More Money, More Spending

Teenagers and the elderly are jumping for joy at the new advances made recently in the economy. Their annual wages were raised! People between sixteen and twenty-four saw a 5.5 percent raise in their paychecks while people aged fifty-five and older saw a 6.8 percent raise. People are now able to make more of a stable living in order to take care of their basic necessities without having to worry about always having to put aside a certain amount of money to meet their needs such as putting food in their mouths or pumping gas into their car so that they are able to have a way to get to their job every day.

With all of the paychecks rising, different departments of the economy saw a significant difference in their wages. One branch in particular puzzled economists: construction. Construction workers saw a 9.8 percent raise in their wages without even hiring more construction workers. My theory is that there were already a significant amount of construction workers, therefore eliminating the need to hire more. They work so hard and have on one of the hardest jobs with not enough money to show for all of the hard work that they do, so they fairly raised construction workers' wages. Because construction and other jobs similar to it have so many workers, the companies, most of the time, can not afford to pay them all a whole lot of money, so their paychecks never backed up how much time they spent working. Now, they have paychecks that prove how much and how hard they work on what they do.

Now that Americans have a few extra bucks left over after paying for food, gas, and all of the basic bills for their homes and such, they are able to do what they love most: splurge on themselves. Consumer rates are always high, so now that the customers actually have the money to buy more things that they want and not necessarily need, it will help the domestic economy grow. Businesses will continue to make more money so that they are able to keep growing.

Natural resources like oil are expensive. Because of the big drop in energy prices, Americans are able to spend their money on other things, which is similar to opportunity cost. Opportunity cost, in terms of resources, is the value of the best alternative sacrificed as compared to what actually takes place. Now that Americans do not have to spend so much money on energy and gas for their cars, they can buy clothes and other things they have always wanted. It's a real-life opportunity cost, in a way.

Minimum wage has not yet been raised, but yearly salaries have been, which is good for more of a long-term deal. A sixteen-year-old teenager working on their first job can get paid just as much as an older person, balancing the economy and making wages more fairly balanced. Now, when teenagers get ready to start working, they will have the promise of a higher wage to motivate them.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/15/wages-rise-in-2nd-quarter-according-to-adp-workforce-vitality-index