Minimum wage for the change

Anyone who works on campus knows what it’s like working for minimum wage. For some, minimum wage is a fine rate since they might not have little-to-none monthly bills. For others, minimum wage may barely make ends meet or even not at all. Many may have to take on multiple jobs.

Increasing the minimum wage seems like the simplest answer, right? I thought the same thing before I did the research before writing this article. The issues surrounding minimum wage are far too complex to be solved with simple answers. Part of the reason minimum wage is such a controversial topic is that minimum wage hasn’t kept up with inflation. Therefore, workers who are paid the minimum struggle to pay for daily needs, property expenses and other costs. While increasing their pay will initially help to cover those costs, someone has to pay that extra money from somewhere else. In the same way that raising the minimum would help close the gap created by inflation, it can also make it worse.

George Reisman, a professor emeritus of economics at Pepperdine University, said: “The higher the wages are, the higher the costs of production are. The higher the costs of production are, the higher the prices are. The higher the prices are, the smaller the quantities of goods and services are demanded and smaller the number of workers employed in producing them.”

Businesses would have to make up the difference someway, whether it be by finding cheaper alternatives such as layoffs, fewer hours for employees not layed off or even automated systems. Minimum wage can be a blessing for some and a curse for others. I believe that if the right balance can be found where the minimum wage can be raised to its max while doing minimal damage to businesses, then the minimum wage should be raised to that ideal equilibrium. Sadly, that equilibrium is only a dream within a dream in today’s business practices.