CHANGE MY LOCATION
New year could find workers in the pink
SEE THE LATEST ON THIS STORY
Related Topics: BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Happy New Year … Here’s your pink slip. That’s not what the new Democratic congressional leaders claim they are doing by raising the minimum wage, but it will have the same result — lost jobs.
As part of her plan for the first 100 hours in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has vowed to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in two years — a 41 percent increase. No one wants to admit that making low-level workers more expensive will costs jobs.
President Bush even is vowing to help Democrats ax workers, as long as Congress approves tax and regulatory relief for small businesses. So much for the little guy or gal.
At least Bush knows if we make things harder on business on one hand by raising the cost of labor, we need to make it easier on the other. The Democrats simply seem intent on replacing the Capitol with an ivory tower.
How could I say such a thing? Anyone who opposes a minimum wage increase must bite the heads off of working-class children — sort of a corporate Ozzy Osbourne. I mean, it’s true that the federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in nine years.
So what? No sane person earning the minimum wage was earning that same amount nine years ago. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “minimum wage workers tend to be young.” One-fourth of the 1.9 million earning at or below minimum wage (there are a lot of exceptions to the mandate) are between 16 and 19.
Minimum wage workers are also among the least employable. Wal-Mart doesn’t pay minimum wage. Nor do most major companies or fast-food outlets. Minimum wage means minimum skills. With unemployment below 5 percent, they pay more to compete for the limited pool of qualified workers.
Supporters of raising the minimum wage — and there are many — say it’s a popular uprising, and a couple dozen states have rates higher than the federal minimum. That seems to be an argument against Pelosi, since numerous states have already taken action.
Many liberal economists even say this won’t cost jobs. But the vast majority of economists disagree with that claim. According to a report by Tim Kane of the Heritage Foundation: “71 percent of economists at America’s top universities agree with the statement ‘a minimum wage increases unemployment among the young and unskilled.’ ”
It’s easy to ignore reality when your reality is pandering to voters. If Pelosi and her union buddies really wanted an increase in the minimum wage, they could have had it last year. But they didn’t want to vote for it because Republicans tied the vote to fixes in the estate tax.
With all the talk of red states and blue states, the Democrats are creating a new category — pink. Perhaps Pelosi can add some 100-hours legislation designed to help people put out of work to another 100 hours legislation.
Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com.
Comments from Examiner Readers
7:38 PM MST on Fri., Mar. 14, 2008 re: "The tax men cometh at the 2007 General Assembly"
Report as inappropriate
Examiner Reader said:
Apparently the author is a republican that hasn't realized that the politicians in this state don't care about the people and operate on their own agenda. Wake up A hole check your wallet! Erlich, O Malley and any other name we still pay poor and receive less!
8 agree | 8 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree