Many people in The United States fight poverty every day. Even though Minimum wage is a good starting pay, it is not enough to sustain an average lifestyle for a family of 3. Therefor minimum wage needs to be raised. If minimum wage is raised, poverty levels would majorly decrease in the United States.
Life of an Indentured Servant Life was not easy in my hometown as there was poverty and hunger everywhere. At a young age of 14, I have seen many difficult times as I saw my parents and siblings going without food for days. My name is Paul, a 14 years old English boy from Bristol, England. There were a bunch of traders who came in our town and offered us jobs in America. “Earning wages at all was difficult in England since job opportunities were shrinking” (The American Promise 65).
In some of these families both parents work multiple jobs, and that does not provide the full amount of money to keep the family afloat. Rent is the most expensive part of a person’s fees like this example where “Some parents forked out what they made at one job entirely on rent.” (p.89) Records also show that “Often, there was little left for food after the rent was aid. Working families went hungry at the end of the month. (p.90) When people are put in a tough spot where working part time or full time is out of the picture
Minimum wage and poverty With everything going on with the Walmart workers picketing for fifteen dollars an hour wages, the topic is widely discussed with many people taking many different sides. The essay “Raising the Minimum wage will reduce poverty” By Sharon Parrott and Jason Furman, They go into how they think the minimum wage should be raised in order to decrease poverty in america, Of course there are reasons to raise it and reasons to not raise it. Yet with the multitude of reasons for and against it, it’s hard to make a decision that makes everybody content, Some of the reasons not to raise it include, Raising it can make prices for everyday items go up, Why go and spend thousands of dollars on college when you could get a decent job right out of high school, and Why let workers who work at unskilled jobs make as much if not more than the military. Some reasons for minimum wage raising is, The fact that the cost of living is higher means people can’t survive with minimum wage without federal care, And just helping people get back on their feet when they couldn’t find a job. The reasons Minimum wage shouldn’t be raised outweigh the reasons it should.
The author talks about what life would be like if he never went to college, in addition to his work experiences during the fall breaks. "The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight" says Braaksma (2005). Decreasing wages, layoffs, and relocating factories overseas can result in major life changes. Not knowing if you will have a job every week can be stressful. Most people would not be able or even want to handle that kind of stress.
Being that America is still in an economical downward spiral, college has gone from being the place where one can reach their their dreams to a place that you will be paying for most of your adult life. There are many people that believe it is a waste of time to go to college because majority of the time you are not going to use your degree and you will still have to pay thousands of dollars over the course of your adult life. Many people believe that it is better to go to a trade school because it is somewhat guarantee that you will have a job working in your field of choice.
The Great Depression was a devastating period in United States History, the economy collapsed, and a staggering 25% of the population was unemployed. During this time, there were large wage disparity gaps that were very prevalent, there was no middle class, you were either wealthy or you were poor. It was hard for family life to continue, parents had to take up two and three jobs to make sure their kids were staying safe, and well. Most of these jobs were odd-jobs, and were temporary with no sense of security. It was a struggle to find work, and no job was too demeaning for you to do, because you may not find work again.
However, the construction of new prison facilities has not provided a sustainable solution for the reduction in crime rates in the society. Incarceration has also proven to be expensive. There are several costs associated with incarceration. These include costs of building new facilities, costs of paying prison staff, maintaining the prisons and costs of treating particular classes of prisoners such as elderly and mentally ill inmates. The United States spends billions of dollars on incarceration each year with the average yearly increase in state spending on prisons from 1999 to 2009 being approximately 3 percent (James, 2011, p.632).
There was almost no pay that came from it, the contracts lasted several years and the apprenticeships had to be paid for. After the contract for the apprenticeship is signed it can be seen as a happier version of slavery combined with the years spend in high school and college. The working conditions of these apprenticeships were terrible. Our modern day society takes it for granted that we have labor laws preventing abuse in most developed countries. Basically there was a big façade for something that was not as positive as it was made out to be.
The long term economic trends keep getting worse. These trends would continue to destroy the middles classes unless changes are made. Good jobs are replaced by low paying service jobs. At the same time, the cost of everything goes up and its difficult for American families to be able to afford things needed. Health care and tuitions are also rising and now millions of American families cannot afford it.
So we have to consider the commuting distance, the For example, my dad drives to Brampton to work just for 5 hours and he gets paid a minimum wage. I live in Oakville so it takes quite a while for my dad to get to where he works. This is time consuming, tiring and also waste of gas money. So what I’m trying to say is that we have to consider the commuting distance as well.
Following my fixed expenses, are my variable expenses which include gas, food, shopping, and entertainment which will be about 18% of my monthly income which is about $800. All together this equals about $2,900 a month. After all the expenses are paid, I will have about $1,600 left over each month for things such as retirement, vacation, savings, and
Just imagine ... someone who has been proficient in the field of computer science since his childhood, but couldn’t afford to go to college. Just imagine if, since he couldn’t afford college, he couldn’t get a good paying job and is now succumbed to the struggles of surviving on minimum wage. Just imagine the grief you would have felt in this situation, knowing that you’ve let down not only your family but also yourself. Now, while this problem, of minimum wage, may not be applicable to many of you, it is a common issue for many Americans today and is just one of the many issues, such as gay marriage, abortion, and national security, that the Republican party is fighting to solve.
The Minimum Wage Debate Raising the minimum wage would strengthen the economy and help lift the working family. Anyone who works a full time job, which pays minimum wage, should be capable of supporting themselves and their families. Single parents do not always have the resources or finances to get childcare beyond their child’s school day, which makes it hard for them to work beyond their child’s school day hours. There is also the issue of the extra financial burden placed on them to pay for childcare.
Minimum Wage is the lowest wage an employer is allowed to pay its employee by law. It has been a fundamental part of our economic growth and has been first instated by congress in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standard Act. With about 14.8% of Americas in poverty, there has been much debate on whether it should be raised or not (Census). However with economic change and inflation, minimum wage has been raised in the past. Though raising it many times in the past, many economists still think it’s not enough to live on.