Analysis of an Article in a Microeconomics Viewpoint Essay

Analysis of an Article in a Microeconomics Viewpoint - Essay Example In the end of business organizations however, the increase will mean additional costs by business organizations. If this happens, this will be detrimental to the company and they will tend to compensate by cutting number of workers in order to maintain their original costs. Another issue is the economic viewpoint which is used in legislation. In the real world situation, changes in the economic policies should always be approved by government officials. As politicians have different viewpoints, it is often hard to pass bills and laws which will bring about drastic changes. The issue on minimum wage is always debated in all economies globally and not just in the United States. As the writer puts in the article, there are two sides of the coin which should be taken into consideration before the minimum wage could be raised. Through our class discussions, I have learned that minimum wage should be a matter of supply and demand. It is the least acceptable payment that an employee can accept while it is the highest which can be charged for a firm. For an employee, minimum wage should be able to cover up for the estimated productivity of the worker as well as the opportunity cost of his time. On the other hand, a company should make sure that the employee's output is worth his hourly payment.

Gender and work roles in Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gender and work roles in Society - Essay Example Unlike sex, gender is a socially constructed concept which has many ramifications in the social, political, and economic realms. The social construction of gender roles is responsible for the division the productive labor forces into one which has historically been private and unpaid, known for more than a hundred years as â€Å"women’s work† and another which occurs in the public sphere and his remunerated. Although women have entered the paid labor force in great numbers over the past 50 years, so-called â€Å"women’s work† has relegated women to child-rearing responsibilities, maintaining a home, cooking and cleaning and everything else which has historically been unpaid. Importantly, much of this work, child rearing, cooking, etc is both unpaid and often unappreciated. Historically, men worked outside the home, earning a paycheck and have been the breadwinners of the traditional nuclear family. Since the 1960s women have entered the labor force in incr edible numbers and have begun to earn the respect they deserve for the work that they do. Despite this important change, men still have much more power in our society and it remains structured upon the notion of patriarchy. Accordingly, women face many hurdles to direct employment in the paid labor force in the United States (see Bernbach 33-75). While female participation in the labor force has grown tremendously over the past half-century, women still lag behind men when it comes to getting paid for the hard work that they do. According to the American Department of Labor and Statistics, women on average earned $.80 on the US dollar relative to their male counterparts. From a sociological perspective, what can help account for the disparities women face in the labor force? Discrimination is one challenge women face in the paid labor force and this concept can be defined as the prejudicial treatment of others based upon perceived or real