The minimum wage usually distributes income not between employees and employers, but between a small group of lucky workers and those unlucky workers who lose their jobs. The average leftists will try to achieve an increase in the level of salaries with the help of the minimum wage. However, the disadvantages of raising the minimum wage are much more than the advantages.
Many believe that an increase in the minimum wage leads to a rise in income, but this is not the case. In fact, for the average layman, an increase in the minimum wage does not lead to a rise in income but to an increase in expenses (Atkinson et al., 2017). First of all, the fact is that when minimum salaries are increased at any enterprise, the tax burden rises at the same time – the number of deductions to the wage fund.
Employees who receive tips will also feel an increase in the minimum wage. At the moment, there is a system in place, according to which the employer is obliged to ensure the minimum amount of earnings from tips for the employee. If the employee does not receive a good bonus, then the employer will have to pay extra. The size of tips at the moment can reach 40%; after raising the minimum wage, one can only assume what proportion will be go-to tips.
Significant measures were previously taken to raise the minimum wage also indicate a negative impact on employment. After the minimum wage in Seattle was raised to $13 in 2016. (Quinn, Kahill, 2017). Researchers from the University of Washington found that low-paid workers’ number of hours worked was reduced, and total wages for such jobs decreased.
The most vulnerable age group in the case of a salary increase is the group from 16 to 24 years old. This creates a problem with gaining experience in a profession, which begins with low-paid positions and finding a job to pay for training (Richards, Sang, 2019). Workers without work experience, in principle, have fewer advantages against workers with work experience; with an increase in the minimum wage, it will become even more difficult for teenagers to look for work.
In conclusion, many people mistakenly believe that raising the minimum wage will help them solve the problems of poverty and low wages. However, they do not consider the huge number of consequences of this interventionist policy and, as a result, can only worsen the US economy.
References
Atkinson, A. B., Leventi, C., Nolan, B., Sutherland, H., & Tasseva, I. (2017). Reducing poverty and inequality through tax-benefit reform and the minimum wage: the UK as a case-study. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 15(4), 303-323. Web.
Quinn, J. F., & Cahill, K. E. (2017). The relative effectiveness of the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit as anti-poverty tools. Religions, 8(4), 69. Web.
Richards, J., & Sang, K. (2019). The intersection of disability and in-work poverty in an advanced industrial nation: The lived experience of multiple disadvantages in a post-financial crisis UK. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 40(3), 636-659. Web.