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Jordan Moss

Professor Mitchell

UWRT 1104 054

25 September 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Rogan, Tom. Why We Shouldn't Raise the Minimum Wage. The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 Jan. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-rogan/why-we-

shouldnt-raise-the_b_4688701.html.

This popular-type source is a blog post written by Tom Rogan for the Huffington Post.

In this post, Rogan discusses why he believes raising the minimum wage would not be a

good idea for the US economy. His first main point is that while supporters of a wage

increase claim there would be no effect on employment, as a study by David Card and Alan

Krueger suggests, a later study by David Neumark and William Wascher shows that a raise

in minimum wage does affect employment. Rogan says that theres strong evidence to

suggest that an increase in minimum wage has the largest effect on the employment of

younger Americans. According to Gary Becker and Richard Posner, minimum wage

increases can become a form of income segregation for the poor. Later in the post, Rogan

describes some alternative ways of increasing social mobility, like making sure people who

work in low-wage jobs have more opportunities for promotion. He also says the US needs

to provide more funding for programs that can teach skills to workers, and that the US

education system needs to be reformed so that less-wealthy counties can still have good

schools.
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This source was written by Tom Rogan, a political journalist who has written articles

for various news organizations, like Fox News, USA Today, The Guardian, and CNN. He

may have been slightly biased in his post, since some parts of it seemed to be opinion-

based, like when he was listing some ways of increasing social mobility besides raising

minimum wage. For the most part, he had sources for research he was referencing, which

gave him a bit of credibility. However, because hes a political journalist instead of an

economist, he may not be a totally credible source of information. He said that minimum

wage increases would affect employment, and to back up this statement, he used the

Neumark-Wascher study as evidence that the Card-Krueger study was inaccurate.

However, there have actually been many studies done over the last several decades to prove

that employment is in fact not affected by modest increases in minimum wage (other

sources in this bibliography prove this). Although, Rogan did make some interesting points.

I found it interesting how he tried to show that social mobility was at risk, and provide

some alternative ways of increasing it.

This source was somewhat helpful to my research. It gave me a perspective of the

opposing side, and helped me understand why some people may be against raising

minimum wage, even though it wasnt enough to change my stance on it. I will not be using

it in my research essay. Some parts of it, like the part about the effect on employment,

seemed like it may be factually inaccurate, possibly due to the fact that Rogan is not an

economist. Also, even though I liked the part where he discussed ways of increasing social

mobility, I dont currently see how that would fit into my essay.

Schmitt, John. Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?

Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2013, Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No
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Discernible Effect on Employment?, cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-

02.pdf.

This source is an academic report done by John Schmitt for the Center for Economic

and Policy Research. In this report, Schmitt describes various research studies done by

economists since the late 1970s. Almost every one of the studies has found that when the

minimum wage is raised a modest amount, there is almost no effect on employment. There

were some studies that found otherwise, but the vast majority, no matter how the study was

conducted, found that minimum wage increases do not generally effect the employment

rate very much. However, it is difficult to come to this conclusion exactly because of how

many different factors need to be considered when discussing employment. The

employment rate could potentially go down a lot in just a few years, but it may not be

related to a minimum wage hike at all. Schmitt then tries to explain why these studies have

shown no affect on employment or otherwise been inconclusive, saying its because

employers respond to a minimum wage increase in many different ways. They may cut

hours or employee benefits, or they may raise prices for customers. Some will even just

accept lower profits. Sometimes, the employees start working harder. Its been found that

some of the methods employers use reduce the benefit of the minimum wage, but most

have an ambiguous effect or no effect at all on the well-being of the workers.

John Schmitt is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Schmitt was very objective in his report. He didnt seem biased at all. The information

from this source is very reliable. There is a long list of references at the end, and the author

is an economist for a credible association. The source is a scholarly academic report. The
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purpose of it is to inform the reader of how minimum wage affects employment, and to

explain why it has such a small effect.

This source is very relevant to my research. It is a very helpful resource. When I first

began to research raising the minimum wage, the most common argument I saw against it

was that it would be bad for employment, and this source proves why that argument doesnt

really work. This source has helped form my opinion about my research by showing that

modest increases in minimum wage do not have a negative impact the US employment

rate. This source will definitely be appearing in my final research essay because it is a very

relevant argument for my research topic.

Spielberg, Ben. Think a $15 Minimum Wage Is Too High? Think Again. The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Jan. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/think-a-15-

minimum-wage-i_b_9062534.html.

This source is a blog post from Ben Spielberg for the Huffington Post. In this post,

Spielberg is commenting on another article, written by Jordan Weissmann for Slate, about

the New York Times editorial boards endorsement of a $15 federal minimum wage.

Weissmann felt that this is too high, and he wrote about why he thinks so. Spielberg wrote

in his post about why he believes Weissmann is wrong about the points he made in his

article. In his post, Spielberg says that the most-used argument against raising minimum

wage is that it would kill jobs. He then goes on to explain that this argument is incorrect,

based on a large amount of research conducted in the last twenty years. Most research

shows that there is little or no effect on employment. He says that while there are studies

that have found small effects, there are also theories that a raise in the minimum wage

would actually lead to an increase in employment. Spielberg also points out that research
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suggests corporate profits are near an all-time high, and thus most businesses that employ

low-wage workers would be able to absorb the cost of labor fairly easily, which would

mean they likely wouldnt need to fire employees or cut their hours by much. Spielberg

believes minimum wage needs to be raised to $15 an hour. He emphasizes the danger of

not raising the minimum wage high enough, saying it would lock in insufficient income

support for millions of low-wage workers who desperately need additional money.

This is a popular-type source is written by Ben Spielberg. His LinkedIn page says that

he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Mathematical and Computational

Services. He currently works as a Research Associate and Project Manager for the Center

on Budget and Policy Priorities, and he works with Jared Bernstein, the Chief Economist

to former Vice President Joe Biden. In his blog post, he seems fairly objective. He doesnt

seem biased, he just presents facts that explain why Weissmanns arguments against raising

minimum wage are not supported by research. Normally, a blog post wouldnt feel like a

credible source to use for a research essay, but given Spielbergs credentials and the fact

that he links to different sources that support his arguments, I think this source is suitably

credible for my essay. The purpose of Spielbergs blog post is to present information that

proves that the other articles claims are not supported by evidence, and to persuade the

reader that raising minimum wage to $15 would help Americans. The intended audience is

likely people who oppose raising minimum wage, since Spielberg seems to be proving why

the most common arguments they use are incorrect.

This source was helpful for my research. It helped shape my argument by providing

evidence against some of the arguments people opposing a minimum wage increase often

use. I dont know for sure yet if it will appear in my final research essay. I like the points
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that Spielberg makes, and I especially like the quote, The minimum wage does not exist

in a vacuum; it is one policy among many that can be used to help low-wage workers. I

think this post could help me a lot in my research paper, so I will probably be using it.

Why America Needs a $15 Minimum Wage. Economic Policy Institute, 26 Apr. 2017,

www.epi.org/publication/why-america-needs-a-15-minimum-wage/.

This source is a fact sheet from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit

association that proposes public policies that would improve the economic conditions of

people in the US who work middle and low-income jobs. In this source, the EPI is

proposing the Raise the Wage Act of 2017. The plan they are suggesting is to raise the

federal minimum wage from where it currently is at $7.25 to $9.25 by the end of 2017.

Then, it would be gradually increased every year over the next seven years until it reaches

$15 an hour in the year 2024. Their plan is for the minimum wage to then be adjusted every

year to keep up with the growth of the typical workers wages. They believe the separate

minimum wage for tipped workers, which has been at $2.13 since 1991, should be

eliminated completely and they should receive the same minimum wage other workers do.

The EPI provides their arguments for why they believe this act should be adopted by the

US federal government, then presents statistics and facts as evidence to support them. One

of the main points they made is that the benefits of raising minimum wage to $15 by 2024

would far outweigh the costs. It would lift pay for 41 million workers across America,

which is nearly 30 percent of the workforce. Another point they made is that currently,

workers in many skilled, middle-class jobs can barely get by on a minimum wage that is

less than $15. They also said that employers who pay their employees low wages force
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their workers to turn to government programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, which

cost federal and state taxpayers more than $150 billion every year.

This source is from an associations website. The sources author is not listed on the

webpage, but they seem somewhat unbiased. They have taken a particular stance on raising

minimum wage, but they are able to back up all of their arguments with sources at the

bottom of the page, so this is likely a credible source with reliable information. This

webpage was written with the purpose of providing readers with data and statistics about

the issue of minimum wage and persuading them that the Act they were proposing to raise

it will be beneficial to the American economy.

This source was really helpful, and the information from it will be very important in my

research. I plan to write my research essay about how raising the federal minimum wage

in America would impact the economy, and whether or not it should be raised given the

effects it would have. This source fits in perfectly, because it provides facts that I can use

as evidence for why minimum wage should be raised. This source has affected how I

thought about my topic. When I first started my research, I was unbiased, and did not have

much of an idea of my stance on raising minimum wage. This source, and several others,

have led me to believe that the federal minimum wage should absolutely be raised. I think

I will most likely be using this source in my research essay, unless I do more research and

come across a better one. I like that this source is so heavily based on statistics.