Minimum Wage Hypocrisy

Creators Syndicate ^ | January 23, 2013 | Liberty Belle/Betsy McCaughey

[jazusamo]

Battles are brewing in New York, California, Minnesota and the nation's capitol over hiking minimum wages. In all three state legislatures and in Congress, Democrats have the votes to ram the hikes through.

These politicians are claiming the moral high ground, saying it will help the poorest in our communities. Don't be fooled. Hiking the minimum wage hurts — not helps — the lowest paid workers, especially young black men. A 10 percent hike in the minimum wage causes a 2.5 percent drop in employment among young white men without a high school diploma and a staggering 6.5 percent drop among young black men without that degree. Young black males get clobbered three times as hard because they tend to work in the fast food and restaurant industries, where any increase in labor costs produces layoffs.

The first federal minimum wage was enacted in 1938 and set at 25 cents an hour.

It has gradually increased to $7.25 an hour. What has also increased steadily is the evidence that raising minimum wages benefits some workers but harms the least employable jobseekers. Sadly, politicians ignore that evidence and bamboozle the public with oversimplified claims that raising the wage minimum is doing good.

In his Jan. 9 State of the State address, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo climbed atop his moral pedestal to announce that raising the state's minimum wage was the right thing to do. You can't take care of a family on $14,600 a year (the yearly income equivalent of minimum wage) in a state where childcare costs $10,000 a year, he lectured. But Cuomo's pitch was misleading. He left out that the typical minimum wage employee is young, with few skills and little or no job experience. Half are under age 25, and a quarter haven't completed high school...

[okie01]

Many Union Contracts are tied to minimum wages, raise the minimum wage, and union workers automatically get a pay raise.

And that explains why Democrats are always hell-bent on raising the minimum wage.

As usual, the left's real reasons have nothing to do with what they claim -- a "living wage" for the "working poor" is the least of their concerns.

[Mike Darancette]

Add an increased minimum wage to the bill for Obamacare and more Americans hit the bricks.