The Debate Club discussion
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I mean, it really depends on the economy really ;-;Where I'm at it's 14.48, which is like so much more than other places, but at the same time it just depends on the place and location considering some places have a high or lower minimum wage depending on where they're located.
As for my current location, I do not mind where it it's at though, the market itself is also expensive, I mean to rent out a studio apartment it's about 1k-1.3k a month. Though it seems fair. For what I think, minimum wage really just depends on where your located. Currently I think minimum wage is fine, though in other places, it could be higher-
the minimum wage in Tennessee is $7.50, which mean their yearly income is somewhere around $15,000 if they work full time. In Tennessee to support one person, the average amount needed is $45,000. Does this seem right? No, it doesn't.Minimum wage was supposed to be a starting rate for teens, but now the amount of adults with only highschool diplomas and enough experience to get minimum wage jobs is higher. Now a lot of poorer people are living off this amount while trying to stretch it to cover $45,000 worth of things. The minimum wage should be higher in specific states.
In the UK;Over 21: £12.21 Apprentice/18-20: £10.00 Under 18: £7.55
These are April 2025 rates. Before, the higher minimum wage was only for over 25s, so they changed it recently and did more age brackets. Most also offer London premiums (because London is toooo expensive)
Do I think it should exist? I mean. Yes. From my ideological pov, no. But I'm alsk pragmatic. I do think that minimum wage should be based on experience and not age, but then again, your wage will be going up with experience anyway. Hmmmm
Minimum wage, theoretically, should create unempllyment, however, there is little evidence it does. Hence, i think there should be
15.88 dollars; 13 dollars; 9.82 dollarsBtw
Here are two of my old cases from a few months ago on this topic (Both for and negating weather or not a worker should earn a wage that is livable)AFFIRMATIVE SIDE:
Value: My value today is Equity. According to Mariam-Webster, Equity is defined as “justice according to natural law or right”. Equity within the bounds of today’s debate is seen as the rights that workers deserve to provide for themselves, as a worker’s pay should be able to, at bare minimum, pay for basic human necessities.
Value Criterion: My value criterion is
Contention One: Raising the minimum wage to a fair level prevents suicide cases.
Subpoint A: From an ethical standpoint, everyone deserves to live. Everyone deserves the opportunity to make a living wage to provide for themselves. In a study done by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, published on January 14, 2022, it states “The researchers estimated that a $1 increase in state minimum wage above prevailing levels would have prevented 27,550 suicides by people with no more than a high school education.” This provides evidence into the logical reasoning behind raising living wages. Not only do the wages allow the workers in question to pay for the basic necessities to survive like food, water, shelter, and clothing, but this article is proof that heightening the wages prevents almost 30,000 suicides just by one dollar.
Subpoint B: Suicide rates are more common in jobs not in the white collar industry. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on December 15, 2023, explains this “Major industry groups with the highest suicide rates included Mining; Construction; Other Services; Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation; and Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting.” Knowing this information, and knowing the minuscule wages the laborers typically get, this can answer the question of why they are so high: Because they do not earn enough money to survive. With these facts we are able to infer that raising the minimum wage would be beneficial.
When we raise the minimum wage, the suicide cases lower, increasing the moral and betterment of the United States as a whole. We, as a nation, want to be as great as we can be. Increasing the minimum wage will greatly increase the productivity, Quality, and life as a whole for the country’s citizens.
Contention Two: Better Quality of Life is the outcome of Higher Wages.
Homelessness is an inevitable thing, but heightening minimum wages to make them literally livable. It is stated by the National coalition for the homeless, that it was found that “Nationally, the cost of rental housing greatly exceeds wages earned by low-income renter households. For example, a full-time worker needs to earn on average $25.82 per hour to afford a modest two-bedroom rental and $21.21 hourly to afford a one-bedroom (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2022). However, the national minimum wage is only $7.25!” ie; It costs way more to rent an apartment than what the average worker can afford. This statistic provides us with the proof needed to understand that the living wage is not livable for the workers, but for the employers who refuse their workers.The workers deserve equity as it is their basic human right to receive such,
Contention Three: Higher productivity in the workplace.
Not only does increasing the minimum wage benefit the workers, but it also benefits the consumers and the employers. Education & The Workforce Committee Democrats, published on July 25th, 2023 stated “When workers earn higher wages they are absent from work less, leading to increased productivity”. This is a testament that raising the minimum wages will increase productivity in the workplace because of the motivation to do so. Raising the minimum wage will benefit all parties involved, making life livable. This increase in minimum wage will not only benefit the workers but also the consumers because of the heightened productivity. This coexists with equity because it gives justice to everyone in the workplace and consumer chain.
NEGATIVE:
Value: My value today is Fairness. Fairness is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “The quality of treating people equally or in a way that is right or reasonable”. In relation to the resolution, Fairness is the security of being treated with justice. Although at the surface giving everyone a living wage is seen as fairness, it is unjust in nature. This is because it is unfair to the business owners, who have to pay their employees more, without compensation for it.
Value Criterion: To achieve fairness, one must take in consideration the needs and wants of everyone in the situation. My Value Criterion in the bounds of today's debate is Lack of Bias. It is fair to assume that not everyone can afford the minimum wage raising, and placing them in poverty. To understand why we must not raise the minimum wage we must understand why there is a minimum wage in the first place. There is a minimum wage to ensure that everyone is able to live based on the amount of money you receive from your employer. But, with this, we need to think about the employer. If we raise the minimum wage, and they are not able to afford such a price, they will have to either: Fire employees, cut corners in their products and/or services, or shut down their business. All terrible outcomes to a complex thing built upon the twisted proposition, disguised as the savior to the modern United States economic state, Implementing a Living Wage.
Contention One: The fracturing effect this proposition will have on Small Businesses
Smaller businesses have less of a means to pay their employees with a higher wage. Implementing this ordinance could seriously harm businesses not on a corporate level. The NFIB: Small Business Association published an article on March 18th 2024 stating “Under the proposal, the minimum wage would jump to $15 per hour on August 1, 2024, resulting in a nearly 40 percent cost increase to employers. Increases of $1.25 per hour would take effect annually thereafter until the state minimum wage reaches $20 per hour in 2028.”. This increase in minimum wage can seriously impact how small businesses employ and even function. Employers will no longer be able to pay their employees the minimum wage because of this proposed law. Along with paying minimum wage, they have to pay the Workers’ Compensation. This can seriously hurt the smaller businesses, lowering the amount of workers they can employ, therefore, decreasing the work quality, and overall consumer satisfaction. All of these facts completely cut down on the narrative that implementing a living wage would improve society, as it does the complete opposite.
Contention Two: Inflation that is tethered to raising the minimum wage
Raising the minimum wage will lead to the constant need to increase the minimum wage, leading to larger cases of inflation. If the United States raised the minimum wage now, they would have to continue to raise it just to keep up, leading in a crack in the economic status of the United States. Based on the article by Congress Budget Office, published on January 30th, 2024, “Under the default policy based on the Raise the Wage Act of 2023, the minimum hourly wage is $9.50 in 2024, $11.00 in 2025, $12.50 in 2026, $14.00 in 2027, $15.50 in 2028, and $17.00 in 2029” This string of facts proves that raising the minimum wage will just continue to escalate as the years continue on, resulting in inflation, which can harm all parties involved. The employers will not be able to keep up with the minimum wage raising, leading to them raising prices of their products, contributing to inflation.
Contention Three: Being unemployed raises suicide rates
The university of Sydney Stated on July 13th, 2023, stated “9.5 percent of suicides reported during that time resulted directly from unemployment”
Lowk these are written VERY badly, so I apologize for that lol
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the minimum in my city is $20.76, next year increasing to $21, this is i believe the third highest minimum wage in the entire united states. now let's say you're working five days a week, eight hours every day, average 40 hour work week for a 9-5 worker. that's 20.76x8x5=830.4 bucks a week, now 52 weeks in a year but say you take some time off obviously right, so let's go with fifty weeks a year, you're earning $41,520 anually.
now is this enough to live in one of the most expensive cities in america? well i don't think so, however the government clearly does considering the poverty line is $15,650 for a single person, however the state says this is below the minimum living wage, which is $61,241. wait a second, you maybe be asking, how does that even work? minimum wage isn't matching up to the minimum living wage? that's crazy
now let's figure out the difference between the incomes, which is $19,721, or in other words, equal to over 954 hours, or nearly 3 hours extra every single day for your 50 work weeks
so basically. what the heck. you'd have to work 11 hours and 45 minutes every day for 250 days a year to meet the mlw if you earned minimum wage.
anyway in my opinion, Minimum Living Wage = 52 (weeks worked) x 5 (days per week) x 8 (hours per day) x Minimum Wage, that's what we should use to calculate appropriate minimum wage, and maybe just a little lower than that. yes i said 50 weeks earlier, however raising the minimum too much would heavily impact inflation and labor markets
in my city this would be ~ $29.44, i would propose $25, which would be an annual income of $49,000 if we once again assume 40 hour work week, 50 weeks a year, stopping $12,241 of the MLW however i also believe we should be raising the poverty line and expanding low income benefits to better support citizens
also just for context, this is the income data for an individual in seattle
median - $76,147
average - $76,492
mean per capita - $82,508
this is the data for ALL workers. for full time workers, such as who i am describing here, the median is >$100,000 according to the seattle times, i do not have an exact number.
this information is just for context, however it is important to remember that the majority demographic of full time workers in greater seattle is heavily tech dominated, and industry known for high earnings.
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Ooh I have an essay
Mod
The federal minimum wage is currently 7.25, but states have the right to raise or lower it.
The federal minimum wage was put in place after the Great Depression, when many workers were laid off or paid a lot less. President Roosevelt attempted to make several acts, trying to revive the economy by creating ‘fair competition codes’. However, these were denied by the Supreme Court, who claimed they did not have enough power to institute these codes. Eventually he created a bill to set the minimum wage, cap hours, and control child labor.
Now the minimum wage has of course, increased throughout the years, however so has the cost of living.
https://www.epi.org/blog/a-history-of...
Now, the minimum wage on average covers 50% of all living expenses. The minimum wage hasn’t changed since 2009, but inflation has. I think it’s important to add here, that when the minimum wage was created, it was kept to such a low wage with the intention that teens be paid this amount, and adults with proper education be paid much over the minimum wage. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and one of the biggest reasons is that the jobs most teens would have that pay minimum wage are taken by adults who were not able to get their full education, especially college. But the minimum wage can affect this too.
https://www.bill.com/blog/minimum-wag...
https://www.bestcolleges.com/research...-
difference-in-salary/
Changing the minimum wage would technically be best for society, but it also arises issues. When employers raise salaries, they also commonly raise prices. This could influence inflation and create the opposite effect of what raising the minimum wage is trying to do.
However in most cases, if employers insignificantly or didn’t raise prices, it could be beneficial in almost every way. Studies show that the amount of people in poverty will go down, the amount of homeless people will go down, and education rates could go up.
If parents are making enough money to comfortably support them and their children, they are so much more likely to put aside enough money for their children to go to college, or finish their education without having to drop out or stop after college to help out the family.
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/55681
