Why the Minimum Wage Should Be Abolished Persuasive Essay

Did you know increasing the minimum wage would negatively impact workers more than it benefits them? This is one of the reasons why the minimum wage shouldn’t be increased and instead be abolished! The minimum wage should be abolished because it fuels inflation, increases unemployment, and negatively impacts young workers. 

One of the most significant reasons why the minimum wage should be abolished is that it causes inflation. A study from NBC News found a cup of regular coffee rose 10-20% when the minimum wage was increased by 36%. This is an example of how minimum wage inflation would impact working-class people. This means both the employer has to charge more, therefore getting fewer customers, and the customer has to pay more for the same thing. Inflation affects the working class more than it does the rich. An argument can be made that inflation technically affects the rich more than the poor, but in reality, this is untrue. For example, if a wealthy person lost 10-20% of their savings it wouldn’t affect their day to day life significantly, but if a working-class person lost 10-20% of their income, they might not be able to pay rent. 

Another reason why the minimum wage should be abolished is it increases unemployment. When the minimum wage rises, employers often don’t have enough money to pay their workers the new minimum wage, therefore many workers get laid off when the minimum wage rises. According to the CBO, raising the minimum wage to $15 would put millions of people in unemployment immediately and would negatively affect more people than it would help.  (How Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage Could Affect Employment and Family Income) Maintaining the minimum wage without moving still leads to many lost jobs. If employers cannot employ people profitably, they will not hire more workers, but will often look to automate or outsource jobs. Steven Markoff assessed many businesses would find other ways to get the job done as they cannot afford to pay the minimum wage (Steven Markoff). 

The last reason why minimum wage should be eliminated is young workers would be affected by the increase in wage. A Pew research center found young workers, aging from 16-to 24 make up 50.4% of the minimum wage workers. Casey B Mulligan found teenage employment fell about 8% in the last 3 months. Considering these factors, if the minimum wage were to increase, employment for young workers would fall even more and companies would look for more qualified workers instead. This means if the minimum wage was eliminated, employment for young workers would thrive. The reason for this is employers would be able to pay younger workers the wage they deserve. Oftentimes, young workers are not looking for a high wage, but are looking for work experience to help them get started in their career and other benefits. Abolishing the minimum wage would allow companies to hire younger workers. This would help both the company and the workers, the company can employ more workers, therefore the business runs better, and the workers get work experience and a job. 

Abolishing the minimum wage would allow companies to pay workers based on their worth rather than paying everyone a fixed rate. This incentivizes workers to work harder, which helps the company and the worker who in turn gets a higher wage. If the minimum wage was abolished, companies would have more money to spend on employees to reward them for their hard work. 

The minimum wage should be removed for a variety of reasons. Even though the minimum wage is bad, an argument can be made that the increase of the minimum wage would benefit the lower class. This is an untrue and specious statement because the increase of the minimum wage would put more people out of jobs than in them. The rates for employment would collapse, causing many people to be incapable of finding a job, which affects both the middle and lower classes. If raising the minimum wage doesn't have the intended effect, and has the opposite effect, why should we raise it? If abolishing the minimum wage helps both businesses and workers more, shouldn’t we implement that instead?