Yesterday I wrote about John White, the Democrat state Senate candidate who called New Hampshire’s low income residents bottom feeders. Had a Republican said this it would be above the fold on every paper but the Union Leader. But a Democrat said it. But that is how Democrats think.
They also think that they can get votes by pimping the DNC’s wage outrage and the push for hiking the minimum wage. The talking points number is $10.10/hour, a meaningless number that probably polled well among guilty liberals who could care less because they have other motivations. [No one can likely “live” on $10.10 an hour either, and all it will do is hurt the people Democrats claim they want to help, but the increase will also trigger more than a few automatic hikes in wages for well paid union employees (some paid by taxpayers) who will then get to pay more dues to the unions who will then have more Money for Democrat campaigns.]
But lets stick to the $10.10/ hour number because when John “Bottom Feeders” White said hiking the minimum wage was his cure for economic ills, he said it because it was Democrat party rhetoric, but without grasping that he is appealing to almost no one in New Hampshire.
The left’s wage-rage presumes that people making the minimum wage in New Hampshire, are a guaranteed vote if they buy the ‘Bridge.’ They assume that these folks will never grasp how a business works–because most Democrats don’t–and the money will just appear, Barack will ride across a rainbow on his Unicorn, and they will suddenly have more money. Sparkles!
In reality, some of them might not have jobs anymore. All of them will discover that when the state forces the cost of doing business up prices rise as well so they can stay in business. The raise gets sucked up by these costs resulting in no real net gain for those still employed. The under-skilled, un-skilled, and truly part time workforce sheds jobs leaving these people without any opportunities at all as the cost of labor drives them out of the workplace.
In New Hampshire, and in many states actually, the number of people who even work for the minimum wage, is a small part of the workforce. Many of them are first time employed, learning skills in short-term employment, that will result in some higher wages before they take those skills to better paying opportunities. Some of these workers are stay at home moms or dad with a fully employed souse or family members with other employed relatives. More than a few get tips on top of an hourly wage, not all of which they report–believe it or not. So the hew and cry of the left to resolve this injustice is actually just a bunch of BS.
IN New Hampshire, that may even be more so.
As I pointed out in the previous article the average hourly wage in NH is almost 23.00/hour. But I also pointed out that NHDES sorts hourly pay by occupations, and the lowest average hourly rate of pay on their chart is still over the Democrats magic umber of $10.10 an hour. The Democrats are pushing for something that will improve no one’s pay check, except perhaps the union bosses who finance Democrat campaigns, and the folks who get fired or can’t get hired because the starting rate for unskilled workers now makes it more likely that employers will look for more skilled workers if they need them.
The NH Democrat parties economic solution would simply make things cost more. price the bottom feeders, as John White calls them, out of the employment marketplace AND– encourage new businesses to look to other stats to open their doors, which will only encourage new entrants to the work force to leave the state, another problem they whine endlessly about without caring that it is their own policy agenda that makes it happen.
You’d be right to ask if this is all deliberate, or, are they really that stupid. I’ve made my thoughts known here on more than a few occasions. You can search “Minimum wage” if the urge strikes you.
I will leave you with this. It is a screen grab of the NH Department of Employment Securities breakdown of wage by hour by occupation. You will notice that the state with one of the highest standards of living, highest average annual incomes, and lowest poverty rates (search the Grok for those terms if you want more specifics on each.) Here’s the chart.
