Ever seen people on the news protesting for a higher wage?  Raising the minimum wage can have many effects on the workers and on the economy.  Some argue that states should raise the minimum wage to make it so workers can live on a substantial amount of money.  While others argue that raising the minimum wage would cause a decline in the amount of jobs.  This paper will argue that raising the minimum wage will be beneficial to most of the work force.

The first reason that the minimum wage should be raised is that workers are currently not making enough.  In some states workers that are currently making minimum wage are only making $7.25 an hour.  Even if the employees work 40 hours in a week, they are not making enough to live on.  They do not have enough money to buy groceries for their family and definitely do not have enough to own or rent a house. 

The homeless population is on the rise.  This is evidenced in the title of the article “Homelessness up 12% in L.A. city and county”.  Raising the minimum wage would make it so that homeless can afford housing; weather it is an apartment or an actual house.  It will make it a lot easier for those people.

The last reason that raising a minimum wage increase would be beneficial is that it would help lower the gap between the rich and the poor.  This is shown when Don Lee of the L.A Times says “Some government officials and experts think a $15 minimum wage is a good idea:  it will help narrow the gap between the rich and the poor”.  This is important because it will help eliminate the lower class and the homeless.  This will then help eliminate violence in the poor parts of cities.

Some will say that raising the minimum wage will cause a decline in the amount of jobs.  But the facts are that raising the minimum wage will increase the opportunities for employees.  Sure, there will be a small decline in jobs but at the rate businesses are growing they will get their jobs back very soon.  Therefore the positives of raising the minimum wage outweigh the negatives.

While raising the minimum wage would decrease the amount of employees that are working, it would benefit most of the workers.  Raising the minimum wage would help to make sure that workers could live off of their wages, because currently they are not making enough.  In conclusion, raising the minimum wage will help almost all of the workers.