Kirstin Knight Newman English 101: Rhetoric 16 September 2013 Statement of Scope for Annotated Bibliography

Many people complain about different things solely for the purpose of having something to complain about. People tend to take what they have for granted and just continue to argue for more. There are many people in the united states that have harsh minimum wage jobs that work them day and night with minimal pay and barely any benefits. In Working in the Shadows some of the hardest jobs immigrants are known to do and it was found that they got minimal pay with little to no benefits and that even when they were injured and told not to work they sometimes had to work else be fearful of losing their jobs. This essay will explore the minimum wages of the working men and women of different states. While many people say that minimum wage is set where it is economically best there are many more who argue otherwise. The minimum wage was set for younger people or people just joining the working class so that they may work their way up but these days most people have been stuck in the same job for months if not years with no increase in pay because they cant get any other job other than their fast food grill job or some of the other well-known starter jobs that people in their 40s and 50s are currently at. This selected bibliography includes sources that address the minimum wages at different points in time and some of the people who work with these wages and their grueling tasks. Michelle Conlin and Aaron Bernstein addresses how minimum wages are met but with no benefits. An anonymous person from the Poverty & Race talks about Americas broken promise with their wages. Elaine McCrate then goes into the presidents promise to fix the wages and workloads but still nothing happens McCrate also goes into the different wages for different states and depending on benefits offered.

Conlin, Michelle, and Aaron Bernstein. "Economics: U.S. ECONOMY : Working...and Poor." Business Week: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. In todays economy people who have jobs that should be higher paying or have benefits dont always have them. There are nurses and security personal who get paid very little and have no benefits at all. These people are all forced to spend their hard earned cash in which they already have very little of on insurance and medical bills that should be covered by their company. Some are even forced to leave their children at school after hours because they are working.

McCrate, Elaine. "Hitting bottom: welfare 'reform' and labor markets.(Special Issue: The Global Economy: Labor Explores New Terrain)." Dollars & Sense 19 Sept. 1997: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. McCrate talks about how the president says how he will create more jobs and wont fire anyone in the process. This was all fine and dandy until more people looked into this to find that employment was dropping instead of increasing. She says that Clintons promise was a typical.

- - -. "Minimum wage or 'living' wage?" The World & I: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. McCrate once again hits the points on how minimum wage has changed because of peoples progressing needs and inflation on the American dollar. She gives examples from Los Angeles and compares their wages from the past and present. Different cities and states required different wages. Also wages were different depending on whether or not the company gave benefits or not.

Osterman, Paul. "Improving the quality of low-wage work: The current American experience." International Labour Review: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Paul discusses how a good portion of America is either earning wages right at the poverty line or even below it. Most people are only able to get small wages with bad or no insurance. Paul says how some people believe that minimum wage is to low but think there is a different reason behind this.

Shulman, Beth. "Low-Wage Work -- America's Broken Promise." Poverty & Race: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. In her article Beth addresses the unfortunate truth behind low wages. There are so many people who do so many things that make our jobs so much easier. Yet these people arent even getting help to make their jobs easier. Beth talks about how people who have grueling tasks that they must do yet they dont get the pay to feed their families. People could work full time at these horrible wages and get no where other than a few bills paid and a little bit of food on the table.