http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-obama-state-union-address.html
President Obama released the State of the Union address which was a call to arms in favor of Democratic priorities. Obama wants an increase in marketplace, higher spending on child care and medical research, expanded education and jobs, and higher minimum wage. He says “To everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it,".
I agree one hundred percent with Obama. Our society, especially in New York, you would never be able to support a family with such a little amount of money. I have six people in my family, four children and two parents. I bet we spend that $15,000 in about 3 months between bills, food, clothes, and other expenses.Although I'm fortunate that my parents have well paying jobs may aren't as fortunate. What about those who cant support their families let alone themselves? Just because we can feed ourselves we forget about others? No, we need a change and Congress has the power to do so. Recently minimum wage was raised from $8.25 to $8.75, a .50 cent difference is not going to cut it. Obama wants to continues to fight and raise it so it is almost doubled.
I understand the purpose of raising minimum wage, but this is an issue that should have been raised over time. We can't just basically double the minimum wage, its going to bankrupt many companies and private business's. Obama's idea is to "slowly" increase in minimum wage over time, but he's not giving it enough time. If employers are forced to pay one person what they would have paid two people, there might end up being some people loosing their jobs. If a company cannot afford to have all of these people making twice, they will cut their costs by firing people.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the other issue there is is that minimum wage jobs are not meant to be a career. Although i understand that some people don't have a choice, but if you're working at McDonalds, thats not a career. You're supposed to try to strive for better and try to get a better job, not stay there for 10,15, or 20 years. Minimum wage jobs should be stepping stones to better opportunities.
The last argument is that if a company decides to keep everyone they had employed, even though it costs then double, some of the prices for goods and services will most likely go up dramatically. A huge increase in the minimum wage is like inflation. The prices of basically everything will go up. A $5 hamburger might be $8, because they are trying to get the same profit as before. Then if all the prices go up, where are these minimum wage workers? Still struggling to make ends meet, and in the same situation.