Minimum wage. Impact of a Mandatory $15 Minimum Wage on Employment

Minimum Wage
Name
Institution
Minimum Wage
Introduction
The amounts of payment made to the employees of a given organization play a significant role in both the local and national economies of residence. Government institutions and labor regulatory authorities or unions around the world strive to ensure that workers have fair rewards for their input for each hour spent in the production process. Failure to regulate such rewards or payments would be catastrophic to both the local and national economies of countries due to the unequal distribution of national income. Minimum wage works to maintain a balance between individuals with the ability to run production activities and their required labor force for effective productivity. It ensures that employees meet their daily human needs and wants by enhancing the purchasing powers in the market economies. Manipulation of the laborers through low payment rewards correlates to low consumer purchasing power among other adverse effects to the entire economy of a region or a nation. Minimum wage plays a significant role in maintaining the balance of an economy by encouraging the payment of fair wages to employees and ensuring the achievement of quality lives for all. However, governments and regulatory authorities should be cautious when advocating and making amendments to the minimum wage employees owing to the wide range of resultant implications to the economy. A mandatory minimum wage of $15, for instance, would have different repercussions to an economy at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels.
Impact of a Mandatory $15 Minimum Wage on Employment
It is without a doubt that an increase in the minimum wage corresponds to a proportionate increment in consumer spending. Such outcomes reflect positively to the quality of life for the employees or laborers within a given locality or nation. However, employment would be affected differently depending on different parameters or forces controlling the diverse labor markets. The small and medium-sized enterprises would incur increased costs of production in complying with the mandatory demands of the minimum wage policy. Such entities would have to reduce their recruitments while also increasing the cost of their products to sustain the higher minimum wages CITATION Gha16 \l 1033 (Ghani, 2016). Such outcomes would adversely affect the employment of a given locality and the nation as a whole. In struggling economies, for instance, a higher minimum wage of $15 would significantly reduce the demand for labor leading to massive unemployment and loss of jobs. The mandatory increment of the minimum wage may also pose a challenge to the labor force i...