Minimum Wage Survey: Blog Post #2

Chloe Epstein

28/2/14

Orange

Blog #2

For my last blog post I talked about the facts of minimum wage and the different sides to the argument of whether we should raise it or not. This included basic information, the history of minimum wage, and conservative/liberal opinions. Since then, I have found a great deal of new information.  This information comes from fact related questions on my new survey. For example, I uncovered facts such as the average age or percentage of women in minimum wage jobs. I also tried to find more information on what people on minimum wage can and can't afford. I needed all of this information to make my survey.

I wanted to find an assortment of answers to see what people really know and think about minimum wage. I wanted to see different views on minimum wage from my own, even if I don't agree with them. What I found is that most people answer the basic fact questions correctly. For example, for Question 1, 87% answered correctly that the federal minimum wage is only $7.25. People answered Question 4, on the average age of workers, correctly 64% of the time.   And, on Question 5, on the amount of female workers on minimum wage,  72.73% answered the question correctly.  Most people know these basic facts, leaving only a few people who still need to be informed so they get a better understanding of the minimum wage. Although, for a multiple choice question on the average number of hours a person works,  48.98% of people answer incorrectly (20 hours) while 46.94% answered correctly (40 hours). These results showed the majority of people the got facts right, but need to be informed about a few misconceptions.

There were a number of yes/no questions that gave room for people to comment on their answers. For Question 6 -- have you ever worked for minimum wage -- the number of people who said 'no' was 24 out of 90. And the people who did say yes said they worked for minimum wage as a teenager or young adult to pay of college. But most of the people who took the survey were adults so their life with minimum wage was much different compared to today. Still, most people said they did not enjoy their Minimum wage job. For the Final question I asked for their opinion on whether there should be minimum wage. Only 6 out of 95 people said they do not support minimum wage. Their answers varied from it's destroying small business to people need to get an education to the minimum wage we have now is enough for a ¨low skilled job.¨ For the majority of people who agreed with raising the minimum wage, it was because they felt the minimum wage today is not a livable one. These open- ended question showed people's opinions and real-life experiences with the minimum wage. Specifically their answers show that most people agree that  it is essential to raise the minimum wage so people can live a better life.

Now that I'm done with my original research I have a better understanding of people's position on this issue. This is not just what I found on the internet, which could be completely biased. These were real collective perspectives and research I conducted on my own. After doing this research I feel people have a sense of what's going on with the minimum wage and in my opinion are on the right track when it comes to their feelings on raising the minimum wage. But, they're still facts people need be informed about to get a better understanding of a minimum wage earners life. I think after doing all this research I really want to inform people about it and be active to do my part in helping raise the minimum wage.

Even after seeing real people's opinion's, some who I know personally, there are still many things I wonder about the issue of minimum wage. For example, the group of people who did do the survey knew more about the topic and had a more liberal view on things. What would happen If I got some different people to look a this survey? For example, people with different types of occupations, incomes, political opinions, etc. How would that affect my results? I feel If I were to do this again I would try to seek out a more diverse group of people. I wanted to get a sense of the U.S. opinion of minimum wage, and although I think most people agree with raising it, there's so much more I can learn about what people think about this topic and why.

Click here to see my survey!

Click here to see blog post #1!