Today being May Day and all I can’t help but think about the state of working people in Minnesota. The House of Representatives has a floor vote scheduled on Friday to raise the minimum wage in our state to 9.50/hr, in two steps over the next couple of years. The Senate has a paltry bill to raise the wage to 7.75/hr, Of course the federal wage is already 7.25/hr, making the Senate bill laughable. Presumably they’ll vote on that bill next week. Sen majority leader Thomas Baak said last week something is going to happen, he “just doesn’t know the number.” I urge you to give him a call and provide some numbers to him. My choice would be 21.72/hr. Thats the number if Minimum wage kept pace with productivity.
Surely we can give hard-working Minnesotans a raise of more than fifty cents. How is anybody supposed to survive on 7.75/hr?
As Rep Tim Mahoney said last week in a hearing “There used to be a compact: eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of family. … It is time America, and Minnesota, and this world, get back to that particular attitude.”
Changing gears a bit … over the next couple of weeks I am going to take a look at some of the various lies I have heard over the last fewmonths about minimum wage. Here is the first and most often repeated.
“Raising the Minimum Wage Causes Unemployment.”
I heard someone on the radio say “thats just a fact” as a rejoinder to this often repeated lie. I wasn’t too surprised to hear the “fact” claim considering the loose definition many people have for “facts.” Here are some fact based arguments that would seem to persuade otherwise. Briefly put, raising the minimum wage means more income for people who spend money, and people who pay taxes, and both those things are good for the economy. More money in the hands of low income workers results in more demand for production, which as we all know is the real reason jobs are created. Consumers create jobs. Why do you think GWB encouraged everyone to go out and spend after 9/11. He wasn’t running around telling everyone to go out and take a pay cut.
Restaurants are the ones who probably repeat this lie the most often. Its ridiculous to me, because in all the years I worked in restaurants, employment levels were always set in response to the level of business. People were always hired and fired based on how busy we were. If it was State Hockey Tournament time in St Paul, a lot of people were kept around. Slow times, say NHL lockout, people stay home. The only restaurants where I worked that had to close, were ones that nobody went to. The wages of the employees had absolutely nothing to do with the staffing levels. Its not like because people get paid more, there is all of the sudden less work to be done.