Shadduck 1

Annotated Bibliography

Does raising minimum wage hurt the economy?

Grant Shadduck

Professor Malcolm Campbell

English 1104

3-15-17
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Annotated Bibliography

Allegretto, Sylvia. The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast Food Industry. UC Berkley

Labor Center 15 October 2013. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2013/fast_food_po

verty_wages.pdf. Accessed 8 February 2017.

This source is a joint research PowerPoint from the University of California, Berkley and

the University of Illinois. The point of the slide show is to prove that low wage jobs and

those who are employed in them cause stress on the United States public programs. The

authors begin by describing the plateau of job loss in the US. This source uses statistics

of national public spending, and the public cost low-wage employers have on taxpayers

to argue that minimum wage should be increased. They argue that if the minimum wage

were to be raised, this would allow for low-wage employees to rely less on public

programs such as food stamps. The authors further this argument by describing the fast-

food industry. They argue that only 13% of fast-food workers receive health benefits

from their employer. This, they argue leads to the need for government assisted health

coverage. Next, the authors describe where they get their data from and how they

calculate the average cost of public programs per individual. Next, they go on to describe

their findings. They use charts and tables to clearly show the relationships between public

spending as a whole and public assistance for low-wage working families. Finally, they

conclude by taking a stance on the argument, and suggesting policy changes that they

believe would reduce the public cost of low-wage workers. Overall, I believe that this is a

reliable source. The fact that it is published and supported by two well-known

universities helps lead me to this conclusion. In addition, the authors use a lot of outside
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research and data obtained by the federal government to support their claims. I believe

that this source will be very useful in my argument for raising minimum wage. While

many argue raising it would cause job loss, this source helps to show that raising

minimum wage might actually save taxpayers money.

Linn, Allison. By the Grace of God: How Workers Survive on $7.25 per Hour. NBC News 25

April 2015. http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/in-plain-sight/grace-god-how-workers-

survive-7-25-hour-v17195815. Accessed 8 February 2017.

This source is an article from NBC News. The author describes the lives of two people

living on minimum wage. The article first describes a 25-year-old woman, Crystal

Dupont who answers customer service calls. She describes a life of financial insecurity

and daily struggles of a low-wage worker. The author then goes on to describe the current

situation of minimum wage in the United States. After this, another person living on

minimum wage is described. This time, a 61-year-old man by the name of John White.

He is a part-time pizza delivery man. When he is out delivering, his salary is $4.50 per

hour. This is only allowed when the job is supposed to earn tips. Another job that falls

under this category is waiters and waitresses at restaurants. I believe that this article will

be a very good addition to my Extended Inquiry Project. Unlike any of my other research,

this article focuses less on statistics and regulations and more on the individuals affected

by minimum wage. I believe that this will help strengthen the argument for a raise in

minimum wage. If I am able to use this source effectively, it will help to persuade the

reader to side with raising minimum wage.

Pratamo, Devanto Shasta. How does minimum wage affect employment statuses of youths?

Evidence of Indonesia. Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 43, no 2, Mar 2016, pp. 259-
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274. EBSCOhost, http://www.emeraldinsight.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.11

08/JES -07-2014-0131

This source is a published journal article. After researching the author, I found that he is

has PhD in Labor Economics and has written or contributed to more than a dozen

publications. This leads me to believe that this source is highly credible. Another clue to

the credibility of this article is the constant support from outside research. As described in

the abstract, the purpose of the paper is to examine the effects of minimum wage on

youth employment Although this article is based in Indonesia, I believe that it

provides a different view point on the topic. I do believe that the conclusion will relate to

a raise in the minimum wage in the US. The paper begins by describing how minimum

wage laws in Indonesia work. He then goes on to describe the current debate in

Indonesia. Similarly, to the United States, many in Indonesia argue that raising the

minimum wage would lead to employers hiring less employees. After providing an

overview of the current situation in Indonesia, the author begins to describe how the data

was collected and analyzed. The conclusion the author arrives at is that as the minimum

wage increases, generally the likelihood of a youth being employed decreases. However,

he goes on to describe that this differs between genders and regions. Overall, I believe

that this journal article is a great source for an argument against raising minimum wage. I

will use this source, possibly even data from this source to help support the argument.

Salam, Reihan. Raising the Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour Would Hurt Millions of Vulnerable

people. Business Insider, 25 Apr. 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/raising-the-

minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour-would-hurt-millions-of-vulnerable-people-2015-4.

Accessed 8 February 2017.

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This is a news article found on Business Insider. In this article, the author begins by

describing the context of the so called, Fight for $15. He describes how presidential

candidates such as Martin OMalley endorsed the idea of a $15 minimum wage. He then

goes on to interject his own view point of the argument. He provides support for his

argument by way of outside research. First, he describes the uncertainty of the effects

raising the minimum wage has on employment levels. After describing this uncertainty,

he once again interjects his own thoughts. In this case, he argues that while raising

minimum wage a small amount may not cause a substantial job loss raising it to the

proposed $15/hour is too large a spike. He further describes this by comparing

Massachusetts and Mississippi, two vastly different states. This then leads him to his

second point that raising minimum wage to the proposed $15 would likely leads to higher

prices. This is typically one of the largest arguments for those against raising minimum

wage. He continues to describe more points supporting his argument. While I believe that

this is a good, credible article, there is no doubt that it may be biased. With a topic as

polarized along party lines as this, there will always be a bias. However, although it is

biased, the author uses multiple outside sources for each point, further strengthening his

argument. I believe that this source will be useful in describing the argument against

minimum wage. A side of the argument that is typically less represented in the media.