Summary PHI103 Week 3 Assignment.docx PHI103 Would increasing the minimum wage be harmful to the economy? University of Arizona Global Campus PHI103: Informal Logic The federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2009 and has stayed constant at $7.

PHI103

Would increasing the minimum wage be harmful to the economy?



University of Arizona Global Campus

PHI103: Informal Logic



The federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2009 and has stayed constant at

$7.25 per hour. At the same time, the minimum wage has not increased the cost of living, and the

cost of consumer goods has. This has become a concern for many people, and the federal

government is now talking about raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour to help bring

people out of poverty and bring up the standard of living. While there are positives to raising the

federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, there are also many withdrawals. In this essay, we will be

observing both sides of the argument and addressing whether raising the minimum wage would

be harmful to the economy.

Presentation of an Argument that Increasing the Minimum Wage Would Be Harmful to the

Economy

When looking into raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would be harmful to the

economy, many aspects will be affected because of this significant wage increase. The

Congressional Budget Office projected how this would affect employment and production costs.

When the minimum wage is increased to $15 an hour, it is projected that employment would

drop by 1.4 million workers (The Congressional Budget Office, 2021). When the wage is

increased companies will go one of two ways they will either have to pull back on spending in

other areas like there machines and the technology they use or they will have to layoff many of

there employees and may switch to having Artificial Intelligence working the machines that were

previously run by employees.

, The price of consumer goods would be affected to make up for the increase in the

minimum wage. Higher wages would increase the cost for employers in producing goods and

services. In turn production of consumer goods and services would decrease creating a supply


and demand issue. Employment would be affected in ever level of the companies would be

affected by layoffs because of the increased wage.

Premise 1: Increased minimum wage will increase layoffs and unemployment for low-wage

workers.

Premise 2: Companies will increase the price of consumer goods to cover the increased labor and

services costs.

Premise 3: Price increase of consumer goods would lead to a decrease in consumer purchasing.

This would lead to employers producing fewer goods and services, and with fewer products

being made, there would be an increase in layoffs.

Premise 3: Anything that reduces employment, increases the price of consumer goods and

services, and decreases spending on consumer goods and services is harmful to the economy.

Conclusion: Raising the minimum wage would be harmful to the economy.

Evaluation of the Argument that Increasing the Minimum Wage Would Be Harmful to the

Economy

The scholarly source adequately supports the argument’s premises by using simulations to

generate an average estimate of how this wage increase will affect employment and the price of

consumer goods and services. “The average estimate is a weighted average of the possible

employment outcomes in the simulation, with each outcome assigned a weight on the basis of the

probability that it occurs” (The Congressional Budget Office, 2021).

In their simulations, they were also able to project how this would affect the pricing of consumer

goods and the effects it would have on the supply and demand of products and services. “The