One of the most controversial topics of recent decades is our minimum wage in the United States. As recently as recent decades, the minimum wage has increased, decreased, or remained high. The minimum wage is defined as the lowest amount that employers can legally pay their workers per hour of work. The minimum wage was initially established to reduce poverty and was established in the year 1938. Many supporters of the minimum wage claim that it increases the standard of living and keeps people out of poverty. Those who oppose it tend to believe that it increases unemployment and could potentially harm lower-class people. The minimum wage should not be increased to fifteen dollars an hour because it could lead to fewer jobs, increased taxes, poverty, and more expensive standards of living. Despite the increase in occupations where most of the work is repetitive, it pays for an employer to respond to higher labor costs by substituting technology for employees. An employee should not be paid fifteen hours to babysit a computer that does its job for you. According to William Waschcer, “Companies are increasingly looking for ways to sell more products with fewer employees. ATMs reduce the need for bank tellers, virtual assistants can answer the phone 24 hours a day, and self-service ATMs are reducing the need for tellers” (78). If fewer jobs are provided, people from the lower classes will still not benefit from these acts. Raising wages will not improve the lives of lower class people if they are not provided with jobs. If it put a strain on businesses and forced them to lay off employees, it would actually affect more people