For my research essay I will examine the success of U.S. retail companies with respect to raising national minimum wage. In my research I intend to argue that raising the national minimum wage is the best manner with which to improve retail company profitability. While it is commonly argued that increases to minimum wage will hurt business multiple studies have found there to be little initial impact. Further results have even shown there to be an undiscernibly small impact on the economic success of businesses. As the adjusted minimum wage in the U.S. has fallen in recent decades it is imperative that we address the resulting shortcomings. By increasing the national minimum wage, we will see an increase in success for retail companies in the U.S.

Sources: 

1. The Effects of the Minimum Wage: A Business Response

URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1298559456?accountid=13605&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

• Background: This survey conducted by Oren M. Levin-Waldman, a Professor of Public Policy at Metropolitan College, intends to shed light on how monetary policy affects employment in small businesses. Within his study Prof. Levin-Waldman examines 560 businesses with no more than 500 employees. The study involves various sectors of employment randomly chosen from across the U.S. and includes specific attention to the retail sector.

• How I intend to use it: The data provided by this survey will be a useful guide for how employers view the effects of raising minimum wage compared to the actual statistical effects. This survey will also be useful for establishing a base of research as it pertains specifically to the same culture as my own paradigm.

2. Disentangling the Minimum Wage Puzzle: An Analysis of Worker Accessions and Separations

URL: https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp544.html

• Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of raising minimum wage on a specific group of people. This examination focuses on a wage increase in Portugal where the youth minimum wage was increased to be identical to the adult wage.

• How I intend to use it: The purpose of using this source is to examine how raising minimum wage impacts those whose current wage lies where the new minimum wage will reside. This will be an imperfect comparison but will also allow for an international viewpoint to be examined.

3. Minimum Wage Shocks, Employment Flows, and Labor Market Frictions

URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/76p927ks

• Background: The intention of this research paper was to find the effects of minimum wage on employment across U.S. state borders. While attention is still given to stock employment the research is more specifically meant to study the effects on employment flow at an area of two differing minimum wages.

• How I intend to use it: The research gathered in this paper will be useful in determining how changes to the national minimum wage will impact the U.S. versus the global market.

4. The Effects of Minimum Wage Increases on Retail Employment and Hours: New Evidence from Monthly CPS Data

URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12122-008-9054-1

• Background: Author Joseph J. Sabia argues that increases to minimum wage have mixed results and can negatively impact the most vulnerable workers. This study specifically focuses on the retail sector, which is considered one of the more vulnerable work sectors.

• How I intend to use it: This paper will offer an opposing viewpoint to my own and establish counterpoints I will need to refute. In refuting this opposing work, I expect to strengthen my own argument.

5. The Earned Income Tax Credit: Participation, Compliance, and Antipoverty Effectiveness

URL: https://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=b98c51ba-2a00-44ce-865b-e42001f5134e%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=0327248&db=eoh

• Background: This research covers the U.S. earned income tax credit and its effectiveness on poverty. Specifically, the data covered is from immediately before and after the August 1993 revisions to EITC.

• How I intend to use it: Earned income tax credit is an alternative method to compensating low income workers in the U.S. In discussing this study I aim to cover how it compares to raising minimum wage and why I favor one over the other.