Hello,

I need four responses of at least 150 words each for the below students discussions for this week. Also in the bold below are the questions the students at answering.

Prompt: Review the Article I U.S. Constitutional provisions.

1. If the power to enact laws is vested in Congress, how is it that there are so many federal agencies that enact regulations that carry the weight and power of law?

2. In addition, evaluate whether Congress should raise the mandatory minimum wage. Consider all aspects you deem relevant (constitutional, economic, etc.) THEN: Discuss which ethical framework would persuade you in an argument in favor of raising the minimum wage. Discuss which ethical framework would support a decision against raising the minimum wage.

Student one:

Article I of the Constitution lays out the rules regarding Congress, the legislative branch of the government. It gives these members exclusive legislation powers, so why is it that so many federal agencies make regulations that are law? Article I Section 8 of the Constitution states “To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof” (Article I). The latter part of this statement provides Congress with the ability to legislate agencies into being, and thus delegates legislative authority to them in what is referred to as the delegation doctrine (Saylor Academy, 2012). This is an important aspect and has been since the founding of the nation. Those elected to Congress do not have all the in-depth knowledge of the abundance of agencies and the expertise that the individuals that work there have. Congress thus relays on these agencies to pass relevant regulations. While the agencies have this ability, they do not have carte blanche to create any regulation they please and have it stand as law. There is still a review process. Congress has the ability to pass laws repealing regulations created by agencies, the executive branch can use fiscal policy to influence regulations, and the courts can review the constitutionality of the regulations (Saylor Academy, 2012). So while agencies are not an official branch of government, they are subject, in part, to the same checks and balances as the other branches.

There has been great debate as of late as to whether or not Congress should raise the minimum wage. Congress would certainly have the authority to do so, as the Preamble of the Constitution instructs the government to promote the general welfare (Preamble). The Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 was the first law to establish a minimum wage for a standard work week and a high scale of overtime (Saylor Academy, 2012). This act has been amended throughout the years scaling the minimum wage upward to where it now stands at $7.25 for non-tipped employees and $2.13 for tipped employees. Additionally, states have the ability to make their own minimum wage law (The Lunt Group LLC, 2018). Given how the Constitution reads and the fact that legislation has been passed and stood since 1938 it is not really a question of does the government have the power to do so, but rather should they? In an economic sense several factors need to be taken into account. Would raising the minimum wage leave individuals better off, or would they still remain in the same state due to rising prices and lack of competition? Would raising the minimum wage impact tax brackets, or would those be restructured? What would it mean to higher skilled workers? There are arguments that a raise in the minimum wage would overall make individuals, especially low earners to become better off. More wages means more money allowing individuals to spend or save as they wish and arguably be able to afford to live a better life. This is the Utilitarian approach to the argument as it would provide maximum happiness and pleasure throughout society (Saylor Academy, 2012). On the counter side of this a social justice theory focused around capitalist thinking would argue that wages should be voluntary by the employer. They can choose to comply with the minimum wage law and thus reap minimum skilled workers, or they can choose to go above the minimum wage law in hopes of attracting better skilled workers based upon the offering of high wages, or a combination of wages and benefits (Saylor Academy, 2012). The arguments on both sides have their validity: what side of the argument one falls on however, depends on what ethical framework one subscribes to. Taking all factors into account, one could argue that in fact even the Utilitarian framework supports against raising the minimum wage. This is based upon the likelihood of small business not being able to stay open because they cannot afford the wage hike resulting in lost jobs, big corporations could chose to cut worker hours, or cut workers. Businesses that do stay open may have to find a way to offset the losses due to wages paid and chose to raise their prices. This would arguably put those minimum wage workers right back in the same position they were in before meaning the best way to keep everyone happy and pleasured is by keeping them employed with low cost goods.

References

Article I. (n.d.). Retrieved from Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei

Preamble. (n.d.). Retrieved from Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/preamble

Saylor Academy. (2012). Administrative Agencies: Their Structure and Powers. In Business Law and the Legal Environment (p. 5.1). Saylor Academy.

Saylor Academy. (2012). Major Ethical Perspectives. In Business Law and the Legal Environment (p. 2.2). Saylor Academy.

Saylor Academy. (2012). Other Employment-Related Laws. Business Law and the Legal Environment: Saylor Academy.

The Lunt Group LLC. (2018). Minimum Wage Laws. Retrieved from Employment Law Handbook: https://www.employmentlawhandbook.com/wage-and-hou…

Student two:

Congress creates and implements laws while federal agencies enforce and regulate laws. Agencies protect congress and the government from illegal activity. The federal agencies are basically a form of law enforcement like police who handle their department of specialization. Congress consists of the house and senate who are the electoral college and vote on bills to pass and turn into laws. Our votes don’t count, but they seem to have influenced members of congress over time. The agencies ensure the laws passed are obeyed by citizens and the government officials themselves. “Legislative staff link Members of Congress and their constituents, theoretically facilitating democratic representation (Hertel-Fernandez: 2019).”

Congress should raise the federal minimum wage. Its highly unhealthy to have a low minimum wage because its not fair to the middle class to make such little money while rich irrelevant artists and athletes make large amounts of money for singing songs and playing games. Its basically unconstitutional and unreasonable and irrational to have people working to survive and making $7 an hour. I am a small business owner, but most people can’t even afford to buy my product which is annoying to me. I like my business because it’s clean and safe and I only receive checks and cash as payment because my customers are usually rich and part of the top 1% of society; but I only make 1 or 2 sales a month if I’m lucky. I honestly didn’t even make a single sale during the whole month of November. I would rather make a few more sales a month if I could and have a society which wasn’t so sick and gross looking. Raising the wage would include a straight tax on all goods of about 10% and things would still simply balance out, except maybe the government would make more money as well. Most business owners weather they are large corporate or small sole proprietorship’s fear taxes and don’t want to pay much; but the government can’t tax me more then 50% of my earnings because that would not be reasonable so that is not of a concern for me with common sense. Anyone who has a problem with being taxed 25% of their earnings has seriously psychological problems. Honestly if society did raise the minimum wage then the government would be making more money and probably only tax business owners at a reasonable rate of about 15%.

Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander, Mildenberger, Matto, and Stokes, Leah. “Legislative Staff and Representation in Congress.” The American Political Science Review 113.1 (2019): 1–18. Web.

Student three:

If the power to enact laws is vested in Congress, how is it that there are so many federal agencies that enact regulations that carry the weight and power of law?

The Supreme Court feels federal agencies have the power to make rules and with good cause. It allows the different agencies the ability to make regulations based on their specific knowledge of the very specific industry/subject. Lawmakers probably do not have the in-depth knowledge on every subject, making their opinion on a matter ineffective (Lieberman, Siedel, Mayer, & Warner, 2012). This would be why it is important to have people versed in the area of the various agencies to have a good working knowledge of the subject matter so they can lead the organization correctly instead of relying on others to tell them what to do.

In addition, evaluate whether Congress should raise the mandatory minimum wage. Consider all aspects you deem relevant (constitutional, economic, etc.) THEN: Discuss which ethical framework would persuade you in an argument in favor of raising the minimum wage. Discuss which ethical framework would support a decision against raising the minimum wage.

To consider legislation to raise the minimum wage it is important to look at some factors. When was the wage last raised? According to the Department of Labor, a 2007 amendment was enacted which raised the minimum wage to $5.85 gradually increasing it to $7.25 by July 24, 2009 (US DOL, 2019). This was the last time our government created meaningful legislation over minimum wages. Since 2007, when this legislation was drafted, the country has been hit with a severe recession while seeing good recovery but this minimum wage has remained stagnant.

In the area I live, Orlando, FL, there was an article discussing this in the local paper. A resident moved to Orlando in 2007 and her 2 bedroom unit was renting for $700, fast forward to today and that same property is renting for $1,400 (Arnold, 2019). In this city, rents have more than doubled as well as home prices yet the federal minimum wage has not budged. Many might say it is up to the states to mandate their own minimum. Well in Florida the minimum wage $8.46, which received gradual increases from the $7.25 enacted in 2009 from the federal government mandate. While the cost of living has increased in the area I call home, the ability for minimum wage workers to meet this need for shelter has become an undue burden with a larger percentage of their income going to rent.

This year there is a petition which has enough signatures for it to be included on the November 2020 ballot to raise the minimum wage to $15 (Associated Press, 2019). Of course the governor shot down this initiative stating it would have catastrophic consequences on the restaurant industry (where employees’ wages are supplemented by tips). Funny thing is when you go to Europe, there are countries where you don’t tip at all when going to a restaurant and they don’t seem too affected by it. I find it hard to come up with an argument to keep the minimum wage so low. One thing that keeps popping in my head is, this is the (bare) minimum. I guess employers can pay more if they like so this could be an argument against raising the wage but some companies will do just the minimum…with everything.

References

Arnold, K. (2019, May 6). As rents soar, middle-income Central Floridians fret. Retrieved from https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-bz-apa…

Associated Press. (2019, October 30). Effort to raise Florida minimum wage passes signature hurdle. Retrieved from https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2019/10/30/…

Lieberman, J., Siedel, G., Mayer, D., & Warner, D. (2012). Partnerships: General characteristics and formation. In Business law and the legal environment.

US DOL. (2019). Minimum Wage – Wage and Hour Division (WHD). Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/coverage.htm

Student four:

1. If the power to enact laws is vested in Congress, how is it that there are so many federal agencies that enact regulations that carry the weight and power of law?

One of the first sentence in our lesson this week states that “The U.S. Constitution provides the basis for creating federal administrative agencies”. The next sentence in our lesson states that “Article I Section 1 provides that all legislative powers granted in the document are provided to Congress”. Congress delegates its authority through agenesis and its called “delegation doctrine”. There is a “legislation that permits Congress to give power to an agency is called an enabling act”.

This allows Congress the right to create a agency and give them the powers to create laws. There’s all type of issues that arise with this, there are the informal and formal laws created by the independent and executive agencies. Our lesson this week goes over that these agencies do not have “unlimited powers” and can make up whatever crazy laws they want. Its called the “limitation of powers”. Our lesson shows how they are broken up into three section:

• Statutes
• Executive Branch
  • Appointment authority
  • Office of Management and Budget
  • Executive Orders
• Legislative Branch
  • Oversight power
  • Investigative power
  • Power to terminate/shut down the agency
  • Power to not approve nominations made by the Executive Branch
• Judicial Branch
  • Power to reverse the agency’s decision
  • Power to modify the agency’s decision

This allows some type of limitation within each other.

2. In addition, evaluate whether Congress should raise the mandatory minimum wage.

I personally don’t think the minimum wage should be raised. I think raising the wages allows people to get lazy and depend on the minimum in life. If you want a better life, do better in life. Go out and get a better job. If that means getting an education or certificate or license, then go get one. Raising the minimum wage, will not solve issues, just create more.

The only way, I would agree to raise the minimum wage would be for the people who got an education or learned a skilled trade. If I received my masters, went to work for whatever organization, I would expect a higher wage because I earned it

Like I stated above, I personally think the minimum wage is there for a reason, to make people go out and earn more than that or suffer and life the minimum wage life. It forces the invisible hand of economics and pushes people to open up business, where they excel at and not settle for the same job as the rest.

I hope everyone has a great rest of your week,

Thanks

Walter Pyle

References

(2019). Retrieved from https://apus.realizeithome.com/RealizeitApp