$15.00 Minimum Wage: Putting a Dent in Poverty

$15.00 Minimum Wage: Putting a Dent in Poverty

Christopher Mawhorter

COMM 215

5/20/2014

Professor Winifred Donnelly

$15.00 Minimum Wage: Putting a Dent in Poverty

With a sustained period of economic instability, comes a migration of a larger portion of our population to a minimum Wage. On a Federal Level the adjustments to minimum Wage have come slowly, resulting in a wage that is generally deemed to be below the poverty line. This has put the onus on individual cities and states to combat poverty through the institution of their own minimum wages, which exceed the Federal minimum, in an effort to bridge the gap. Currently Washington State has the highest minimum wage in the nation at $9.32 an hour; the city of Seattle is proposing legislation to increase its minimum wage to $15.00 an hour with additions made in later years to adjust with inflation. The proposed wage increase in the greater Seattle area can be an example to prove the model that a $15 minimum wage is both economically feasible and needed to combat poverty by empowering the lowest skilled workers and bridging class divisions.

Empower the Poor

One of the main reasons proponents get behind a raised minimum wage is because of the social and economic opportunity it provides to those that need it the most. Daniel Klein and Stewart Dompe conducted a survey in which they proposed a questionnaire to renowned economists that had shown support for increasing minimum wages (Klein & Dompe, 2007). Included in the survey were some quotes from their replies which help to illustrate this point,

“Arindrajit Dube: Increased income (and reduced inequality) has broad

effects throughout society and polity; this includes (but is not limited to)

increased self worth, increased ability to use added time to spend with kids,

attend community college, etc., from an income effect…

Robert Haveman: 1) giving low wage workers a stake in their firms and...