News article/Research report

The federal and state minimum wage of workers across the United States of America has been a
controversial issue for many years and continues to be a topic that ignites intense debate in
congress. The article I chose to discuss focuses on this subject in Washington, the state that
already has the highest minimum wage, and the article was published in the Oregonian on March
3rd, 2015.
The article explains that the Washington state House voted to raise the minimum wage in the
state of Washington to $12 an hour over the next four years, by a count of 51 to 46 votes. This
means the bill is being sent to the Senate, at which point, if approved, it will soon become law.
The house of representatives is controlled by Democrats, and the Senate by Republicans, so this
could pose an issue for the Democrats as many Republicans have openly criticized the proposal.
The general opinion of the Republicans is that the proposed bill would cut profits and lead to
higher prices and fewer jobs. Some businesses could be forced out of state or into closure by the
increased cost of hiring Washington workers. The author seemed impartial and only provided
the facts, so it is the conflicting views on the topic that I think need analysis.
As I alluded to before, the Democrats, for the most part, are advocating that a raise in minimum
wage would be advantageous for workers and the economy as a whole, while the Republicans
consider the proposed raise to be detrimental to businesses. On this issue I would have to side
with the Democrats and I strongly disagree with the Republicans view that a raise would have a
negative impact on businesses.

The democrats suggested that the increase would boost the states economy by giving lowincome workers more money to spend in their communities and I think this is a great point to
make. It would be a very powerful economic stimulus and I think it would inject over a billion
dollars into the economy over the first few years alone. It is generally accepted among
economists that low- wage workers are more likely than any other income group to spend any
extra earnings immediately on previously unaffordable basic needs or services, and since it is
the low-income workers who will be most affected by this increase in wage, then it is highly
likely that most of this money will be spent on goods and services (Brown; Hooper). The impact
of this would be tremendous, as it would increase sales for businesses, which helps generate
revenue and taxes, and, ultimately, it would create a stronger economy.
In response to the Republicans view that raising the wage would eliminate jobs because
businesses would have to pay more money and then would hire fewer employees, I would
consider this information to be untrue. The Department of labor has stated that: A review of 64
studies on minimum wage increases found no discernable effect on employment( Department of
Labor), and the reason for this is that if a business needs to hire an employee for a little more
money per hour, they will do so in order to generate profit. In addition, with the raised minimum
wage and more income at the disposal of citizens, sales for businesses will increase hugely and
therefore the businesses will be able to afford to pay their employees a little more. The chart on
the next page represents data collected by University of Chicagos Booth School of Business in
which it illustrates the effect of a raised minimum wage on employment and the most precise
economic studies show that there is zero impact of minimum wage on job growth or job loss
(RaisetheMinimumWage.com). Furthermore, businesses would benefit because loyalty,
engagement, and morale would no longer be as big an issue with employees. Absenteeism and

training new employees because of high turnover is very costly for businesses, and therefore a
higher minimum wage will help retain employees and keep them engaged.

In order to determine whether or not it would be a good idea to raise minimum wage, the
Scholars Strategy Network conducted a study to see if average individuals living in nations
that have higher minimum wages have higher levels of financial well-being. They evaluated the
well-being of people in 24 industrial democracies around the world and measured the share of
each countrys population that is financially thriving (respondents are those that are generally
satisfied with their overall standard of living) and they created a graph to portray the
relationship between the percent of each nations population that are thriving and the level of its
minimum wage (standardized to take variations in the cost of living into account) (Scholars
Strategy Network) . The results below demonstrate that those countries with higher minimum
wage had higher levels of financial wellbeing in average individuals.

In conclusion, after analysis of the opinions of both Democrats and Republicans on the issue of
minimum wage, I am of the opinion that raising the minimum wage in Washington would be
beneficial to the economy, and would not result in job loss and financial instability for small
businesses.

Citations

Cooper, David, and Doug Hall. "Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Give
Working Families, and the Overall Economy, a Much-needed Boost." Economic Policy Institute.
Economic Policy Institute, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
The Job Loss Myth." The Job Loss Myth. Raise the Minimum Wage, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
"Minimum Wage Mythbusters." - U.S. Department of Labor. United States Department of Labor,
n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

"Evidence That Higher Minimum Wages Improve Economic Well-being: Research

Brief." Journalists Resource. Scholars Strategy Network, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 18 Mar.
2015.