Labor Day Sept. 7^th

Within the past week the local paper had an article about a business man who was complaining that he couldn’t open his new restaurant because he couldn’t find employees in spite of offering 8.50/hour in wages. Now that’s encouraging! Certainly it isn’t encouraging for this restaurateur but it is wonderful news for folks in the labor market who are trying to make enough money to avoid eligibility for food stamps; it might finally encourage employers to offer a decent starting wage.

The Republican legislature is no help; they passed a bill which would gradually raise the minimum wage to 9.25/hour… by 2018. They also banned any municipalities from increasing the minimum wage within their jurisdiction by making it unlawful for them to require a minimum wage greater than the wage specified by the state. While they were at it the also banned localities from requiring paid sick leave. Apparently local control only applies if it does not interfere with profits. You may remember that local school boards were not permitted to start their schools before Labor Day lest that reduce the profits from the vacationing tourist businesses. Local control of schools had once been important to conservatives but now it doesn’t trump businesses making money!

Where does the current crop of Republican candidates stand on the minimum wage? The answer is, “all over the place.” Jeb Bush claims the minimum wage “serves no useful purpose.” Scott Walker says focusing on the minimum wage is “lame.” By that he means we should be equipping people to land higher paying jobs. Why can’t we do both? Does the Governor Walker tell us where the money will come from to provide the training for these high-paying jobs? Perhaps he believes that is beyond his pay grade. Certainly with the cuts he has made to education in his home state it is unlikely that low wage workers there will have any opportunity to get the training Walker talks about. Donald Trump believes the minimum wage should remain “low.” He has said that “low minimum wage is not a bad thing.” He has also mentioned the possibility of a two tiered minimum wage although, like most of Trump’s other ideas, he comes up a tad short on specifics. Rand Paul opposes raising the minimum wage because it leads to unemployment. Paul is dead wrong about this as has been shown repeatedly. I’m not sure there is any transfer from being a fine eye surgeon to understanding economics; it seems that such transfer is unlikely.

Where does all this lead? Republicans are accused of waging a war on women. You might remember Jeb’s famous gaffe claiming that 500 million dollars was too much to spend on women’s health issues. Jeb has more problems expressing himself without hurting himself than his brother did. Now it looks as if the Republicans have also declared war on workers, particularly those close to the poverty line. They are already at war with Latinos and African Americans, a few more segments of the population won’t make any difference.