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A possible solution to the problem would be to base minimum wage on how many employees their are in a business. This way, all employers are happy and only employees of small business aren't satisfied.

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Rachael,

Thank you for responding.

what can we do to strengthen job opportunities or create them?

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I do not agree with Obama's plan to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $9 for a couple reasons. Yes it would be nice to get more money, however in the economy we are in right now there is no way we can raise the money. Buisnesses will lose money and have to lay off MORE workers. That will make the economy worse and the unemployment rate go up. Also, it doesn't give owners opportunities to hire more workers cause they can't afford it. That is why i feel like this is not a good plan . Obama should wait until this country is strong enough to handle it.

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i support obamas plan and oppose it. I support it because of key facts Erica brought up. Also people that are receiving minimum wage may have families that they need to support. However raising minimum wage also provides less jobs. Businesses cant afford to pay several people a high minimum wage. This plan benefits and also does not to people. While people who maintain the job will be getting paid even more, some people will be losing there jobs at the same time.

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Alison,

How can we create jobs and not take them away???

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Well, to further explor this topic, I would have to say it depends on the person. By increasing the minimum wage, you can limit the amount of people who have jobs, and the people who gave jobs will get a higher pay. Would future workers rather have a job and be paid around the current minimum wage, or risk the chance of getting a job quicker and more easily by increasing the minimum wage?

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I oppose Obama's proposal to raise minimun wage from $7.25 to $9. My reasons for this are because it takes away the option of being able to hire more employees and give the current ones raises. Eventually, it will increase their cost of doing business. Although it may seem like a good idea, it's only benefitting a small amount of people. In fact, I do not believe this is a good plan mainly because it would contribute to the unemployment rate.

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Austin and Sophia

WHat is a better solution, how can we create more jobs?  What can our government do to help?

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Ryan and CHaz

You both oppose the raise....do you think people who can not or do not have a better paying job will be able to pay all monthly bills, debt and taxes?

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Abby,

I see your point Abby.  WHat may be another solution to help everyone?  People who only make minimum wage may be more in need of government assisting programs like food stamps and housing, these are costly to everyone.

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Noah,

You make a great point, and it would be nice to see a compromise, I wonder if business owners that do not want to pay the higher rates would not report all of their income, hence break the law, to avoid paying the higher wages.

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Ryan,

Nice post, What else could be done to support business owners and workers? It is very difficult to make this work for both...we need solutions!

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Erica, you make some great points.  If the average person that makes minimum wage works 40 hours per week...do you think they could run a household?

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I support Obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage because the highest minimum wage there is is $9.19 and i believe it should be at least 10$. Almost half of the workers earning minimum wage are 25 years or older and that is a lot considering other people their age that are making much more. And 10$ is a nice wage to have because if it is lower than that then if you think about it someone could babysit and get more than that and they are not even doing as much work. There are also some points to oppose this choice because this entire debate is based on opinions and I think that you should get paid for what you do and how hard you work.

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I oppose president Obama's plan to increase minimum wage. His plan allows for more money to be given to the employees. At the same time, the companies have to spend more money on the employees. This is bad for small businesses and employees, because if small businesses can't afford to pay their employees, then they will lose their jobs, and the businesses are also at a loss for money. How is this supposed to help? Perhaps president Obama should work out the flaws in his plan before making any big changes. . . .

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I think Obama's plan to raise the minimum wage to 9$ could be both good and bad. On what you can see in the pie chart, most people (25 years old or over) have the minimum wage in America compared to other age groups. Raising the minimum wage would help these families out a lot. On the other hand, it could make businesses lose a lot of money from handing out higher paychecks to people. I like the rule in Ohio where the minimum wage is 7.85$ only if the employer grosses more the 283,000$. This way, the businesses won't lose as much money if they are a small business with not a high gross.

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I oppose Obama's plan. He will leave many people who have tried to get a decent paying job, jobless, as some people who don't even try can just get a job that pays 9 dollars an hour. Also, this would cause a chain reaction where we would try to pay more to all workers. Then, more money would have to be printed and everything's value will decrease. Also, with minimum wage jobs, there are adults trying to make a living and teenagers trying to get a summer job. I don't believe its fair that teenagers are able to take the jobs of adults.

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I oppose President Obama's decision to raise the minimum wage from the normal $7.25 per hour to $9 for a couple reasons. To begin I can understant the reasoning behind raising it which is to have people be able to be better off then scraping by like he describes. However what would this do to those people that get fired because companies can't afford to pay all their employees for $9. All raising minimum wage to a higher amount would do is help a select few make life a little easier, yet leave many with nothing. It is definetly not a good idea in my eyes because the only thing that would happen is make lives more difficult, increasing the unemployment rate.

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I completley disagree with this act. For one, I think it will hurt buisness owners, and employees will make more money, if they aren't fired because the owner can't afford them anymore. It's hard enough to find a job in america, and this just makes it that much harder.

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WHy is Washington's wage so high??

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I oppose Obamas plan to raise the minimum wage to 9$. as the article states, the more money that businesses have to pay their workers, the less workers they will have. I think that there would be some pros to Obama's plan, however many cons come with it. Businesses are not going to hire a lot of workers having to pay them even more money per hour. this would cause some people's paycheck to increase while others get laid-off because their business can't afford many workers.

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I oppose this because if Obama raises the minimum wage to 9-10 dollars it is going to cut into the business and then the owner will be making less money.

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Review the chart

What are the benefits  of setting minimum wage above the fedeal rate? Describe why this may hurt businesses?

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Support or oppose

President Obama’s

proposal to raise the

minimum wage. Use

details from the article to

back up your arguments.

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Turn to page 8 for article