According to the Union Leader Executive Councilor, Andru Volinsky asks every contractor who comes before the State to tell him how much they pay their employees. He thinks contractors doing work on the state dime should pay a minimum of 15.00 per hour.
Volinsky believes the state should use its leverage as a major customer for contracted services to insist on a minimum wage of $15 an hour for employees working on state contracts, ranging from highway paving to snow removal.
The government should use its leverage. From Volinsky’s mouth to Lenin’s ears.
Why $15.00? Why not $24.03/hour Comrade Volinsky? That’s the mean average hourly wage in the entire state of New Hampshire right now.
Did you know that there are also only two professions in this state that pay an average hourly rate less than $15.00/hour? Only two. Food Preparation/Serving related (Avg. $11.52/hour), and Personal care/Service Avg. $12.83/hour). Every other occupation in New Hampshire has an average hourly rate above Volinsky’s arbitrary Democrat narrative number.
Somehow, without any state mandated minimum hourly wage or exposure to Comrade Volinsky’s wage inequality inquisition employers, and the marketplace has set rates of pay well above the latest arbitrary Democrat narrative price point.
And it’s been like that in the Granite State for a while.
So?
Andru Volinsky may be a Marxist and a bully, but he’s not stupid. I’m quite certain he knows how well employees in New Hampshire get paid. It also means that he knows that employers don’t need him or the government to tell them what to pay their employees. Employees don’t need Democrats or their narratives or the Union bosses that came up with some arbitrary number to help them earn more.
If Comrade Volinsky knows but persists, what is he really trying to accomplish?
Well, were he to use the leverage of the government to force, guilt, or intimidate vendors to pay everyone on their payroll more money, taxpayers would have fewer competitive bids and ultimately pay millions more per year for the same work.
Comrade Volinsky is looking to fleece taxpayers to the benefit of himself, his party, and big labor.
The fight for fifteen is a long-standing union boss priority pushed by political puppets of which Volinsky is one of many. Unions, if you live under a rock, give billions to Democrat candidates in direct donations, issue advocacy, and free mob support/ pressure politics via emails, phone calls, calls to radio stations, letters to editors, and boots on the ground.
Massachusetts Unions should have their own parking space in Concord to protest legislation the union bosses oppose.
The fight for fifteen is what Volinsky is advocating when he asks potential contractors what they pay hourly workers.
When Comrade Volinsky puts contractors names on his naughty list and exposes them to public scrutiny, he is trying to intimidate them into doing what Big Labor wants.
He wants to control what employers pay their employees.
He is prepared to make you, the taxpayer, pay more to satisfy the Democrat parties hourly wage narrative. The problem with this tack is that New Hampshire, despite having no state mandated hourly wage, and without any help from Andru Volinsky, has average hourly wage rates well above his arbitrary narrative-driven demands.
No, most entry level jobs don’t start out at $15.00/hour but most end up above that without Comrade Volinsky’s interference.
We’re he and his party permittd to have their way, they would, but there would significnaly fewer people working.
Somone should ask Comrade Volinsky why he and the Democrats are so keen on using his leverage to create a few higher paying jobs but a good deal more unemployment in the process?
