Increasing the minimum wage increases the salaries of low income workers

It is necessary to increase the minimum wage across the United States to $15 by  2019 because it will increase the salaries of low income workers. 

   In 2013, a study by University of Massachusetts at Amherst economist Arindrajit Dube, PhD, estimated that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 is "projected to reduce the number of non-elderly living in poverty by around 4.6 million, or by 6.8 million when longer term effects are accounted for (Dube 1).  Also, according to a 2014 Congressional Budget Office report, increasing the minimum wage to $9 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty, and an increasing it to $10.10 would lift around 900,000 people out of poverty.   
  The following graph demonstrates another reason how the minimum wage reduces poverty.

  
The following model demonstrates that "having a higher minimum wage will lead to a significant boost in incomes for the worst off in the bottom 30th percent of income which are considered the lowest income families" ( Konczal 1).  The graph also shows that while there is an increase in the income for low income families the increase in the minimum wage  has no impact on the median household, which are middle class families.  This shows that increasing the minimum wage reduces the gap in the salaries the salaries between the middle class and the lower income families. Another reason that raising the minimum wage will increase the salaries of low income families is that according to the author of  "Do minimum wages fight poverty", David Neumark ,the minimum wage increases raise the income of  low-wage workers, using the following logic: 
"An elasticity of -0.1 indicates that a 10% increase in the minimum wage reduces the employment rate of teenagers by 1%, meaning that 99% of low-wage teenagers receive a 10% raise, and 1% of them lose their job" (Neumark 3). This formula shows that increasing the minimum wage  also benefits the teenagers because they receive a raise and only a small amount of them see a reduction in jobs.  The reason that the minimum wage should be raised to $15 per hour because it will allow a larger percentage of people to overcome poverty based on the fact that if increasing the minimum wage to $10.10  reduces the number of non-elderly living in poverty by around 4.6 million then increasing the minimum wage to $15 would reduce the number of people that are in poverty even further.
The following pie chart below shows the benefits of increasing the minimum wage.  
 This pie chart shows that increasing the minimum wage increases the wage of 19 million workers from all different types of households such as people who under the age of 18, people who are married with kids, unmarried with kids, unmarried without kids, and married without kids. It shows that each of these types of people benefit by different percentages by a minimum wage increase. The title of the pie chart shows that increases the minimum wage boosts the wages of around 19 million workers in total which is very beneficial.

Works Cited: 

Konczal, Mike. Economists agree: Raising the minimum wage reduces poverty, The Washington Post , 4 Jan. 2014. Accessed 31 Oct. 2016.  

Neumark, David, and William Wascher. "Do minimum wages fight poverty?" Economic Inquiry, vol. 40, no. 3, 2002, p. 315+. Academic OneFile, libproxy.howardcc.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=colu91149&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA89274964&it=r&asid=0a2534e26e212f6cdd9aa3bf481d77ac. Accessed 31 Oct. 2016.
 
Should the Federal Minimum Wage Be Increased?, ProCon.org, 14 July 2016, minimum-wage.procon.org/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2016.