A new editorial in the Tri-City Herald warns readers against the $12 minimum wage legislation recently passed by the Democrat-controlled state House. The problem behind the measure, claims the editorial, is that Washington State is “not business friendly.” Far too often “businesses move operations out of the state because of the poor way we treat the very businesses that drive the economic health of the region.”
Among the arguments presented against the $12 minimum wage, the editorial states that the “minimum wage has never been intended to support a family.” The Tri-City Herald,
“Sure, we want folks to make a decent living and be able to care for themselves and their families. But nobody ever said a minimum-wage job was the solution to economic well-being. It is a means to an end, a starting point, a part-time gig, a job to take on the way to something else or to fit in around classes or semi-retirement.”
The Washington Policy Center’s Erin Shannon agrees. Commenting on the editorial, Shannon points out that the minimum wage was “established by Congress in the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938.” At its start, “policymakers never intended the minimum wage be the sole source of household income or provide “livable” support for a family.” Instead, “the intent was to ensure a reasonable wage for workers who could not command higher pay in the labor market because they had little or no work skills, such as young people just entering the work force.”
But, that’s not all. The Washington Policy Center,
“Accordingly, current data shows that very few workers (3% of the workforce) earn the minimum wage. Of those who do earn the minimum, most are young, are usually enrolled in school and work part time. Very few minimum wage earners are the sole providers for a family. Most older minimum wage earners are secondary earners working part-time to supplement the income of a spouse. It is the combined earnings of two or more earners that typically provides total household income.
“What’s more, two-thirds of minimum wage earners receive a raise within a year. This reflects the fact most minimum wage earners are young or unskilled, and as they develop skills and prove their worth they are rewarded with higher pay. As the Herald puts it, the minimum wage is a “starting point.”
The editorial goes on to discredit a popular argument often made by Democrats promoting the $12 minimum wage measure that, somehow, a higher minimum wage will “stimulate the economy because low-wage earners will have more money.” The Tri-City Herald,
“Clearly, they don’t know business.
“If business owners are forced to accept the $12 rate, they will have to find a way to make it work. This is an unfunded mandate, and that means managers will have to cut something to afford the new wage.
“That could mean fewer employees working more hours. It could mean a business that is just getting by will close its doors. It could mean a valued long-term employee will be less likely to receive a raise because that money was absorbed by the cost of the higher minimum wage for entry-level workers.”
Shannon reminds readers that one only needs to look at what has happened to the former employees of San Francisco’s Borderland Books or Seattle’s Cascade Designs for a real world example of the fact that a higher minimum wage does not stimulate the economy. The Washington Policy Center,
“There is no new stimulation of the economy—the extra money low-wage workers will have to spend from their higher wage is not new money. It was money that was already in the economy, being spent by employers to run their business and pay their employees. Increasing the minimum wage simply redistributes that money so employers have less to spend…
“A higher minimum wage does absolutely nothing for someone who no longer has a job.”
No editorial from the Eastside of the Cascades is going to change the Libs on this. The Dems will push it through, then it will be $15. an hour, then $18. an hour. Soon union contracts will all have a minimum % above minimum wage in their boiler plate language. Add Eco cap & tax as well as a state income tax and even Microsoft will be moving out of this state to set up shop in the Bahamas. 40 years of liberal progressive democratic party control is responsible for the direction this state finds itself in & the payment due date is fast approaching.
We’ve heard it all before:
When wages are artificially forced up, all other costs go up as well. The price of groceries, gasoline, rent and other goods and services will increase. This will hurt working families and those on fixed incomes,especially senior citizens. […] Big government should not try to fix every economic worry. The marketplace has proven to be a much better regulator of the economy than the government. To help small businesses continue to offer good opportunities for young people and to keep prices from rising out of control, vote no on I-688.
I-688 passed easily, and it has raised our state’s minimum wage to the highest of any state in the union. What are the results?
March 8 (Bloomberg) — When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state’s minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn’t been borne out.
In the 15 years that followed, the state’s minimum wage climbed to $9.32 — the highest in the country. Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington’s restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years.
How are our small businesses doing?
In Washington state, small businesses are adding jobs faster than any other state in the country, according to a report from Paychex and IHS.
How about business in Seatac, which has a $15/hour minimum wage?
The law requires hoteliers with more than 100 rooms to pay workers $15 an hour. Scott Ostrander, former general manager of the Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac, argued during the campaign that he would close several rooms in his hotel to avoid having to comply. Now, Cedarbrook Lodge is moving forward with a 63-room expansion and recently started paying the $15 per hour minimum wage.
The next time someone wants to write an editorial against raising a minimum wage here in Washington state, they can start by explaining why previous predictions of economic damage were all dead flat wrong.
Here you go again ranting about some biased information. You never learn. Read more infromation that is out there!
How about you provide “more information,” and explain how it invalidates the economic data I’ve cited? Because right now, you’ve got nothing. Nothing.
Don’t take it personally, when all the information Hamster Brain gets is from MSNBC, there’s bound to be a fact or two missing from the actual truth, not to mention a few brain cells from the smoke.
I know what you mean. He is so brainwashed that no matter what people say it doesn’t go through his thick hazy skull.
Which of the links I provided goes to MSNBC?
Copy & paste………. Bla bla bla. Repeating liberal talking points from the party’s monthly newsletter doesn’t make it the truth. Go get your chores done before mommy comes home or you’re going to get grounded.
Bloomberg Business news is a “party’s monthly newsletter”?
I’m not sure you understand the situation you have put yourself in, if you are here spending your time with us, it makes me wonder if your liberal playmates don’t care for you that much and that WE might be your only friends. That’s something you may have to keep quit about.
Do you wear rose colored glasses while reading Bloomberg?
Do you deny that Bloomberg News accurately described Washington state’s economic performance since passage of I-688?
Perhaps you should rejoin the rest of us in this reality check. Of course it is difficult when you are working as a fry cook at McDonalds instead of attempting to better your life.
Since you will once again rant about the businesses that are closing or leaving Seattle in anticipation of the Socialist agenda, there is another article here on Shift that addresses this in a broader context. Please read at your leisure during your 15 minute break
Yeah, the article about the supposed disaster of four restaurants closing in four months was pretty funny. Here’s a really good debunking:
Before we begin let’s note despite long having one of the highest minimum wages in the country, while being located in one of only a handful of states with no ‘tip credit’ for wages, Seattle still manages to have the highest density of restaurants anywhere in the country, except for San Francisco and the greater New York City area.