A sociology dissertation requirments about minimum wage

Minimum Wage
But a study by Princeton economists David Card and Alan Krueger plays havoc withthis analysis. They show that recent rises in state and federal minimum wages led toincreases, not decreases, in the number of workers employed. The Princeton authorscall this pattern very, very "robust": it holds up under a wide variety of circumstances,places and times.

In 1996, Congress approved an increase in the minimum wage, from $4.25 to $5.15per hour. In the following viewpoint, written in 1995, John McDermott argues in favorof that wage hike. He contends that an increase in the minimum wage would increaseemployment and could help raise the bottom quarter of the workforce above thepoverty line. However, McDermott asserts, the minimum wage can only be trulyeffective if it is large enough for families to live on comfortably. McDermott is an editor of Socialism and Democracy and the author of Corporate Society.

questions:
1. What is the "ripple" effect of increasing the minimum wage, according to McDermott?
2. In the author's view, what is one harmful effect of the current wage structure?
3. According to the National Welfare Rights Organization, as cited by the author, how much should the minimum wage be?

Traditional economic theory and its partisans take the position that increasing the minimum wage must cause unemployment because it "artificially" inflates wages. It's a simple argument: Employees normally produce just about enough to offset their own wages. A higher minimum wage means that some workers won't produce enough to justify their higher wages, and will therefore have to be fired. In the jargon of professional economists, it makes some workers' wages higher than is justified by their "marginal revenue product" (what they contribute to the firm's output).

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