Minimum Wage is on the Up. Should we be Happy or Worried?

Image result for minimum wage       At the moment, minimum wage is higher than it's ever been before. Even then, many politicians, generally democrats, are lobbying for federal minimum wage to be increased further to $15. The "Fight for 15" is extremely divisive dependent on geographical location. This is due to the myriad of factors that impacts the success of having such a high or low minimum wage. In Seattle, they increased the minimum wage from $9.47 to $11 in 2015. Researchers found that this caused insignificant effects on employment. However, when they further increased the minimum wage from $11 to $13 in 2016, it ended up hurting employment. In such a specific location like Seattle, it is unclear what the ideal minimum wage is. From there, how can we have a federal minimum wage that applies to all states. For example, In Alabama, the median hourly wage is only $15.77. Having a federal minimum wage of 1$5 would make it the 95th percentile of its current level. This would turn the job market on its head and result in a massive loss of jobs. Of the price of workers is too much to compensate for in sales, employers will simply hire less labor, which is the worst outcome of them all.


        In the end we have to consider that, "that the cost of living in Selma, Alabama is very different than New York City." For this reason, I think would should be slightly worried about an federal increase in minimum wage.



Sources:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/23/716126740/when-does-a-minimum-wage-become-too-high
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/upshot/why-america-may-already-have-its-highest-minimum-wage.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Did Nutella Take Over the Breakfast World?

Image
Everyone has heard of it, the delicious creamy breakfast spread, Nutella. However, what no one questions is how it became an overnight sensation that still continues to hold unwavering popularity. Nutella was originally created by Pietro Ferrero around 1946 and only did his son really help to bring it to the market in Europe eventually creating a craze in the United States. At Colombia University the undergrad students were so enamored with the spread that they were swiping tubs full from the dining hall costing the university as much as $5,000. Sales only truly started to pick up in the states when advertising began, making the sales triple to $240 million. Focusing its branding on a breakfast market by becoming one of the typical spread such as jam and butter to put on your bread. Then they were able to even reach a family status, that Nutella was a spread that could be enjoyed by your entire family, something that can be shared, but more importantly something that is sp
Read more

The Opportunity Costs of College

Image
The concept of opportunity costs has much more applications in the real world than I first imagined. The opportunity cost of one thing is the value of that which is sacrificed to obtain it. When I began to research I was stunned by the number of examples and situations, but the one that interested me the most was the opportunity cost of college. We are all about to go to college in just a couple months, so of course, I wanted to see if this upcoming journey is going to be worth it. The first cost of college: tuition. College is not cheap and according to the College Board, during the 2017-18 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees was $34,740 at private colleges. Now assume it takes you four years to graduate and that is approximately $140,000 that you spend on a college education. Thus, by deciding to go to a private college, the money spent is an opportunity cost as it is something that you did not have to spend if you didn't go to college. In addition, by going to
Read more

Movie Theater Popcorn

Image
The experience of watching a movie in theaters isn't replicable. There's the large screen, the comfy chairs, surround-sound systems, and most importantly, the popcorn. Yet, movie theater concession are notoriously overpriced. Why? A study conducted by Stanford and UC Santa Cruz found that the strategy of pricing concessions high and keeping tickets low attracts more customers within a larger income range. By charging less to allow consumers to watch movies on a big screen, more people (especially those that are price-sensitive) are able to enjoy this experience. The movie ticket is a primary product in relation to a theater's profit model, and the snacks are secondary products: you don't have to buy concessions to enjoy a movie, but it certainly ups the overall experience. Most theaters rely heavily on concession sales to keep themselves afloat. Due to low revenues from tickets (a portion of the profits go to movie distributers), profits from the sales of popcorn an
Read more