The term minimum wage rate refers to the minimum amount of compensation that an employee receives after performing a particular task. It is prudent to note that the minimum wage rate is established by either government legislation or the contract. This implies that it is illegal or unlawful to pay employees an amount that is less than the minimum wage rate that has been set by the government. The subject about the minimum wage rate has been debated for a long period of time. Some people argue that the minimum wage rate should be increased while others argue otherwise. Even different articles have been written about the minimum wage rate because people and various agents have not been able to agree on a universal minimum wage rate. This paper therefore shall compare and analyze the minimum wage rate by exploring two different articles one which supports the notion that the minimum wage rate should be increased and the other one which is against the increment of the minimum wage rate. The paper shall then examine the possible weaknesses and strengths of the two different articles.
The article by Kevin A. Hassett and Michael R. Strain is of the opinion that the minimum wage rate should not be raised. In this article, the authors argue that raising the minimum wage rate would make it more difficult for the firms to employ more workers. This in turn creates widespread unemployment in the country a situation which is very dangerous to the economic progress or prosperity of the country. They emphasize that despite the fact that the individuals who keep their jobs will benefit from increased salaries, those who fail to keep their jobs are likely to suffer more.
This is a strong indicator that increasing minimum wage rate may not benefit the poor as was being suggested by President Obama in the article by (Andy and Carl 2013). On the other hand, the article by Andry Stern and Carl Camden that was published in March 10 2013 propose that the minimum wage rate should be increased. They support their arguments by claiming that increasing the minimum wage rate would help to alleviate poverty. They argue that raising the minimum wage rate has very limited effects on employment and therefore should be embraced. According to them, restoring the dignity of work through raising the minimum wage rate helps in reducing the employee turnover hence increasing the productivity of workers. These proponents believe that raising the minimum wage rate will help to reduce inequality and restore back the true value of work. From my analysis of the two articles, I found that the article which is against raising the minimum wage rate presents a coherent and solid argument which is comprehensive about the reasons why the minimum wage rate should not be raised.
The article by Kevin A. Hassett and Michael R. Strain indicate that raising the minimum wage rate would lead to low rate employment because most industries and firms may not be willing to employ many workers at an increased wage rates. I find this article more coherent because actually without employment economic progress of the country will be greatly hindered. Consequently, raising the minimum wage rate will only benefit a few hence the principle of equity will not have been taken into consideration. Therefore, it is advisable not to raise the minimum wage rate especially to a level that is being proposed by the article written by (Stern and Camden 2013). This is because raising minimum wage to that level may have drastic effects in the economy. For instance, it will lead to unemployment.
In their article, Kevin A. Hassett and Michael R. Strain present a solid and coherent argument about why the minimum wage rate should not be increased. Though most of their reasons against increasing the minimum wage rate are based on the effects such increase has on employment opportunities in the country, I find the argument presentable because the states of affairs and the economic progress of the country solely depends on such economy to create jobs to its citizens.
According to (Hassett and Strain 2013), raising the minimum wage rate would make it more difficult for the firms to employ more workers. This in turn results to widespread unemployment in the country a situation which is very dangerous to the economic progress or prosperity of the country. They emphasize that despite the fact that the individuals who keep their jobs will benefit from increased salaries, those who fail to keep their jobs are likely to suffer more.
This is because most of the individuals who live in poverty do not work and therefore they will be the least affected by the increase of the minimum wage rate. Furthermore, individuals who earn the minimum wage rate are generally not the primary breadwinners in their respective households but secondary. According to the data obtained from the Bureau of labor statistics and which is quoted in the article by (Hassett and Kevin 2013), indicates that raising minimum wage rate is least likely to benefit the poor because most of them do not work. Furthermore, furthermore, those who earn hourly and who are likely to benefit from the minimum wage rate constitute only almost a half which is insignificant figure to alleviate poverty in the country. ( Hassett, Kevin, Strain and Michael 2013). This research then shows that raising the minimum wage rate is impractical because it is an ineffective anti-poverty proposal which politicians use during political campaigns in order to acquire political mileage. Therefore, the suggestion of the article by Andry Stern and Carl Camden that increasing the minimum wage rate would restore the dignity and equity in the society is unjustified because such increase is most likely to affect only a few individual who are poor since most poor people do not work. Furthermore, the head of the democratic congressional campaign committee, Rep Steve Israel told the Washington post that the issue of the minimum wage rate was just a reminder to the suburban independent voters who house Republican. His notion was seconded by Pelosi who clarified that democrats intend to embrace simple message. “That they want to raise the minimum wage rate and you don’t”. This is a strong message that raising minimum wage rate was just a simple tool used by the democrats to win more votes but it is not advisable.
The article by (Hassett and Kevin 2013), presents alternative measures that can be employed in order to ensure equity other than raising the minimum wage rate. For instance, the nonpartisan congressional budget office realized that expanding the earned income tax credit would be more efficient way of alleviating poverty compared to raising the minimum wage rate. They suggest that tax credit is less palatable because it takes the money directly out from the federal coffers. (Hassett and Kevin 2013). Other weaknesses noticed in the articles by (Stern and Camden 2013) is that despite the fact that they are proposing for increased higher wage rate, they do not look at the negative side of this increase. Furthermore, the article only considers the effect of increasing the minimum wage rate to the working class. They do not consider the individuals who are not working and who make the majority of the poor people. They do not understand that raising minimum wage rate would only benefit the working class while the poor will continue to suffer even more as a result of increase in the minimum wage rate.
In conclusion it is prudent to note that the paper have analyzed two articles which hold different views about the minimum wage rate. One article proposed that the minimum wage rate should be increased while the other one was against. Some of the main points argued in this paper include reasons why minimum wage rate should not be increased. We realized that increasing minimum wage rate is not a good method of alleviating poverty in the society because most poor people do not work. Furthermore, increasing minimum wage rate would just lead to deterioration of the economy as most industries and firms would be forced to lay off some workers. It is therefore not advisable to raise the minimum wage rate unless when the economic circumstances in the country calls for such increase.
Work Cited
Hassett, Kevin and Strain, Michael, “Why we shouldn't raise the minimum wage.”
latimes.com. Retrieved on 29 March, 2013; from,
latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hassett-the-case-against-the-minimum
wage-20130310,0,1443375.story.
Stern and Camden, “Why we need to raise the minimum wage.” latimes.com.
Retrieved on 29 March, 2013; from, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/10/opinion/la
oe-stern-camden-why-we-should-raise-the-minimum-20130310.
