Raising the Minimum Wage

At the recent State of the Union address President Obama called for raising the minimum wage. Obama said he planned to pull people out of poverty by raising the federal minimum wage to nine dollars an hour. The current federal minimum wage is a seven dollars and twenty-five cents and there has now recently been anup rising debate whether the minimum wage should be higher or not.

Paul Krugman a New York Times Columnist  recently came out with an  article, "Raise that Wage", where he supports Obama's proposal of raising the wage and argues that it is good economics and good politics. He argues against the case and says that there is no evidence that proves that raising the minimum wage would cause higher unemployment because it would  make it more difficult for employers to hire people. Krugman believes that by the President raising the minimum wage there will be positive effects. He believes that the current minimum wage is very low compared to the amount of inflation. If the minimum wage was to keep up with the inflation, the minimum wage would be $10.52. Many people believe that raising the minimum wage would cost people their jobs, but according to Krugman this simply is not true and there is evidence that proves that there is little effect on employment if minimum wage is increased.  The article also suggests that the effect in a raise in the minimum wage will rise the incomes of low paid Americans. According to Krugman wage increases is wanted by many voters who are Republican women. Many people believe that the lowest paid workers deserve to have raise which is why the minimum wage, according to Krugman, the minimum wage needs needs to be raised to $9.00 per hour (Krugman).

Of course, there also has to be an opposing view to raising the minimum wage to nine dollars. In Frobes an article "Why Raising The Minimum Wage Kills Jobs" by Dunkelber argues that raising the minimum wage would be detrimental. On January first ten states increased their minimum wage, San Fransisco being the highest at ten dollars an hour and Washington not falling far behind at nine dollars an hour. The states increased the minimum wage to support the poor people and to stimulate the economy. The article argues that since many of the poor do not work, raising the minimum wage would only  make it harder for them to get any jobs.  If congress were to raise the minimum wage  more companies would deny workers that were low skilled. Also, raising the minimum wage won't help the intended target but most median income families.  Raising the minimum wage will also make it harder for people to become hired because people that work need to bring as much success to the company that they are getting paid for. Last time that congress raised the minimum wage in 2009 almost six hundred thousand teens lost their jobs. In the article they say that raising the minimum wage will not help because the money is coming out of somebodies pocket so there will be no gain of income to increase spending in the community.  In general this article argues that raising the minimum wage will have a negative impact on the economy and the people of America (Dunkelber). 

After looking at two very opinionated articles that both have strong valid points it is hard to determine what will benefit America and its economy.  There are many pros and cons in this debate like it helping low income families versus it lowering the amount of teen jobs.  I think it is a very important issue to have an opinion on because it effects all Americans.

Dunkelber, W. (2012). Why raising the minimum wage kills jobs. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamdunkelberg/2012/12/31/why-raising-the-minimum-wage-kills-jobs/

Krugman, P. (2013). Raise that wage. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/opinion/krugman-raise-that-wage.html?_r=0