The fifteen dollar minimum wage seems great. People get more money, and therefore a higher standard of life. Right? Well, here is the dirty truth.





A fifteen dollar minimum wage is a simple concept. Some people do work consisting of labor that anyone can do and doesn't take anything special. They don't need education, they don't need strength, it's a job that everyone can do. Therefore, there's going to be a lot of people who can do this job, without many jobs avaliable. Because of supply and demand, these jobs will be paid with quite a low wage.

But on the other hand, they can't be paid too little or else the working class will have horrendous standards of life. The government wants to ensure that people aren't using "slave labor" and they want to make sure people are getting paid a fair amount.





Recently, there have been talks about raising the minimum wage t o fifte en dollars an hour. But that money isn't coming from thin air. It's not good news for the employer and the employee . Here's why.

Reason # 1: Higher Wages Becomes Higher Workload

Let 's say I owned a coffee shop , for the sake of explanation.

I paid my emplo yees $ 10 per hour. Now, the minimum wage rises to $15 per hour, so I am obligated to pay m y employee s fifty percent more of what they were earning before . I can't afford this.

My c offee sho p has tiny profit m argins, and even if I sell a thousand cups of coffee at a dollar each, I will earn a thousand dollars. Now, if my employees w ork ten hours at $15 per hour, three hundred dollars of my thousand is alrea dy used on labour. Then subtract rent fees, utility, maintence, equip ment, coffe e costs, and I might not even be earning money.

Now if I decide to lay off on e employee, I could choose to let one employee run the ca shier and coffee machines, but now they have two employees wor th of work. But my em ployee is only getting paid fifty percent more, so he is a ctually losing out. He does more work, for less money actually. And there is also one less job avaliable in the world.

Imag ine this, but on a large scale. That's what will hap pen if minim um wag e rises to fifteen dollars an hour. No one wins.

Re ason #2: Employees should have freedom of choosing th eir pay.

Going back to my coffee shop exampl e, imag ine what h appens to the pe rson I lay off. Obviously, they don't have a job anymore . Now, he thinks his ten dollars an hour job is way better than having no job at all.

P eople should have the freedom of choosing if they want to work at a low wage or not. If mi nimum wage rises, there will be less jobs av aliable. Y ou get higher workload jobs with better pay if you raise minimum wage , but at the exp ense of many losing decent jobs. Instead of people having a n okay job, people are either working more or unemploye d.



If you ask me, I'd have to go with the first option. The employees should choose if they want to work for ten dollars an hour, not the government.

Reason #3: Minimum Wage Is Not The Li ving Wage

An argument for raising minimum wage is that peo ple won't be able to live well on ten dollars an hour. Although this is partially true, I don't think it matters.

People in developing countries are earning two dollars a n hour and are p erfectly happ y with th eir pay. A person wo rking fifty dollars an hour still might not be happy with their pay. Why is this? I say that human being s adapt extremely well, to a pay raise or a pay cut.

Rich highe r class people may think that having a 48 inch flat screen televis ion is a necessity. They may also think that a n iPad is a necessity. But to the lower class, these things are lux uries.

People can ad apt to lowe r pay, an d they can also adapt to higher pay. If you raise the wage, peop le will suddenly think some things are needed, while it may not have been before. My point is that human beings will never have "too much money . " The rich man will complain about having too little money because they cannot afford a million dollar man sion. The po or man will complain about having too little money because they cannot afford food.

The minimum wage does not have to be enough to live off of. People can choose that for themselves.

Conclusion