Introduction
The minimum wage has gained significant momentum among policy makers across the individual states in America. The objective of such policy considerations is to alleviate the rising wage and income inequality in the United States. The majority of the policy debates center on the potential effects of raising the minimum wage. As such, it is important to weigh the potential costs of the rise in the minimum wage against the potential benefits in order to arrive at appropriate policy decisions. The police pay varies dramatically from one jurisdiction to the next in the United States (Neumark, et al., 2004). In 2016, California became the first state to adopt legislation that would see the minimum wage gradually rise to $15 per hour. New York City, Washington DC, and Seattle are some of the states that have also implemented their plans to phase in a $15 per hour wage floor. The changes are coming into effects after years of national debate about the need to raise the pay in order to ensure that families can earn a living wage. The United States federal minimum wage was first established during the Depression resulting to a rise from 25 cents to $7.25 per hour since it was first established in 1938 as part of the implementation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Despite such progressive increases in the minimum wage, its value has been significantly eroded by inflation. Former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, during his 2013 State of the Union address, called for the raising of the minimum wage to $9 per hour. Such an increase, in adjusted terms, would put it back at its early 1980s level hence boosting the wages of some 15 million US citizens. Such efforts were considered likely to benefit women significantly.
However, increasing the minimum wage on police departments in the United States may have impacts beyond adding more money to the pockets of police officers. Additionally, critics assert that the real effects of minimum wage increases are negative as they may raise prices and ultimately become counterproductive for the working poor as they may lead to increase in unemployment rate. Therefore, increase in the minimum wage will have significant effects on police departments in the United States.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Effects of Raising Minimum Wage
Raising minimum wage in the US is likely to influence the police departments in the United States in various ways. Some of the effects may be negative while others may be beneficial. Increasing the minimum wage may have significant negative impacts on police departments in the United Sates. The police departments may find it difficult to manage the increasing wage bill. The police departments may be overwhelmed by the increase, as a significant proportion of the money may be spent on paying the police officers. As a result, most of the police officers may be laid off from work in order to ensure that the payroll remains sustainable. Therefore, the increase in the minimum wage may not result in any significant benefits for the police officers as well as the respective police departments. It is, therefore, important to effectively analyze the potential impact of increasing the minimum wage on the welfare of the police officers and the public before being implemented (Becker & Stigler, 1974). For an increase in minimum wage to be beneficial, it should improve the welfare of the police officers and increase efficiency in the respective police departments.
The standard model of competitive labor markets indicates that a higher minimum wage is likely to lead to job loss particularly among the low-skilled workers. For instance, a binding minimum wage that is set above the competitive equilibrium wage has the potential of reducing employment for various reasons. The increase in the minimum wage will encourage more skilled individuals to seek employments in the police departments. This indicates that the low skilled individuals will lack employment because the employers will prefer highly skilled employees over low-skilled employees. Therefore, many skilled members of the society will not be able to be employed in the police departments. This ultimately leads to increase in the level of unemployment (Neumark & Nizalova, 2007). High levels of unemployment are associated with increased poverty and crime. As such, insecurity will definitely increase in the society, and the police departments will face significant challenges from the deviant and unemployed members of the society. Low levels of employment encourage crime in the society. As a result, the police officers may be overwhelmed with increased crime rates. Additionally, the police departments may experience a shortage of personnel due to layoffs occasioned by the increased wage bill in the respective departments. This is because the increase in the minimum wage attracts more entrants to the profession, but they cannot secure a job. Additionally, the existing police officers may lose their jobs, or worst still have their hours cut.
Increasing the minimum wage is likely to lower the living standards of the police officers employed in the various police departments in the United States. Increasing the minimum wage is an inappropriate way to reduce poverty, particularly among the police officers. Raising the minimum wage has limited benefits in the war against poverty in the United States of America. This is because increasing the minimum wage reduces job opportunities and reduces working hours in order to make the wage bill sustainable (Mincer, 1976). The salaries of the police officers may increase, but the effect of inflation will dilute the benefits of the pay rise. Increasing the minimum wage facilitates an increase in the amount of money in circulation. As such, the demand for consumer goods will increase leading to an increase in prices. This means that the net is the effect of the increase in salaries will be phased out by the corresponding increase in the cost of living. In essence, increasing the minimum wage is not an effective way of promoting the welfare of the police officers in the various police departments.
Increasing the minimum wage will significantly hurt the police officers working in the respective police departments in the United States of America. The increase in the minimum wage will cause the price of consumer goods in the market to rise. As a result, the real income of the police officers will reduce given the increase in the cost of living. Therefore, keeping the level of the minimum wage will cushion the police officers from the negative impact of price increases on their welfare. Additionally, it would be appropriate to increase tax credits for the police officers in order to improve their welfare as opposed to increasing the minimum wage. The police officers can have their benefits and hours cut by their employers. It is, therefore, important to consider the impact of the increased minimum wage on the livelihoods of police officers and the general public prior to its implementation.
The minimum wage increase will prohibit the police departments from hiring new police officers and pay them salaries that fall below the set floor. This will impact negatively on the capacity of the police departments to effectively enforce law and order in their respective jurisdictions in the United States. Both unskilled and young individuals in the society will not have the opportunity to be employed by the police departments because of the high minimum wage set by the federal government. Additionally, the police departments may be compelled to hire police officers on a part-time basis. Part time terms of employment do not include various benefits and allowances compared to regular employment. As such, the part-time police officers may pose security threats to the police departments as they may solicit bribes from the public in order to sustain themselves. As such, increasing the minimum wage will have significant negative impact on the operations of the majority of the police departments who may find the increase overwhelming. It is, therefore, important to maintain the minimum wage at a sustainable level in order to ensure that operations of all the institutions are not adversely affected by the changes.
Increasing the minimum wage in the United States may significantly reduce the likelihood of upward mobility of police officers in the police departments (Dube et al., 2010). As such, the police officers may lack the motivation to perform their duties well because they understand that they will not be rewarded by a promotion in the long run. Lack of upward mobility has detrimental effects particularly in the police force because the police are held in the position of trust. As such, the police should be regularly rewarded through promotions in the police departments in order to motivate them to deliver their services diligently. Police officers may resign from their jobs if they do not feel challenged in the workplace. It is the upward mobility in the workplace that provides the much-needed challenging environment for the police officers. The increase in minimum wage has the effect of increasing the level of wages as a result of promotions. Therefore, the police departments may limit job promotions in order to keep the wage bill sustainable.
The minimum wage is applied inconsistently across the states in the United States of America. This is because different states have different sets of minimum wages which are currently above $7.25 per hour already. It is, therefore, clear that some states have higher minimum wage compared to others. As such, the amount the national minimum wage is set at varies in significance from one state to the other (Hall & Vanderporten, 1977). Therefore, the police officers from the states that have lower minimum wage may be disappointed by their individual states and the police officers may demand an increase in the minimum wage. The policies should, therefore, address the inconsistencies in the minimum wage levels across the states. The minimum wage should be applied consistently and equally to all states in order to ensure that all the police departments in the United States are not exposed to challenges regarding inconsistencies in the minimum wage. Because all the police officers from the various police departments play the same roles, they should be treated equally so that the quality of the police force is enhanced significantly. The majority of the police officers desire equal treatment of all the police officers across the country because none is more significant than the other. It is, therefore, important to recognize that the principle of fairness should be applied across all the police departments in order to facilitate a smooth working relationship between officers from different police departments especially during major security incidences that may necessitate collaboration between states.
Increasing the minimum wage will significantly keep the black American at a socioeconomic disadvantage. Therefore, this will pose a significant challenge to the police departments regarding ensuring that all the races are equally represented in the police force. Additionally, the policies that were originally intended to resolve such disparities have only made things worse. The black Americans have gone through immense difficulties in the history of the United States particularly under Jim Crow. To address such injustices, welfare policies such as minimum wage were implemented. Such measures were well intentioned, and they were meant to enhance the welfare of black American in the United States (Skocpol, 1991). However, the well-intentioned policies served to widen the racial gap. Initially, blacks achieved huge gains in wages, political expression and education. The black labor force significantly developed as the black-white wage gap declined sharply. However, things began to change in 1938, when the Congress legislated the Fair Labor Standards Act. This led to the institution of the minimum wage of $0.25 per hour. The newly instituted minimum wage prohibited black youths from entering the labor market.
As a result, the minimum wage harmed the long term employment potential of black Americans in the United States. The minimum wage continued to expand the racial unemployment gap. While the older black already in the police force were unaffected by the minimum wage, the black youth were on the receiving end as they were prevented from gaining employment. It is, therefore, worth noting that public policy designed to help the public may result in structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. As such, the introduction of the minimum wage has failed to address the socioeconomic disparity between black and white Americans. The present socioeconomic disparities may continue to disadvantage black Americans from being employed by the police departments. Consequently, raising the minimum wage is likely to further disadvantage black Americans in the United States. Therefore, the police departments should come up with policies and frameworks that will ensure that racial disparities are eliminated in order to enhance the welfare of all Americans.
However, there are several differing views on the effects of raising the minimum wage on police departments in the United States. Such views seek to justify the raising of minimum wage and how it can be beneficial to police departments in the United States of America. Raising the minimum wage is believed to be an economic stimulus which will ensure that more money circulates in the economy. As such, an increase of money in circulation in the economy will increase the aggregate demand for goods and services in the market. Therefore, increasing the minimum wage is considered significant in ensuring that the police officers benefit from the economic growth as improvements in their local economies will uplift their livelihoods. Additionally, it is believed that raising the minimum wage addresses the effect of inflation hence cushioning the police officers from the negative impact of inflation. It is considered that inflation raises every year and the minimum wage should be raised proportionately. This argument is not well grounded because it does not factor in the aspect of increasing prices as a result of more money circulating in the economy. Additionally, raising the minimum wage will increase inflation because of the increase in demand for goods occasioned by increased disposable income. Essentially, raising the minimum wage will have the opposite results because the increased aggregate demand will reduce the real income of the police officers working for the various police departments.
The proponents of raising minimum wage also posit that the move will provide more opportunity for jobs. This is also expected to also create more job opportunities in the police departments because the resulting economic growth will require a corresponding growth in the number of security agents, particularly the police officers draw from the police departments. As such, it is expected that raising the minimum wage will facilitate the creation of more job opportunities for a police officer in the country. However, the argument is weak because it does not factor in the impact of the increase in the amount of minimum income earned by the police officers. Raising minimum wage means that police officers have to earn more that they usually do. Therefore, the opposite will happen as some of the police officers may be laid off in order to make the wage bill more sustainable in the face of increased recommended income for the police officers working for the various police departments in the United States. It is worth noting that raising the minimum wage will limit the capacity of the police departments to absorb more police officers (Neumark & Wascher, 2007). Alternatively, the police departments may hire part-time police officers who may not benefit from allowances like the regular officers in order to minimize the wage bill figure. Therefore, raising the minimum wage may not necessarily result in the creation of jobs in the police departments in the United States.
It is also argued that raising the minimum wage has the potential of decreasing the turnover rate among the police officers in the various police departments in America. It is posited that police officers and other staff working in police departments who are making higher minimum wage feel more comfortable and satisfied with their minimum wage jobs indicating that they are less likely to resign from their jobs. Additionally, the proponents of a higher minimum wage claim that a lower turnover rate reduces the expenses associated with hiring and training new employees. This argument seeks to justify raising the minimum wage in the various states of the country. However, the argument is somehow shallow because it does not address the issue of upward mobility in the police departments in the United States. It is demonstrable that raising minimum wage limits upward mobility in police departments because the police departments will endeavor to keep their wage bills low. Additionally, upward mobility among employees has the effect of increasing the wage bill. As such, the police officers will most likely not be promoted for good performance meaning that there will be lack of motivation among the police officers. Lack of motivation and job satisfaction will, on the contrary, increase the likelihood for resignations from police officers who may not be satisfied with their jobs due to lack of job promotions. Therefore, raising minimum wage may lead considerable turnover in police departments in the United States.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is demonstrable that raising the minimum wage has a significant impact on police departments in the United States. However, increasing the minimum wage on police departments in the United States may have impacts beyond adding more money to the pockets of police officers. Additionally, the real effects of minimum wage increases are negative as they may raise prices and ultimately become counterproductive for the working poor as they may lead to increase in unemployment rate. As such, increase the minimum wage will have significant effects on police departments in the United States. Increasing the minimum wage is likely to lower the living standards of the police officers employed in the various police departments in the United States. Increasing the minimum wage is an inappropriate way to reduce poverty, particularly among the police officers. Raising the minimum wage has limited benefits in the war against poverty in the United States of America. This is because increasing the minimum wage reduces job opportunities and reduces working hours in order to make the wage bill sustainable. Therefore, other alternatives such as increasing tax credits can be used in order to cushion the police officers working in the police department in the various states in America.
References
Becker, G. S., & Stigler, G. J. (1974). Law enforcement, malfeasance, and compensation of enforcers. The Journal of Legal Studies , 3 (1), 1-18.
Dube, A., Lester, T. W., & Reich, M. (2010). Minimum wage effects across state borders: Estimates using contiguous counties. The review of economics and statistics , 92 (4), 945-964.
Hall, W. C., & Vanderporten, B. (1977). Unionization, monopsony power, and police salaries. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society , 16 (1), 94-100.
Mincer, J. (1976). Unemployment effects of minimum wages. Journal of Political Economy , 84 (4, Part 2), S87-S104.
Neumark, D., & Nizalova, O. (2007). Minimum wage effects in the longer run. Journal of Human resources , 42 (2), 435-452.
Neumark, D., & Wascher, W. L. (2007). Minimum wages and employment. Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics , 3 (1–2), 1-182.
Neumark, D., Schweitzer, M., & Wascher, W. (2004). Minimum wage effects throughout the wage distribution. Journal of Human Resources , 39 (2), 425-450.
Skocpol, T. (1991). Targeting within universalism: Politically viable policies to combat poverty in the United States. The urban underclass , 411 (411), 437-59.
