Jack Quinn, Mike Castle, Steve LaTourette, and Connie Morella. “Raising the Minimum Wage Is Common Sense: Column.” USA Today. Gannett, 09 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 July 2015.
The controversy related to this article is raising minimum wage. This source is relevant to the minimum wage debate because all four authors of the article were members of their respective states’ house of representatives; Jack Quinn represented New York, Mike Castle represented Delaware, Connie Morella represented Maryland, and Steve LaTourette represented Ohio.
I believe this article is a credible source over the minimum wage debate because as state representatives, the article’s authors have firsthand knowledge about the US and it’s inner-working economy. The speakers write in a credible way as they cite a lot of statistical data but also mention their political work as a way to make themselves seem more knowledgeable in the matter. The venue of the article is USA Today which is a widely known news source. Due to the fact that the source represents itself as the face of current US news and strives to do just that, it is respected by Americans and probably those in international communities that follow world news. The authors of the article embedded many links to websites of the sources where they got their information. This shows that the authors actually researched and thought out their argument instead of just stating their opinion with no facts. The authors approach their argument in a straightforward and responsible manner because they are appealing to their former colleagues who are politicians.
Jack Quinn, Mike Castle, Connie Morella, and Steve LaTourette are all former state representatives that are calling their former political colleagues to raise minimum wage all over the country. They start of by saying that when they worked in Congress, they all voted in support of raising the minimum wage and encouraged others to do so. The authors then explain that the “the last time Congress voted to raise the wage to its current rate of $7.25 an hour was seven years ago.” Since that time, things like groceries, gas, and college have all increased in price. The authors state that inflation had not been kept up with in terms of wage. They then note that low minimum wage isn’t mostly affecting teenagers but parents who’s “average age is 35” and have to support children. The authors explain the unfairness of people working long hours and yet still being “stuck in poverty.” When they worked in Congress, the authors paired “minimum wage increases with pro-tax reform.” This strategy was met with majority approval. The authors argue that it’s time for the “Republican Caucus to take back our party” by addressing the issue of minimum wage accordingly. They explain that even an increase of the minimum wage to $10.10 would allow “one in five US workers” to benefit. In conclusion of their argument, the authors call on their former colleagues to raise the minimum wage because its “simple common sense.
The minimum wage should just go along with inflation, that’s it. There are firefighters, young policemen, young military service members, and much more hard-working jobs where they make about 8-11 dollars the hour. Minimum wage jobs are meant to be a temporary job, not permanent. $10 would be feasible in a state such as California, but not in smaller states like Oklahoma.
I agree with this article because it is true that the prices of supplies to survive have gone up such as the price of groceries. The minimum age should be increased so more hard-working people can afford to feed their families. Even though minimum wage jobs may be temporary jobs some have to make it their permanent job.
I agree with Anthony on inflation. Minimum should go along with the way the economy is going. There have been protest about raising the minimum wage to $15 which is absurd. Fifteen dollars for a McDonald’s job is crazy considering most people who have a college don’t even get that much. Raising the minimum wage to $10 is good though. It’s a more reasonable wage.
In the article it states a true fact on how prices of supplies and groceries had sky rocketed over the years,and yet the minimum wage is still $7.25 a hour. This is freaking crazy to think about because we have seen our economy struggle and succeeded over the time we were born. Therefore it would be reasonable to raise the minimum wage, but “Who will be paying the increase wage?” is the question. Because it is the company money and not the government.