On June 29, 2015, Big JollyPolitics posted an argument written by Jonathan Hansen, a Houston City Council candidate,
on why Houston should not raise their minimum wage. The article is intended for the people that
live within the city limits of Houston, specifically the young people.
Although, this article is beneficial for all Texans and Americans. Jonathan
Hansen has a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and has
proven he has done extensive research in his article, which makes him a
credible source.
Hansen argues that Houston should
not raise their minimum wage because of multiple factors. Hansen first points
out that minimum wage, which he calls “training wage”, jobs can allow individuals
to gain experience and knowledge required to have higher paying jobs. These
jobs with “training wages” can help young individuals decide what career path
they want take and can help motivate young people to go to school. Hansen
expressed that employers may not be able to take on as many employees if the
minimum wage was raised because labor costs tend to be 30% of revenue. In order
to keep the labor to revenue ratio, businesses would have to raise their
product prices. Then, Hansen provides research that shows only about a .5% of
the nation’s population are people that earn minimum wage or less and live in
impoverished households. That means there are 4,918 Houstonians earning minimum
wage and are living in impoverishe
d households.
Hansen then began to show possible
implications of raising the minimum wage in the Houston city limits. This included
the possibility of some business relocating outside the city limits, raising
their prices, laying off people (which contributes to more impoverished people
in Houston) and increasing the workload of other employees.
Personally, I agree with everything
Hansen has to say regarding minimum wage. While in theory it may sound good, in
practice there are many implications it will bring and Hansen was smart to show
real world examples of problems when raising the minimum wage.
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