Democrats don’t often practice what they preach (the examples of high-flying “green” hypocrites Al Gore and Tom Steyer spring to mind). The latest example of the far-Left’s “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” line of reasoning comes courtesy of liberal Seattle billionaire and Democrat financier Nick Hanauer.
Hanauer is a vocal supporter of raising the minimum wage. He backed the $15 NOW movement and once told the Seattle Times that if the state Legislature did not pass the bill raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour, he would go to the ballot with “a statewide $16-an-hour minimum-wage initiative in 2016.”
Hanauer has since settled for supporting an initiative seeking to increase the statewide minimum wage to $13.50 per hour.
The liberal billionaire has made his “big issue” the so-called “living wage.” He says he believes every worker should earn the “living wage.” But, his actions don’t quite add up to his words.
You see, Hanauer doesn’t pay his employees $16 per hour, $13.50 per hour, or even $12 per hour.
According to reports, “entry-level, unskilled workers at his company in North Carolina start at $7.50 per hour, while higher-skilled workers earn upwards of $11.”
When asked to explain his hypocrisy, Hanauer recently responded via Twitter, “Because the min wage [in North Carolina] is 7.25 an hour. Make me raise wages by raising the minimum wage.”
Let’s compare Hanauer’s words now to what he said of Wal-Mart and McDonald just a couple of years ago. Hanauer claimed, “When Wal-Mart or McDonald’s or any other guy like me pays workers the minimum wage, that’s our way of saying, ‘I would pay you less, except then I’d go to prison.’”
Interesting, so we could deduce (from his actions and words) that Hanauer would pay his employee less if it were legal. The liberal billionaire’s hypocrisy would be unbelievable if we didn’t come to expect it from the far-Left.
As the Washington Policy Center points out, Hanauer readily “belittles small employers who say forcing them to pay a $15 wage to every unskilled, entry-level workers will hurt their business (or at the least force them to make tough decisions about how to stay in business).” But, he doesn’t seem to mind if big business billionaires like him pay entry-level wages for unskilled, entry-level jobs.
I thought this guy raced Hydroplanes…wait…that was Chip. How much did Chip make an hour?
Nice that someone has an “historical memory” !!
“Make me raise wages by raising the minimum wage”
Yeah, because you won’t do anything unless government tells you to. What a liberal idiot.
The “Soviet of Washington” returns ….let us turn “leninist” on him and MAKE him do it at the “right” end of the muzzle of our 2nd Amendment rights
Unskilled, entry-level jobs have always been low paying jobs.
Yes, but not the point.
Yes and I was there many time . Those jobs would pay minimum , my first job payed a dollar an hour . That dollar had the buying power of about 12 dollars.
Is a high entry level wage right or isn’t it? Forcing it on business doesn’t answer the question but this fellow equates force as if it does.
Hypocrit. He isn’t hiring people in WA so he thinks it would give him street creds with his lib friends to be for something that is already causing massive loss of jobs and businesses where it is in force.