Abolishing the Minimum Wage (Essay Sample)

Abolishing the Minimum Wage Student's First Name, Middle Initial(s), Last Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor's Name and Title Assignment Due Date Abolishing the Minimum Wage Hypothetically and in reality, freedom to negotiate pay would lead to the exploitation of workers. In response, many states have established the minimum wage, which stands at $7.25 per hour in the United States. Some cities and states have modified the same, although none goes below the legal floor. For long, there have been questions of whether the minimum wage should be abolished. It should not: a minimum wage provides the incentive required to seek employment, improves a nation’s productivity, and spurs economic growth. As an incentive, the minimum wage inspires people to seek employment. By guaranteeing a minimum payment, the minimum wage encourages those without skills to work in a particular field and the unemployed to find work and start self-provision (Neumark, 2015). Doing so reduces poverty that burdens many economies and hinders socio-economic growth. Still, as Setayesh (2018) argued, the minimum wage, as an incentive, leads to quick absorption of part-time workers when a vacancy emerges. Overall, it is a way of facilitating employment and cushioning workers from exploitation; thus, it should not be abolished. Besides encouraging employment, the minimum wage keeps people and nations productive. As Gossett (2018) mentioned, workers guaranteed a known pay use it for self-development, mainly through investing in education. Doing so makes a nation’s labor pool to be more attractive. In the same case, education improves people’s skills; they become more innovative and can run small businesses (Bell & Machin, 2018). The productivity of creative people improves and makes them suitable candidates for higher-paying jobs- within and in foreign countries. All this self and nation’s improvement is enabled by the job security and guaranteed income that the minimum wage obligate. Based on these advantages, abolishing it would be imprudent. The minimum wage also spurs economic growth. When there is a payment floor that employers cannot go below, many employees get paid an amount that prevents too much deviation from the national average. Accordingly, as Gossett (2018) mentioned, the population segment that can afford basic life necessities. Also, having some money to spend increases the demand for common commodities. The demand grows as money accumulates through savings and investments. To meet this demand, there should be a matching supply, which makes way for business establishments (Setayesh, 2018). In turn, businesses pay taxes, which governments use to support education, build infrastructure, and bring technology into a nation. All these possibilities are enabled by establishing the minimum wage; hence, it should not be abolished. The minimum...