One of the best things I can say, when you get the government out of micromanaging the economy -- you don't want government to set price controls, you don't want government to set wage controls. It's an archaic system that frankly has not worked.
A closer look at the unemployment [nearly 10 percent unemployment rate] suggests that minimum wage laws also deserve a big share of the blame….businesses are not charities and that they only create jobs when they think a worker will generate net revenue. Higher minimum wages, needless to say, are especially destructive for people with poor work skills and limited work experience.
We cannot legislate prosperity. When we increase minimum wages by legislative fiat, we kill jobs. Government creates nothing but what it has first taken away.
The minimum wage is kinda like a sacred cow in Washington, with many lawmakers thinking it’s a win/win for low-skill workers. What if those good intentions backfired on the very people they were supposed to help? One school of thought says lowering the minimum wage will actually create more jobs.
Now, what is the effect of this law? Indeed, I admit, some will have a mandated pay raise in America. Those will be the lucky ones. Many more will have their hours cut, Mr. Speaker. Many will have their benefits cut due to this law, and many will lose their jobs. And again, thousands, thousands will be denied that opportunity to climb on that first rung of the economic ladder in America and, instead, be condemned to a life of poverty. This should not happen in America.
A higher minimum wage will trigger thousands of layoffs in lower-paying jobs, hurting, rather than helping, Ohioans who need higher wages the most.
The proposal is couched in the soothing and smarmy rhetoric of leftist populism….But if that's all it takes, why stop there? If a simple legislative act increasing the minimum wage to $7.75 is all that is needed to improve the lot of the working poor by just a little, then why not raise it to $10 an hour and get them to the poverty level? For that matter, why not raise it to $50 an hour, assuring every working Californian a comfortable living?
The truth is that if your labor is worth $6.75 an hour and the minimum wage is raised to $7.75, you simply become unemployable. The first rung of the ladder is gone, and there's no place to start….This legislation is the ultimate expression of the cruelest of all human lies: ‘I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'
Any way you slice it, increasing the minimum wage in Michigan… is likely to make it more difficult for the working poor to find jobs. …those who most need the work will have a harder time finding it.
Wage mandates ignore the principals of free market economies; they prevent businesses from making profits, growing and hiring more workers; and they base wages on what the worker wants instead of on the value of work performed.
