Minimum wage started a debate among people who feel there is no equal accommodation for people in the minimum wage workforce. The New York State Association of School Business Officials has surveyed New York school districts and “has found that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 will increase labor costs for public schools by millions of dollars” (WSJ). The money will have to come from somewhere, and tax rates will inevitably go up. Many argue businesses will be against this and say this policy can’t work without hurting someone in the long run. Others argue that jobs will still be retained. But the customers incur all the residual wage inflation with prices going up.
Is this right or wrong? Implementing a higher minimum wage cannot happen then without more pain than gain. A nationwide rise would be a catastrophic mistake.
If New Yorkers had an immediate increase in the minimum wage to $15, the job market would not fair well. Employers would pass costs down to consumers as well as have to get rid of parts of the workforce. Gradually increasing the minimum wage would let the increases and changes assimilate into the process for business owners. A better solution proposed by Sens. Patty Murray and Robert C. Scott involves “calling for raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020.” Their bill is co-sponsored by 32 senators and supported by President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton” (Krueger). This plan incorporates a fair amount of time as well as a significant increase in the present minimum wage. Business owners can prepare for the inevitable and have workers look forward to something to incentivize their loyalty.
Many feel strongly about increasing the minimum wage not only on the state level, but also on a federal level. Ralph Nader, a renowned American political activist, wrote a piece in the Boston Globe that voiced the view that the wage should raise to $15 nationally. The problem with his argument is his statement that the minimum wage would be $10.93 today if it had been corrected for inflation. So what leads him to say that we should raise it all the way to $15 an hour by 2019?
It is clear that increases are needed but in more reasonable numbers that would work for states with much lower living costs while accommodating states such as New York or California, where things tend to be more expensive. Millions of people may be affected by the minimum wage rate and their lives depend on it, but there is no need to cause America to spiral into an even greater debt-based economy.
As JFK said, “We can no longer tolerate growing patches of poverty and injustice in America—substandard wages, unemployment, city slums, inadequate medical care, inferior education and the sad plight of migratory workers.” Let’s have a plan and make it work for America’s minimum wage workers. An over-the-top plan with high minimum wages to get people excited to work sounds great in the long run, but we need something that works. It takes time and planning, not just tossing out a number that’s appealing.