College students aren’t particularly objective when it comes to views on the minimum wage.
Many are more than eager to support raising the minimum wage because they currently hold minimum-wage jobs.
Though seemingly beneficial at the present, raising the minimum wage would snowball into a blizzard of negative future outcomes. The current minimum wage is appropriate, and should not be raised above $7.25 per hour.
If the Legislature raised minimum wage, there would be immediate problems. Employers could not support the current number of employees, and layoffs would be probable. If employers felt the layoffs were too gruesome a solution, they would seek other opportunities for revenue. This would lead to an increase in prices to counteract the wage increase, harming consumers like you and me.
For college students, this means finding a job would be considerably more challenging. Competition would rise due to the decrease in available positions, and people would need to work more to pay for the higher prices.
Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim $7.25 per hour is not suitable for adequate living conditions. The issue with this logic is $7.25 is not meant to be a living wage.
Minimum wage positions are typically transition jobs. If for some reason somebody is stuck working a minimum wage job for an extended period of time, that person’s employer should give them a raise, as long as they worked hard enough to deserve it.
An unfavorable minimum wage provides incentive to work hard and work for promotions. If we raised minimum wage, there would be a decrease in the quality of work, as there would be little incentive to do well.
Not only would the quality of work decrease, but there also will be less incentive to go to college. Why would I pay $10,000 in tuition if I could comfortably live off of my low paying job with no requirements? Raising the minimum wage allows people to settle for mediocrity.
According to the United States. Bureau of Labor, minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under the age of 25 made up about one-fifth of the total employees paid an hourly wage, they made up nearly half of those paid minimum wage. What this tells me is that those old enough to live alone have surpassed the bureaucratic buffer that is minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage primarily helps the young, but harms all age groups.
If the minimum wage has to be raised, it should just be raised enough to count for inflation. Although $10.10 is a wage that appeals to many low income families, the negative impact would equate to, if not surpass, the positive repercussions. The U.S. is writing a check it can’t cash, and everyone will feel the effects.
Kain Hingle is a 19-year-old psychology sophomore from Mandeville, Louisiana. You can follow him on Twitter @kain_hingle.