The current minimum wage is $7.25, which is equivalent to two liters of milk, one fast food meal, or two liters of gasoline. Can you imagine working 12 hours a day and only having enough money to pay rent and put food on the table for your family? Working all those long hours, you can barely afford to pay the bills, and afterwards you don't have enough money or time for luxuries like clothes or vacations. You actually have no savings, you have huge debt and you live paycheck to paycheck. This is the story of millions of American workers, employed at the minimum wage. The shocking part of this story is that millions of Americans would be saved from this life of poverty if the American government raised the minimum wage. This would not only help workers, but also the economy because raising the minimum wage would put extra money in the pockets of minimum wage workers and extra spending would help restore consumer spending. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Nearly 8 million Americans work full time and are still below the poverty line. Some argue that raising the minimum wage will only benefit workers who may not need it. This argument is flawed, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, which shows that “most low-wage workers live in low-wage households, and 84 percent of workers in low-wage jobs are at least 20 years". (LA Times, Stern and Camden). In my view, anyone who shows up to work regularly and puts in quality hours should be paid enough to keep them out of poverty. I also think that raising the minimum wage is a matter of human dignity because imagine that after a long day at work you realize that, despite working hard for long hours, you cannot feed your family, cover their needs and pay the cost of living . without government support. What kind of message is sent to a person about the dignity of their work and the pride of taking personal responsibility for their family? Additionally, some critics argue that raising the minimum wage would greatly increase unemployment because businesses would cut workers to keep costs low. This was proven false by an analysis conducted by Congressional Budget, which states that “potential impacts on employment and unemployment from increasing the federal minimum wage rate… are difficult to predict, but are likely to be small ” (Congressional Digest, 12). The Congressional Budget Office also found that the benefits of raising the minimum wage are expected to weigh on costs. They found that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would reduce the number of people living in poverty by 900,000 and increase average household income to three times the poverty line (Chat, 1). Businesses would also benefit from the minimum wage increase. According to a study conducted by the Institute of Industrial Relations University of California, Berkeley, it was found that the annual turnover of security screeners plummeted by 95% to 19% when their hourly wage was increased from 6, 45 to 10 dollars an hour. Not only did turnover improve, but 35% of employers reported improvements in job performance and customer service improved by 45% (Reich, Hall, Jacobs, 42). This is not only good for business, but also good for the economy. Raising the minimum wage will reduce the unemployment rate because employees stay at work and do not receive benefits., 28(1), 133-165.