Artificially defining the value of labor makes Democrats feel good. Not because they forced someone to pay more than that hour of labor is worth, though I suspect they enjoy the feeling of power such arbitrary expressions of authority represent. They feel good because they know it will grow the size of government.
The Unions feel good because it gives them leverage to ask for higher wages for skilled workers, whom they can then charge more in dues to line their own pockets.
But best of all (for Democrats at least) raising the minimum wage makes people most in need of jobs and skills unemployable, forcing them to turn to the state for assistance.
In Today’s Union Leader, there is a list of AFL-CIO endorsed candidates, all of whom are on-board with using the wage cartel to create government dependents. So instead of learning skills at the expense of business owners, the unemployable and newly unemployed will have to seek out training and placement programs (operated by state union employees) that only need to exist (at taxpayer expense) because the wage cartel created the problem they insist we must expand taxpayer money to “solve.”
From the UL
Announcing its endorsement in races for the Executive Council, state Senate and House, the AFL-CIO wants candidates to sign a pledge to support policies which will “provide good jobs, improve wages, invest in public education and make college more affordable.”
…
The AFL-CIO endorsed three Executive Council candidates, all Democrats: incumbents Colin Van Ostern of Concord in District 2, Robin McLane of Portsmouth in District 3, and incumbent Chris Pappas of Manchester in District 4.
The union endorsed 22 Democrats in state Senate races and the vast majority of House candidates are Democrats as well.
The AFL-CIO also endorsed Democrats U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Gov. Maggie Hassan, 1st Congressional District U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter and 2nd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster in their races.
Thanks to the Unions you now have a list of co-conspirators in the wage cartel. Almost all of them registered Democrats, the few Republicans among them (without a doubt) on the list of usual suspects–Democrats registered as Republicans, also known as RINO’s
All of them are fomenting a plan to use wages as a way to accumulate power from low-information or no-information voters on the subject of wages, based on a narrative that is not only false, but destructive to the marketplace.
Minimum wage laws handicap people looking for entry level potions where employers would have paid them out of their own pockets to learn job skills. Young and low or no-skill workers are priced out of the job market when the government sets the minimum above what the market would otherwise allow. So instead of letting an employer hire an unskilled worker who would earn raises as they acquired skills, the state demands a rate of pay incompatible with the cost of hiring and training them.
Increasing the cost of labor on small business owners results in a decrease in growth and opportunity, lower long term wage growth, fewer jobs, less expansion, a decline in services or quality, and fewer choices for consumers as businesses that fail to absorb all those new burdens are forced to close up shop-un employing the people they tried to keep to stay in business.
For those you having a hard time grasping how destructive this is, pretend you own a business with ten employees. The cost of doing business has many components not the least of which is labor-which includes wages, benefits, taxes, unemployment insurance, disability, compensation, blah blah blah.
The state, prompted by the unions/Democrats in the wage cartel, raise the minimum wage. Regardless of skill, hours available, productivity, Value, or any other factor, all your employees will now make that new hourly wage by force of law. This can and probably will significantly increase your cost of doing business.
It also puts you in the awkward portion of addressing rates of pay for more skilled or productive employees who may now make the same rate of pay as less skilled or productive employees. Thanks to the increased cost of labor forced upon your budget by the wage cartel, this becomes a solution you may no longer be able to afford address. The state will have ‘unionized’ your wage tables whether you could afford it or not.
Any formula for surviving this mandatory tax on labor may require you to either cut staffing or hours–which results in no pay benefit to those the cartel claimed to be helping. It may end any expansion plans, an activity that results in more employment and wage growth for current employees. It may require a reduction in hours of operation-reducing weekly total wages for employees. You may need to offer fewer products and services, which might also result in cutting staff or hours. You might need to reduce your area of operation or even increase prices charged for your goods services to address state mandate labor costs–all of which eliminate the much or all of the so-called benefits of higher wages while making you less competitive–a problem that could drive you out of business.
The real problem is not wages, it is a different sort of left-wing meddling, that which has unnaturally inflated prices by devaluing the dollars we earn. Government meddling has made the wages worth less.
Democrats and unions (the wage cartel), to no ones surprise, are most frequently (and presently) at fault for the condition they claim higher wages will help alleviate.
It is also no surprise that their solution will only help unions and Democrats looking for ways to make unions and government even bigger.
