NH Democrat Sylvia Larsen - "Hey, Let's Scare Employers Away From and Out Of New Hampshire!" - Granite Grok

NH Democrat Sylvia Larsen – “Hey, Let’s Scare Employers Away From and Out Of New Hampshire!”

Kimberly Morin has a very revealing piece at Examiner.com in which she parses NH Democrat Sylvia Larsen’s proposed Senate Bill SB207.

Larsen, hewing to her progressive busy-body roots, is set on something she calls ‘paycheck equality,’ but as Morin observes, it is not just a ridiculous idea that attempts to patronize to populist ignornace to fix a problem that does not even exist, it will probably end up hurting women more than helping them.

In all scenarios (with SB 207), women lose. When employers are forced to make hiring and salary decisions based on the possibility of frivolous lawsuits, they must tread lightly in order to avoid spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer’s fees. This takes the advantages that women have gained over the decades out of their hands. Women aren’t weak little flowers that don’t know how to negotiate. They have been negotiating for higher salary, better benefits and flexible work schedules for years now. What the New Hampshire Democrats’ ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’ achieves is to set women in the workforce back decades.

Larsen is pandering without regard to the consequences.

Kimberly gives us a few examples.

  • If a man is currently working at a job and a woman applies for the same job but is smart and negotiates for a higher salary than the man is currently making, the employer is not going to offer her what she wants (and/or deserves), they are going to have to pay her the lower salary that the man is making. Why? If the man finds out she’s making more than him for the same job (despite the fact she was simply a better negotiator) the man can turn around and sue the employer for discrimination!
  • If a woman applies for a job and decides she wants more flexible hours in order to spend more time with her family, the employer will not be able to allow her that flexibility because if the woman finds out the man is making more money, she can sue the employer for discrimination!
  • If a man and woman are making equal pay for doing the same job but the woman goes above and beyond, the employer will not be able to give her a bigger raise because if the man finds out, he can sue for discrimination!

Talk about ironic.

Sylvia Larsen’s bill will keep people from starting a business in the state.  It will drive employers and employees and opportunities for employment out of the state.  Owners of businesses will cut the number of existing employees, intentionally keep wages lower (instead of paying for performance) to account for Larsen’s forced wage equality without regard to different values in productivity.  This means fewer jobs for women (and men), and an overall decrease in wage opportunity, annual salary, quality of life, and overall commerce in the Granite State.  And if a lawsuit results for whatever reason, actual violations, political strong-arming (these bills often have a way of becoming a form of government backed  speech intimidation) that business owner might possibly have to move out of the state or just close up shop.

What’s more fair or equal than everyone earning absolutely nothing?

Nice job Sylvia.   Way to stand up for job creation and wage growth in  New Hampshire.

What a dope.

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