Should the Minimum Wage be Abolished (Essay Sample)

Should the Minimum Wage be Abolished? Why? Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor’s Name Due Date Should the Minimum Wage be Abolished? Why? The debate concerning abolishing the minimum wage persists within policymaking and economic forums. The proponents posit that this policy decision would stir economic progress, reduce unemployment, and enhance market efficiency. Nevertheless, research portrays this argument as a flawed proposition tantamount to disregarding low-wage workers’ well-being. Therefore, the minimum wage should not be abolished because it can exacerbate income inequalities and undermine economic stability. Abolishing the minimum wage would perpetuate income disparities by generating a counterproductive, dualistic job market. Low-wage workers with limited bargaining power would be on one end of the spectrum whereas skilled workers with immense capacity to negotiate for higher wages would be on the other (Sotomayor, 2021). This scenario would diminish workers’ purchasing power and augment social stratification. Sotomayor (2021) stresses that eliminating wage floors would jeopardize disadvantaged workers’ quality of life, restrict social mobility, and undercut the fairness and justice ideologies that modern societies strive to uphold. Dustmann et al. (2022) argue that abolishing the wage floors crucial to preserving employees’ well-being and basic rights would increase low-wage workers’ susceptibility to exploitation. Notably, such workforce members serve in indispensable yet undervalued professions. Thus, eliminating the minimum wage would undermine an already vulnerable population’s financial security and dignity since employers would not be obligated to offer a fair minimum wage (Dustmann et al., 2022). This situation would cause a ripple effect on the rest of society. Besides a rise in criminality, substance abuse, and poor health due to low income, eliminating the minimum wage would place a substantial financial burden on publicly-funded welfare programs (Sotomayor, 2021). The responsibility of supporting low-wage employees would shift from employers to taxpayers, who would ultimately have to indirec...