Week 7 EOC: Minimum Wage

"38 states introduced minimum wage bills during the 2014 session; 34 states considered increases to the state minimum wage." (NCSL, State Minimum Wages) Minimum wage on the average is $7.25, in the United States. This means that if a person receiving $7.25 an hour "which means that depending on the city you're in, 60 minutes of work will just about buy you a Chipoltle burrito (without guac)." (Th Atlantic, Should We Raise Minimum Wage?), works an 8-hour shift, for 5 days a week, they will only make $15,080 and that is BEFORE taxes. In Nevada, one can find an apartment for as low as $510. The disadvantage to this is the area that person would be living in. The living conditions will probably be a low grade comparing to the nicer areas where average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is $800. The cost of an apartment for monthly rent doesn't even cover the other bills that come along with it. It also doesn't include car insurance, school loans, gas, groceries, cable, furniture and more. The $7.25 earner would have to live with a roommate or family just to ease up on their expenses. This goes to show that the cost of living is nowhere compared to what minimum wage earners are earning. "Employees that earn the minimum wage tend to be young, and work in businesses that keep a few cents of each sales dollar after expenses." (Minimumwage.com, About the Minimum Wage) Major businesses such as McDonold's, Burger King, Walmart and so on, can definitely afford to accommodate workers with higher compensation. They just don't want to. Profit is everything to these companies and losing money to compensate existing and future employees? It's not realistic to them. Little do these companies realize, such a sacrifice will only improve the brand. When giving employees the right compensation to live on, they will be less stressed and more reliable to do their jobs. They will be better employees, give better customer service and this will have a better effect on the company. Customers will then want to come around more and spend their money, simply because the customer service is excellent. And for many, customer service makes or breaks the experience. Ever heard, "I don't get paid enough for this?" Well it's true for most! And this is the reason why turnovers are so high, why employees don't care about the well-beings of their customers and why a good worker is so hard to come by. Companies then have to rely on the hope that whoever they hire is genuinely just a good person, when in fact all they needed to do was lift the minimum wage and problems would be less frequent. Minimum wage has been statistically proven that it is NOT realistic and needs to be lifted. It is almost as if we are like manufacture workers in sweat shops working for $.50 a day, knowing it won't take us anywhere. The United States is one of the richest countries in the world, but yet our poverty levels are high, our crime-rate is embarrassing and our people are in crisis. It is all a dominio-effect and money is always the root of the issue. The U.S. needs to set an example and value it's citizens.