Sanders, Period 42 May 2014Rough Draft DebatesFederal Minimum Wage Should Not Be IncreasedRaising the minimum wage risks doing more harm than good to businesses. The federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour would lead to high unemployment, especially among teenagers. There are some better ideas about what can be done to create a better economy and help people get the money they need. A high minimum wage comes with many negative effects that might lead one to think that keeping the wage as it is now would be the best option. Since the federal minimum wage is already high, it would be pointless to make it even higher when our country is already in debt. It's true that people with minimum wage jobs will have more money to spend on more things. It will help low-income families pay their bills and not have to work a stressful job. However, $10.10 an hour is still not enough money to support a family or afford a house or car payment, as well as electricity and water bills. “A 1997 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that the 1996-1997 federal minimum wage increase actually increased the number of poor families by 4.5 percent” (Henderson 54). A high minimum wage would also encourage people to become lazy thinking they can earn all this money with an easy job instead of becoming more educated and striving to get a higher paying job. Therefore, raising the minimum wage would not help stop poverty or success. Raising the minimum wage not only causes high youth unemployment because employers don't want to pay higher wages to inexperienced workers, but it can also lead to problems with teenagers' education. “Some minimum wage advocates argue that teenagers should be in high school or… halfway through school… a smart move by the government because considering the ups and downs of the situation; there are more negative effects. Finally, $10.10 as the federal minimum wage would be useless because it is already a high rate in most states and businesses would simply absorb the money they receive to pay their employees. Rather than having a crappy job and living on the edge with barely enough money to pay the bills and not having the ability to learn new skills as workers, employees should have the ability to get a better education at low cost and get a job higher paid where they can be promoted. Henderson, David R. “Raising the Minimum Wage Will Not Reduce Poverty.” Poverty: opposing points of view. Ed. Viqi Wagner. MI: Christine Nasso, 2008. 140-46. Print."Minimum Wage Laws in the United States." United States Department of Labor. Np, nd Web. March 29. 2014. .