As of right now minimum wage is $10.50 and hour in the state of California. California also has the 3rd highest percentage of people on welfare. With the increases its possible more people will get off welfare and get jobs. According to the Center for American Progress, if the minimum wage keeps increasing 3.5 million people will get off food stamps, thus saving us $46 billion over 10 years. Also this will help with the poverty rate. Take a second and think of a big business, Walmart, Apple, McDonalds, whatever. Think of the CEO and how much they make. For example, Doug McMillin, the CEO of Walmart makes $25.6 million a year. Now think of the average minimum wage employee, they make about $15,080 a year. With this increase that gap will get significantly lower.
As happy as the first paragraph sounded, there's two sides to every story. The Congressional Budget Office did a similar study to CAP and they concluded the increase of minimum wage would actually result in the loss of 500,000 jobs. Thus creating a ripple effect, raising poverty rates, increasing crime rates, etc. 60% of small business owners say their companies will shut down due to the increase, they cannot afford that high of wages. Thus putting teens and non experienced employees at risk. Who wants to hire someone that's inexperienced? Let alone pay a ton for them to not know what to do. Meldine Rodda, the manager of a local western store said, "Minimum wage was meant for teens, like you, not for someone to live off of". Minimum wage increases also increase the risk of more automated systems instead of employees. Why pay someone to do something if a robot can do it for free? With that could also decrease health benefits, putting a lot of people in danger.
Personally I do not agree with the increases. I'm a teenager working for a small business that may have to fire me and/or close their doors due to this increase. Many family business's have had to shut down because of these wages. Cotton, the owner of the store I work at, has owned his company 55 years and counting. He loves his business more than anything, if it closes he'd be so heartbroken. These increases affect more than employees, they affect families. My moms work gives health benefits, without those health benefits my mom and I wouldn't be able to afford doctors visits, eye appointments, orthodontist appointments, etc. That puts my family at risk, along with many others. These increases are honestly selfish, think of the families your putting in danger just so you can buy fancier car.
Four reasons not to raise the minimum wage
Reasons to raise minimum wage
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/four_reasons_not_to_raise_the_minimum_wage.pdf
http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-reasons-raise-minimum-wage-charts
http://minimum-wage.procon.org/
http://minimum-wage.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=002075
http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-reasons-raise-minimum-wage-charts
http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052815/does-raising-minimum-wage-increase-inflation.asp
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