions to give me his idea about the minimum wage after I have done that, I interview a person on the minimum wage to get their idea and the to compare them. The next thing I did was to get information statistics from the department of labor web site
The questions on Google led me to many sites and lot of information. I recorded the web addresses in a note book. I thought this strategy worked pretty well. I was especially looking for statistics about the past. I also needed to think about the source that was using the statistics because I know can be used to prove almost any point. Doing the interviews my Manager was willing to talk to me about the topic and a person earning the minimum wage also gave their ideas. In both cases the information was more opinion than fact. Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics there is great deal of information with statistics about number by age and sex and occupations and by geographic region. The information was easy to find but it is very detailed so I needed to compare the information to the summaries that I found to check their accuracy.
When doing my research about raising the minimum wage, I found many opinions on the both sides of the question. Most of the negative opinions argued that raising the minimum wage would be bad for business and the economy. I believe the opposite – that raising the minimum wage would not be bad for business and the economy.
First of all, not many people in our economy actually work for minimum wage. According to statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not as many people are working for minimum wage as they were in the past. A total of 3.3 million hourly workers now work at or below minimum wage. That is about 3 % of all wage and salary workers. In 1979, those who worked for minimum wage represented almost 8 % of the work force. Those who are making minimum wage work in only a few industries -- food preparation and serving occupations ( almost half), retail, and personal care. I don’t think that raising the minimum wage for relatively few employees in relatively few industries could possibly hurt the economy of the United States of America.
Dls.gov.minimumwage
Pewresearch.org Sept. 8 2014 “Who makes minimum wage”
Even though statistically not many people work for minimum wage, many argue that those most affected are the small businesses and that they would be hurt by the raise. Actually,
a majority of small business owners favor a rise in the minimum wage. The Association of Small Businesses conducted a nationwide poll in July, 2014. The results showed that 61% of small business owners with employees support gradually increasing the federal minimum wage. Over two and a half years to $10.10. They also recommend adjusting it to the cost of living. They believe that a higher minimum wage would help the economy by giving people more money to spend. Also if workers are higher paid, they will stay with their jobs longer. More experienced workers will be more productive and therefore customers will be more satisfied. Satisfied customers benefit small businesses. It is interesting that 43% of the small business owner said that they were Republicans because the Republican Party representatives in Washington DC always oppose raising the minimum wage. One example of a small business industry that is prospering with a higher minimum wage is the restaurant industry in California.
Abscouncil.org/sites/default/files/asbc_bfmw_poll_report_final_140709,pdf
www.dol.gov/minwage/mythbuster.htm Minimum Wage Mythbusters
www.restaurant.org/Downloads/PDFs/State-Statistics/2014/california
Employers in California must pay the full minimum wage of $9 an hour before tips (the federal minimum wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 since 1991). (mythbusters)
The National Restaurant Association projects that California restaurants will sell more than the national average and have a 9.1% jobs growth over the next ten years.
Another argument against raising the minimum wage is that it will make workers lose their jobs. On the contrary, states that raised their minimum wages on January 1st have had higher employment growth than states that kept their minimum wage the same. Washington State has the highest minimum wage and saw the biggest increase in small business jobs last year. These figures cannot prove that the raise in minimum wages caused the increase in jobs, it does show evidence that minimum wage increases do not automatically hurt small business jobs.
www.thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/03/3456393/minimum-wage-state-increase-employment
The Center for Economic and Policy Research in a study published in February 2013, “Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?” suggests that employers can make many adjustments to an increase in the minimum wage. Some come as a result of the increase. For example, labor turnover is reduced. The businesses can also increase their efficiency and reduce the wages of higher earners or choose small price increases. Therefore, the cost to small businesses of an increase in the minimum wage can be relatively small and they do not have to fire their workers.
www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02.pdf
I feel that I learned a lot from researching this topic. First of all, I gained more experience at doing research. I think it was helpful to think of some questions before I started to do research. For example: How much is the minimum wage? Who works for the minimum wage? Is raising the minimum wage bad for business? Just by using Google search, I was able to find a lot of information. Some sites gave facts but others were mostly opinions. Sometimes it was difficult to know if the opinions had any facts to support them, therefore, I had to check them to find out the facts. Another difficulty happened when a source referred to “several studies,” but did not say what the studies were. So, I think one of my “take-aways” is that I have to decide if I can trust the source. Also, I could see how reading one source brought new questions to mind and sometimes new sources to investigate. Secondly, I was amazed by some of the information that I learned about the minimum wage. Before my research, I did not even know what the federal minimum wage was. Now I know that it is $7.25 and it has not been raised since 2009. I also learned that many states have their own minimum wage, some as high as $10 or more. Maybe I should move to California, or maybe even better move to Seattle, Washington, where the minimum wage is $15, For future research I would be interested in trying to prove the opposite from my thesis. I have already talked to two business people who think that raising the minimum wage causes problems for businesses. Is there evidence to support their opinion? I am curious to find out.
www.raisetheminimumwage.com
English 100
Assignment #3 I-Search paper draft
IS RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE BAD FOR BUSINESS?
When I was given the blog assignment about the New York Times room for debate site, I chose to read about the Minimum Wage. First of all, I care about this topic because I know how hard it is to survive on the minimum wage. I used to work at the Hotel Clarion as a housekeeper, and there they hired mostly immigrants because they are willing to work for minimum wage. Even though I worked for lot of hours, I still was not able to earn enough money to pay my rent and eat and save some money for school. I was only able to go to school with help of friends and church
I also found that the issues raised on the site were of interest to me and would help me write a good paper. On the forum for debate site, I read many experts’ opinions about the minimum wage. Some argued that raising the minimum wage would be bad for the economy. Some said that older workers and younger workers should be treated differently. Some argued that if people have more money, they will spend more money. Some argued it would hurt business; some argued that it would help business. The article was about Seattle where the minimum wage was raised to $ 15 an hour. One expert suggested that it would be good to watch what happens in Seattle to test which opinions are more correct. After reading all of these opinions, what I wondered the most was “is raising the minimum wage really bad for business?” In order to research the answer to this question, I would need to find actual examples of where and when the minimum wage was raised and statistics about the effect on businesses. I will use search engines to look for this information. I can also find out when the minimum wage was last raised in Pennsylvania and interview some local business owners about how raising the minimum wage has affected their business in the past.
To research my topic, I began to type questions that related to my topic into Google. Some of the questions that I asked were: Is raising the minimum wage bad for economy? How does raising the minimum wage affect employee turnover? What do the small business owners feel about the minimum wage? Who works for the minimum wage? What is the federal minimum wage? What are the state minimum wages? I hoped these questions would lead me to good information.
Another strategy I used to get the information is to interview my manager at work. In order to that, I made up a series of questions to give me his idea about the minimum wage after I have done that, I interview a person on the minimum wage to get their idea and the to compare them. The next thing I did was to get information statistics from the department of labor web site
The questions on Google led me to many sites and lot of information. I recorded the web addresses in a note book. I thought this strategy worked pretty well. I was especially looking for statistics about the past. I also needed to think about the source that was using the statistics because I know can be used to prove almost any point. Doing the interviews my Manager was willing to talk to me about the topic and a person earning the minimum wage also gave their ideas. In both cases the information was more opinion than fact. Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics there is great deal of information with statistics about number by age and sex and occupations and by geographic region. The information was easy to find but it is very detailed so I needed to compare the information to the summaries that I found to check their accuracy.
When doing my research about raising the minimum wage, I found many opinions on the both sides of the question. Most of the negative opinions argued that raising the minimum wage would be bad for business and the economy. I believe the opposite – that raising the minimum wage would not be bad for business and the economy.
First of all, not many people in our economy actually work for minimum wage. According to statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not as many people are working for minimum wage as they were in the past. A total of 3.3 million hourly workers now work at or below minimum wage. That is about 3 % of all wage and salary workers. In 1979, those who worked for minimum wage represented almost 8 % of the work force. Those who are making minimum wage work in only a few industries -- food preparation and serving occupations ( almost half), retail, and personal care. I don’t think that raising the minimum wage for relatively few employees in relatively few industries could possibly hurt the economy of the United States of America.
Dls.gov.minimumwage
Pewresearch.org Sept. 8 2014 “Who makes minimum wage”
Even though statistically not many people work for minimum wage, many argue that those most affected are the small businesses and that they would be hurt by the raise. Actually,
a majority of small business owners favor a rise in the minimum wage. The Association of Small Businesses conducted a nationwide poll in July, 2014. The results showed that 61% of small business owners with employees support gradually increasing the federal minimum wage. Over two and a half years to $10.10. They also recommend adjusting it to the cost of living. They believe that a higher minimum wage would help the economy by giving people more money to spend. Also if workers are higher paid, they will stay with their jobs longer. More experienced workers will be more productive and therefore customers will be more satisfied. Satisfied customers benefit small businesses. It is interesting that 43% of the small business owner said that they were Republicans because the Republican Party representatives in Washington DC always oppose raising the minimum wage. One example of a small business industry that is prospering with a higher minimum wage is the restaurant industry in California.
Abscouncil.org/sites/default/files/asbc_bfmw_poll_report_final_140709,pdf
www.dol.gov/minwage/mythbuster.htm Minimum Wage Mythbusters
www.restaurant.org/Downloads/PDFs/State-Statistics/2014/california
Employers in California must pay the full minimum wage of $9 an hour before tips (the federal minimum wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 since 1991). (mythbusters)
The National Restaurant Association projects that California restaurants will sell more than the national average and have a 9.1% jobs growth over the next ten years.
Another argument against raising the minimum wage is that it will make workers lose their jobs. On the contrary, states that raised their minimum wages on January 1st have had higher employment growth than states that kept their minimum wage the same. Washington State has the highest minimum wage and saw the biggest increase in small business jobs last year. These figures cannot prove that the raise in minimum wages caused the increase in jobs, it does show evidence that minimum wage increases do not automatically hurt small business jobs.
www.thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/03/3456393/minimum-wage-state-increase-employment
The Center for Economic and Policy Research in a study published in February 2013, “Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?” suggests that employers can make many adjustments to an increase in the minimum wage. Some come as a result of the increase. For example, labor turnover is reduced. The businesses can also increase their efficiency and reduce the wages of higher earners or choose small price increases. Therefore, the cost to small businesses of an increase in the minimum wage can be relatively small and they do not have to fire their workers.
www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02.pdf
I feel that I learned a lot from researching this topic. First of all, I gained more experience at doing research. I think it was helpful to think of some questions before I started to do research. For example: How much is the minimum wage? Who works for the minimum wage? Is raising the minimum wage bad for business? Just by using Google search, I was able to find a lot of information. Some sites gave facts but others were mostly opinions. Sometimes it was difficult to know if the opinions had any facts to support them, therefore, I had to check them to find out the facts. Another difficulty happened when a source referred to “several studies,” but did not say what the studies were. So, I think one of my “take-aways” is that I have to decide if I can trust the source. Also, I could see how reading one source brought new questions to mind and sometimes new sources to investigate. Secondly, I was amazed by some of the information that I learned about the minimum wage. Before my research, I did not even know what the federal minimum wage was. Now I know that it is $7.25 and it has not been raised since 2009. I also learned that many states have their own minimum wage, some as high as $10 or more. Maybe I should move to California, or maybe even better move to Seattle, Washington, where the minimum wage is $15, For future research I would be interested in trying to prove the opposite from my thesis. I have already talked to two business people who think that raising the minimum wage causes problems for businesses. Is there evidence to support their opinion? I am curious to find out.
www.raisetheminimumwage.com