- Should Minimum Wage Be Set by Any Governmental Body? - February 22, 2021
The Democrats are always pushing to raise the minimum wage. That’s mainly because, one, they don’t have to pay it, as all of their staff aides are paid with our taxes and, two, because it is very appealing to buy votes with other people’s money. There’s a third reason, too, as explained below.
A key pillar of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan is the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 (H.R. 603). It would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 over five years. Thereafter, the federal minimum wage would be indexed to median wage growth. The legislation also guarantees that all workers are paid at least the full federal minimum wage by gradually phasing out the sub-minimum wages for tipped workers, youth workers, and workers with disabilities.
On January 26, 2021, top Democrats introduced a Bill raising minimum wage to $15 by 2025. House Committee on Education and Labor Chair Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) joined incoming Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT), incoming Senate HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (FL-07) introduced the legislation.
On January 21, 2021, President Joe Biden signed two executive orders to address the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic, including expanding food stamps and beginning the process to require that everyone working for the federal government get a minimum wage of $15 an hour. But is America ready?
The federal hourly minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Biden will begin the process by requiring that everyone working for the federal government be paid a minimum of $15 an hour.
Organized labor and its supporters have been agitating for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for nearly a decade. Unions have a self-serving reason for wanting an increase in minimum wage, as you will see.
Currently, 29 states and D.C. have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Illinois enacted SB 1 in February, which will phase in a minimum wage increase to $15 by 2025. The measure also adjusted the youth wage for workers under age 18 (it will gradually increase to $13 by 2025) and created a tax credit program to offset labor cost increases for smaller employers.
Is this nation ready for a $15 minimum wage?
Neil Patel, who runs the Daily Caller, on February 10, 2021 explained to Tucker Carlson that a standard minimum wage for the nation makes no sense for a couple of reasons. The first is that the cost of living is at least twice as much in place like New York City, L.A. and San Francisco than it is in small midwestern and southern cities.
Pertinent questions for consideration
The first question: If the minimum wage were to go up today, what will happen tomorrow?
What happens tomorrow, if the minimum wage goes up today?
A follow-on question
As further posed by Pennington: Just how far-reaching are the effects of the parity adjustment?
Another aspect of the same question
“Since it is the fast food workers who are in the news, let’s look at that industry. One published source states that some fast food restaurants achieve 25% labor cost, as a percentage of sales.”
A lesson in inflation
Final question