Welcome back!
Warmup: New list on Vocabulary.com! Your new list is the SAT list #2. Remember, you'll have a quiz on Friday!
Then we got a new seating chart today. Remember; if you have an issue with your new seat, please speak to me in private.
You turned in yesterday's Living Large assignment, then we watched a new program today about minimum wage called "Raise the Wage."
You will need to answer questions afterward. ALL questions must be answered in modified ACE format or you get a zero (in other words, questions must have evidence used and explained to get credit).
Raise the Wage Questions
- Why don’t all jobs pay the same?
- What would happen if there were no minimum wage laws in the US? Could employers pay whatever they wanted to? Explain.
- Why do minimum wages vary from one country to another, and within the US?
- Scandinavian countries have pretty generous welfare systems and relatively high taxes. How might this affect those governments’ policies regarding minimum wages?
- Why do some people think minimum wage laws are harmful to minorities?
- Who benefits from higher minimum wages? Who pays the cost of higher minimum wages? (Cost includes lost opportunities.)
- “The federal minimum wage has been going up little by little for years, and along with it so has the cost of the things you buy.” Does this mean that the rising minimum wage has caused prices to increase? If two things increase at the same time, does that mean one caused the other? Explain. How can we tell which is cause and which is effect?
- According to Walter Williams, the minimum wage law has the effect of discriminating against employment of low-skilled people. How does it do this?
- If a higher minimum wage causes some people to lose their jobs, and others not to be hired, but helps those who get to keep their jobs, is it a good thing or a bad thing? Explain.
- “Don’t be surprised if we can’t find many successful adults still working for minimum wage. This seems to be evidence that early work experience pays off.” What does this imply about successful jobs? Does this actually prove anything about the value of early work experience? Explain.
- Why do higher minimum wages and mandated benefits increase unemployment?
- Why do employers often raise their prices in response to higher minimum wages? Why can’t they just absorb the extra cost?
- In the scenario described in the video, two teens were applying for minimum wage jobs but the minimum wage got raised to $50. The employer still ended up hiring one of them. If this happened for real, would either of them be hired? Explain.
- Suppose someone is earning $12 per hour, a job which is only worth $12 to her employer. How will an increase in the minimum wage from $10 to $15 affect her? If the job she does is worth $15 per hour to her employer, how will the increase affect her?
- If you were an employer of minimum-wage workers, and the minimum wage increased, who would you rather hire – an experienced, skilled worker, or an inexperienced, unskilled worker? Why? (Why would more skilled workers be available at the higher wage than at the previous, lower wage?)
Homework
- Finish your Raise the Wage questions; due at the start of class tomorrow.