Rhetorical Analysis

In the article, “Minimum Wage, Maximum Harm,” written by, Aspen Gorry, and Sita Nataraj Slavov, was somewhat informative and not too many statistics in the article that would have made it hard to understand. They also acknowledged that if minimum wage were raised to $10.10 per hour that it will affect young workers between the ages of 18 and 24. Gorry is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. He has written many articles on minimum wage, labor economics, and public finance. One of his research papers was published in 2013 called, “Minimum Wage and Youth Unemployment.” Slavov has contributed some of her research in several articles with Gorry. She graduated from Stanford University in 2003 with a PhD. in Economics, and she also graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1997 with a BA in Economics.

Gorry and Slavov represent arguments that claimed if the minimum wage is raised, the greater chance that a large number of young individuals could be negatively affected, and become unemployed. They suggest that law makers need to think about the short and long term implications of unemployment that can result from raising the minimum wage. They stuck to one key point throughout the article about the negative effects of raising the minimum wage on youth between the ages of 18-24.

Most of the author’s evidence was based on the estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). They also did their own independent studies and research on the effect of raising the minimum wage on the youth. For example, they contrasted how the Netherlands does their minimum wage towards the youth, which seemed to be the most interesting method in the article because it catches the intended audience attention. However, throughout the article they mentioned information that was not so informative because they did not specify who conducted the studies.

In the article, they did not present opposing views on the subject of raising the minimum wage. In fact, they gave examples of various affects that would harm the youth if the minimum wage was raised. By using the examples from research conducted on the subject, they were able to show the harm that could be done on the youth, in particularly, as opposed to other age groups in the workforce.

Further on in the article Gorry and Slavov, used a table to show the percentages of workers between 18 and 64 who would be affected by a minimum wage increase. Their evidence was not strong or believable because there was not any research showing that the table or percentages were accurate.

            The arguments are readable and written in a journalistic format. Yet, they did not give any scenarios as to why the youth between the ages of 18 to 24 would be affected by a minimum wage increase. Instead they just implied that the youth will be affected if the minimum wage was raised to $10.10 an hour. It was not persuasive enough to make me agree that the youth will be affected by an increase if the minimum wage is raised. Nevertheless, there are still some unanswered questions and contradictions that I am left with.







-Gorry. Aspen. Nataraj Slavav. Sita. “Minimum Wage, Maximum Harm” US News & World Report. 01 May. 2014 Web. 21 Oct. 2014.