I would like to take this opportunity to expand on my previous topic of Texas raising the minimum wage. As I mentioned in my previous commentary, Texas should raise its minimum wage. According to Talk Poverty as of 2015 Texas has a population of over 26 million with over 4.5 million of its population living in poverty. An increase in minimum wage would target the poorest families by removing millions of families out of poverty. Removing families out of poverty would reduce the cost of welfare programs. As well as decrease the number of families struggling to afford rent. A raise in wages is also beneficial to public health. Raising minimum wage will put more money into our local economy and a rise in the economy would affect not only the ones working at the current minimum wage but also those that are making above the minimum wage. Also, most minimum wage workers are women, so raising the minimum wage would raise the income for many women and this could help address and shorten the gap in gender equality. With all the reason listed above Texas could benefit from raising the minimum wage so it is time for Texas to address this issue.
The thought of raising minimum wage in Texas is indeed an exciting one. It is true that Texas has the largest population of working citizens that are making minimum wage and are struggling to support their families. At one point, Obama supported a bill that would have raised minimum wage to $10.10, which would have increased earnings for more than 16 million people. Unfortunately, raising minimum wage could have a potential negative effect as well, and before it is raised these issues need to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteRaising minimum wage will be a struggle for many small businesses, and doing this could eliminate these jobs. According to The Dallas Morning News, Raising minimum wage has the potential to eliminate almost 500,000 jobs from the market, thus decreasing job opportunities for people. Additionally, increasing the minimum wage will result in ineligability of certain benefits such as food stamps and housing subsidies. With that being said, although their income will be larger, their necesarry expenses will increase as well. Meaning that an increase in minimum wage to $10.10 would really only mean an increase in $100-$150 dollars a month for some families.
Despite these issues, I do think that the benefits potentially outweigh the costs. There really is no way of actually knowing how it will affect the economy until minimum wage is actually increased. Doing so does open a door for this population of people to make larger contributions to the community (in sales tax, for example), but it may be extremely difficult for those that will be negatively affected. I am definitely a supporter of increasing minimum wage, however I would like to see at least some of these kinks worked out first.
The Lone Star State boasts the sixth-highest number of minimum wage workers and the second-lowest wage rate for hourly workers. The 287,000 minimum wage workers in Texas live closer to the brink of poverty than a living age. It's time for Texas to raise the minimum wage to protect workers and ensure that they live a life without poverty. I completely agree with one of my colleague's blog "TEXAS SHOULD RAISE ITS MINIMUM WAGE."
ReplyDeleteFree market crusader and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott argues a minimum wage hike would kill Texan jobs. According to me, moderate raises in the minimum wage have no adverse effect on employment or worker hours. In fact, states that raised the minimum wage in 2014 actually saw faster job creation than states that kept their wage flat. Moreover, a living wage of $10.10 would directly impact almost 2 million Texans and provide a $ 3.1 billion boosts to the state's GDP.
Ultimately, a minimum wage raise would target the poorest families, alleviate the burdens of high rent, reduce the cost of government welfare programs, garner bipartisan support among Texans, improve education outcomes, and reduce the consumption of nutrition-poor food. Thus, by raising minimum wage, Texas could get benefit and workers might get out of poverty living a better life.
I agree with this point of view for a variety of reasons. For one, the criticism of the raising of minimum wage comes mostly from the point of view of those who believe that corporate higher-ups should retain the bulk of profits and financial rewards in a successful company. However, the failure of these individuals to realize the fact that the dispersion of wealth will boost the economy for all, is foolish. I agree that raising minimum wage would help the economy in the ways described here, and I also believe that it would increase market-level spending, which is always a source of revenue for people on all levels of the economic scale.
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