I believe that the minimum wage should not be raised for various reasons. The first main reason is our economy is adding more and more jobs, but still so many can't find full time jobs. But the president's call to increase the federal minimum wage by over 24 percent will make it harder for firms to hire workers because it will make workers more expensive. The minimum wage should not be increased, especially given the dismal state of the labor market. The employment rate from 16-19 year old African Americans is a massive 37.8 percent. For white teenagers, the rate is 20.8 percent. This amount of employment will ripple through the rest of their lives. Raising the minimum wage is unlikely to affect the poverty rate. And raising the minimum wage certainly won't increase the number of workers who are employed. Quite the opposite - the weight of the evidence suggests that it may decrease the number of employed workers. The second reason is the cost of living spiked 5.4% in 2009. Then it spiked 3.6% in 2012 and 1.7% in 2013. It is estimated to go to 1.5% in 2014 which is less than it was this year, if it is fixing without the estimated minimum wage spike, it could begin to be fixed.
http://www.ssa.gov/cola/automatic-cola.htm
http://www.aei.org/article/economics/fiscal-policy/labor/now-is-not-the-time-to-raise-the-minimum-wage/#mbl
