Article Summary
Dorfman, Jeffrey. Almost Everything You Have Been Told About The Minimum Wage Is False.
Forbes, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
The article is about the minimum wage in America. He contends that, despite the determination from, the liberals, democrats and their union supporters to have the wage increased, almost everything about minimum wage is false. The author has reinforced his opinion by stating that the discussion over minimum wage only affects some people. The article provides that there are 3.6 million workers earning the minimum wage or below the minimum wage. That 2.5 percent of those workers and a potential 1.5 percent of workers, 31 percent are in their teenage years, and a further 55 percent are at the age of 25 or younger. To Dorfman, this leaves only approximately 1.1 percent of all employees that are over 25 years and only 0.8 percent of American workers over 25 years earning a minimum wage.
Further, Dorfman argues that most of the workers earning the minimum wage are not poor and do not rely on their earnings to sustain a family. He states that most of the minimum wage earners are second or third earners in their families and some live in families that earn well over $50,000 per annum. He concludes that the minimum wage earners are not necessarily poor. The article further provides that the number of minimum wage earners has been decreasing from 15 percent hourly workers in 1980 to 4.7 percent today.
According to Dorfman, also looks at the relationship between minimum wage and productivity. Dorfman faults the liberals for their claims that if the minimum wage rises together with the workers’ productivity, the hourly minimum wage should be about $22. To Dorfman, such argument is meaningless as it fails to measure the relevant concept. This is because productivity may not have improved at the same rate as a minimum wage. Rather than calculating the hypothetical rise in the minimum wage using the productivity gains of every worker, Dorfman suggests the use of productivity gains of minimum wage workers. According to the author, the calculation of the productivity gains of minimum wage workers should study the food service workers since this group of workers contributes 44 percent of the minimum wage earners.
There is need for the government to raise the minimum wage notwithstanding that the people who will benefit are not sole family wage earners. The unprecedented increase in the cost of living is not unique to sole wage earners but also affects those without families hence the need to increase their purchasing power to ensure their sustainability. Raising the minimum wage is good because it motivates employees leading to an increase in productivity. Companies may have to increase recruitment costs but it is not all doom and gloom as the article portrays the calls for a raise of the minimum wage. The article is against a proposed increase of the minimum wage. I disagree with what is going on in the article.
Vocabularies
Work Cited
Dorfman, Jeffrey. Almost Everything You Have Been Told About The Minimum Wage Is False.
Forbes, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
< http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2014/01/30/almost-everything-you-have-been-told-about-the-minimum-wage-is-false/>.
