Everyone believes that America is the place where all your misery and issues disappear, however in America there a more people in poverty than rich people. We often describe New York as a place where many wealthy people live, due to the fact of expensive rent prices, big corporations, and outstanding education. Due to this stereotypical stereotype, people that live in poverty are often looked down upon or not even cared about. Society often talks about the wealthy but never talks about the poor because our society only cares about money since New York is known for having the best lawyers, and accountants and is the most expensive place to live. Although New York is expensive we do not often talk about the working class. Minimum wage is a big issue across America that has not been spoken much about due to society always focusing on the wealthy and not the working class. How are New Yorkers in a position to overcome poverty even with a raised minimum wage?
The Newsletter Eater New York published a report on “Restaurateurs Are Scrambling to Cut Service and Raise Prices After Minimum Wage Hike” (Some companies are looking to nix more than half a million dollars from costs in order to budget) by M.Tara Crowl the author describes how raising the minimum wage was not a successful idea. According to Crowl “Now, across the city, restaurant owners and operators are reworking their budgets and operations to come up with those extra funds. Some restaurants, like Rosa Mexicano, are changing schedules. Other restaurateurs are cutting hours and staffers, raising menu prices, and otherwise nixing costs wherever they can.” According to the author’s perspective raising the minimum wage was not a good idea because restaurants needed to find better ways to make a profit. For companies and restaurants to overcome this issue they had to inflate prices, fire employees, and limit the number of hours an employee could work, in order to gain back the interest, they lost. According to Crowl “The bottom line is, we have to reduce the number of hours we spend,” says Westcott. “And unfortunately, that means that, in many cases, employees are earning less even though they’re making more.” This quote mentions that although minimum wage has increased it did not actually quite benefit the working class because by inflate the amount a person earns results in restaurants and companies losing profit, and in order to gain that interest back they have to cut back the number of hours an employee can work. Although 15 dollars an hour may seem like a good idea it’s hurting the consumer, because having fewer hours at work means your earning less money. “Restaurateurs Are Scrambling to Cut Service and Raise Prices After Minimum Wage Hike” is a newsletter that can be used for research questions on How are New Yorkers in a position to overcome poverty even with a raised minimum wage. This newsletter displays how before the minimum wage price increase employees were able to work long hours and enjoy their job after raising the minimum wage employees often got fewer hours of work and did not quite enjoy their job. Increasing the amount, a person earns affected the work environment dramatically because according to the article it states “Every afternoon at 4 p.m., each of Rosa Mexicano’s four Manhattan locations used to have a pre-shift staff meeting. That meeting created a really nice family atmosphere,” says Chris Westcott, Rosa Mexicano’s president, and CEO. It created energy and synergy, and people were pumped going into the shift.” But as of last month, the meeting doesn’t happen anymore. Now, start times for shifts are staggered through the evening, and employees receive a document with the day’s updates when they arrive” This quote demonstrates that raising the minimum wage it destroyed the restaurant's bond with its workers. From the restaurant's perspective, they use to have a great bond with their workers and were like a family after an increase in raise the bond disappeared because corporations needed better ways of earning profit back.
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The New York Times published a newsletter called “A $15 Minimum Wage Seemed Impossible. Now It’s Reality for a Million New Yorkers.” by Patrick McGeehan the authors describe that the biggest issue about raising the minimum wage is that everything in our economy will increase. By this, he means that food, clothes, supplies, etc. For corporations to overcome this issue of the extra money they need to spend to pay their workers, the consumer must pay extra for the product or service they want, to balance the profit the company lost. According to McGeehan increasing the amount a person earned was very beneficial to Rosa Rivera because in the newsletter it states “When I get my first check with $15, I’m going to be so happy”. said Ms. Rivera, an immigrant from El Salvador with three children. She said she was proud to pay her rent and help support her grandchildren without federal benefits”. This excerpt is explaining how raising the minimum wage helped Ms. Rivera because now she was able to pay her own rent and support her grandchildren before that she just earned $5.15 an hour and relied on government assistance to pay her rent when she started working at a McDonald’s in Manhattan 18 years ago. By raising the minimum wage helped Ms. Rivera overcome poverty because now she no longer needed government assistance to help pay her rent.
In the scholarly source “ Minimum Wage and poverty” by Addison T. John and Blackburn L. McKinley the authors explain how raising the minimum wage will help the economy, however by increasing the minimum wage lead to a reduction of employees having jobs and working fewer hours when they use to do when the wage was lower. The scholarly source explains how increasing the minimum wage can be beneficial to some but not all because it depends on the family income and who will be able to keep their job after the policy comes into effect. According to Addison and Blackburn “ They regressed the change in a state's poverty rate from 1989 to 1991 on the fraction of the state's labor force (in 1989) that should have been affected by the federal minimum wage increases in 1990 and 1991, that is, the fraction in 1989 below the level of the 1991 minimum wage (396)”. This quote is explaining how not much is known about poverty because not much information is conducted on the poor, The quote also explains how if more workers are getting fired from their jobs and are unable to support their family can result in a higher increase of people living in poverty “ Minimum Wage and poverty” is a scholarly source that is connected to my research question on How are New Yorkers in a position to overcome poverty even with a raised minimum wage. This scholarly source displays how raising the minimum wage may seem like a good idea however the outcome was very brutal as well. It resulted in workers getting paid more however they were unable to work if they did before because the company needed to find ways to cut back costs in order to gain the profit back.
In the scholarly source “How Effective Is the Minimum Wage at Supporting the Poor? by Macurdy Thomas the author describes how the main purpose of raising the minimum wage will increase the incomes of poor families, and second, the minimum wage imposes little or no public or social costs. This is connected to poverty because by raising the minimum there should be fewer people in poverty however that is not the case, due to unaffordable housing many people are forced into living on the streets or living in poor communities due to not being able to earn a lot at work or is currently unemployed. According to Macurdy “Policies that raise the wages of these workers to increase their earnings and contribute to their escaping poverty. As a counterbalance to this impact, opponents of the minimum wage argue that wage regulation causes some low-wage workers to lose their jobs and they will suffer income drops. The issue, then, becomes a trade-off: some low-income breadwinners will gain, and others will lose. Promoters of the minimum wage retort that employment losses are quite small, and consequently, the workers who gain far exceed those who lose (498)”. This quote is explaining how the purpose of raising the minimum wage was to help the people in the lower class however that did not go quite as planned some workers resulted in being unemployed and others resulted in working lesser shifts. Although it may seem like a good idea it’s hurting the employee more because having higher pay means fewer hours to work and by having fewer hours at work means less money. Having a lower minimum wage means that the worker can work longer hours and earn more money and still have a job. “How Effective Is the Minimum Wage at Supporting the Poor” is a scholarly source that is connected to my research question How are New Yorkers in a position to overcome poverty even with a raised minimum wage? This scholarly source displays how people on the minimum wage are often teenagers, single parents, or people that are unable to find a stable job because no one will hire them because corporations are trying to make a profit thus, they must live in poverty.
The scholarly source “The Minimum Wage and the Poor: The End of a Relationship” by Burkhauser V. Richard and Finegan T. Aldrich describes how the main purpose of raising the minimum wage was to help people in poverty however most low-wage workers are currently living above the poverty line. Meaning although the minimum wage has increased only 11 percent of the population living in poverty will benefit. According to Aldrich and Richard “But about one-half of the rise in the fraction of low-wage workers with household incomes at least three times the poverty line is due to this general rise in real living standards (Pg. 60)”. This quote explains although with a raised minimum wage some workers are still forced to live in poverty due to high rent prices and their standard of living. From the author’s perspective “families. Today, whether a family headed by a low-wage worker falls above or below the poverty line depends much less on how much he or she earns per hour than on how many hours are worked, how large the family must be supported, and, most importantly, how much other family members (pg. 60)”. This quote is explaining how there are most factors needed in order to for a person in poverty to understand. If a person had a job but was not able to work the number of hours needed to support their family or themselves is also a big issue. Another major factor that can lead to poverty is the number of people you are trying to support, the bigger the family the harder it will be to overcome poverty. This scholarly source is connected to my research question because it demonstrates how even with a raised minimum wage there will still be some families living in poverty because it depends on certain factors such as the number of hours a person works, the number of people in a family and if that person is able to keep their job.
Poverty is a major issue throughout America even with a raised minimum wage. Although a person earns more than before there are still major factors that prevent that person from living peacefully such as high rent, expensive clothes, and food, and the number of hours a person can work at their job, or it can also be due to unemployment.
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