Minimum Wage Hike: An Economic and Political Issue

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Minimum Wage Hike
The minimum wage gap was incepted in 1938, and for the most part, it has lingered around 50% concerning annual hourly wages. This rate has been applied to both production and non-supervisory workers. It has managed to fall below 40% on two occasions between 1981 to 1989 and 1990 to 1996. It is said that a deliberate action by the government to maintain a low economy is the reason why minimum wage fails to keep up with phases of inflation. Another perspective argues that an increase in the minimum wage is detrimental to a country’s economy. The first line of thinking assumes that a government adopts a monolithic structure responsible for unitary decisions. For instance, America’s systems are a collection of institutions and players that often make decisions with some level of consent. However, the fallacy in this thinking is that different actors and institutions will act in ways that suit their agenda. The second perspective is false because it assumes that policy processes can be influenced by economic models alone. Policies made in a country take into consideration numerous variables and interests of the actors involved. Therefore, it is more likely that claims rely on economic models to make arguments more appealing to the public. This essay analyzes how the minimum wage as an economic issue is also a significant political issue.
Classical political economists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx believe that every type of labor has a wage rate that employees can expect. They argue that a man is supposed to live by his work with sufficient wages in sustaining him. In the United States, the minimum wage is present at both the federal and state level. States have more leniency that allows them to match or improve the federal minimum wage. They can also set the minimum wage below the national level for workers not governed by federal law. Studies show that votes by individual members of Congress and senators decide the increase of the federal minimum wage. The lessons focus on different aspects such as small businesses, rate of unionization, laws on the right to work, and current political ideologies. Senators and congress members are likely to vote for a higher minimum wage in higher levels of unionization, higher wage rates, and if they subscribe to liberal ideology. Factors such as substantial influence by small businesses, right-to-work laws, and conservative ideologiesmake it more likely for Congress members to oppose an increase to the minimum wage. Other factors such as the percentage of teens, women, or African Americans in a working force can influence the minimum wage. At the state level, findings such as Zavodny (1996) show that the minimum wage is heavily influenced by economic variables like the average wage of the workers, political variables, teen unemployment, and Democratic representation in the House, Senate, or Governorship.
Author 1: Margaret Weir
The presence of ideas is a fact that guarantees the possibility of policy innovations and departures. However, if a nation is missing such concepts or the idea is only advocated by individuals without national power, there is little chance for the idea ...