Minimum Wage Yea or Neigh

Raising the minimum wage seems great at a first glance; it means people working at minimum wage will have more money. Great, right? There is even a theory similar to trickle-down economics called inventively "trickle-up economics" otherwise referred to as the fountain effect, and much like its opposed theory, it has been debunked. The trickle-up effect states that "policies that benefit the middle class directly will boost the productivity of society as a whole, and thus those benefits will "trickle up" to the wealthy." Essentially middle-class consumers will have more money to spend meaning they put more money into the economy. This doesn't work for a multitude of reasons, one of which I shall elaborate on in my second paragraph.

Listen closely because my next point not only proves part of why trickle-up economics doesn't work but also why raising the minimum wage as a whole may not be so great. Supply and demand is a relatively simple economic term that most should be aware of. In simple terms supply and demand, in economics, is the relationship between the quantity of a commodity that producers wish to sell at various prices and the quantity that consumers wish to buy. It is the main model of price determination used in economic theory. Supply and demand does not only apply to consumers and products but also employers and workers. In a sense, workers/employees are a supply that companies demand and the employer is buying workers, paying for them in the form of salaries, much like consumers buy bread at the market. To elaborate, consumers have a need to eat food therefore they buy food. Employers have a need to fulfill a task or create a product therefore they hire employees to do the task. But what happens when a business doesn't have enough money to buy large amounts of workers? Here's an example: what if you own a business and you have $100 per hour to pay employees, if the minimum wage was $10 you could hire ten people. If the minimum wage was increased to let's say $15 you could only hire around 6 people. This line of thought suggests raising the minimum wage could increase unemployment. Not only will this lower jobs but it will also make it harder for entry-level jobs that younger workers desperately need. Allow me to provide another example. If you were required to pay more money (as a result of the minimum wage) for a worker, would you choose the more qualified/experienced person or the less qualified/experienced person? The answer would most likely be more qualified because less qualified workers no longer have the appeal to employers of being cheap to employ and younger, first time workers would be raised to the standards of experienced, often older, more qualified workers, and because of there's possibly already fewer jobs due to the minimum wage, it would be increasingly difficult to get a job. Not only would corporations and possible workers experience losses due to an increase in the minimum wage but the small businesses would especially suffer too. Less large businesses with smaller profit margins would be far less able and willing to pay more for the same amount of work. Additionally small and in many cases large businesses not being able to hire large amounts of workers would result in poor company performance since there are fewer people. Answer me this: who can do more work, 6 people or 10? Oh and if I didn't fully prove trickle-up economics wrong yet then read this. If you hire 10 people for $10 or 16 people for $16.6, which group will put more into the economy? Allow me to answer for you group 1 "10 people for $10" will put more into the economy not only through money because near all $10 will go into taxes and necessities but also 10 people put in more work than 6 so in both monetary and physical forms group one contributes to the economy far more. Additionally group two is also more likely to save extra earnings which won't go into the economy unless it's in the form of stocks. Group 2 results in a larger wealth gap and likely lower prosperity overall which overtly goes against the original intention of enacting a higher minimum wage.