Democrats are not fans of free and open markets. They love meddling. Licensing that restricts access and creates cartels, regulations that limit opportunity, and jobs that demand tithing to their union-boss political allies. They also think they know what every starting hour of labor in every occupation is worth. They don’t.
Related: In Party Line Vote NH Democrats Pass Systemically Racist Minimum Wage Hike
But jacking up base pay was never about the living wage. It allows unions to demand higher compensation at every scale from which they can then extract more union dues. In other words, Democrats purposefully destroy entry-level jobs that could allow unskilled workers to acquire marketable skills – while pretending they are doing the opposite – in exchange for more union campaign contributions.
Governor Sununu does not drill down to that level in his veto of the NH Dems latest effort to screw unskilled workers to increase their political power. Still, he did point out the obvious: “artificial increases in the minimum wage hurt the lower-wage workers an increase is aimed at helping, because businesses may be forced to reduce hours or eliminate jobs entirely.”
We’ve said the same and more hundreds of times.
Democrats counter that the current minimum wage in the state, $7.25 an hour, isn’t a livable wage, and that New Hampshire is struggling to attract workers who can earn more in neighboring states, all of which have higher minimum wages.
None of that is relevant. Before COVID19, New Hampshire had the strongest, most robust economy in the Northeast. We had the lowest unemployment rate and historically high workforce participation. McDonald’s, Dunkins, and others were hiring at up to $10-12.00/ hour to start because we let the economy and the market grow without added interference.
Alongside that, we’ve seen a growth in younger people moving into the state and staying here.
Before that, we had (and still have) one of the highest average annual incomes in the country and an average hourly wage well above the arbitrary efforts of career leftists and without their meddling for years. We consistently rank among the lowest for poverty, child poverty, and in real terms, very few people in the state are “living” off the starting hourly wage.
Related: The Minimum Wage is Racist
HB731 is pointless in its stated goal because it helps no one who it claims to help. On top of that, tone-deaf Democrats are attempting to significantly increase the cost of doing business after months of reduced activity or forced closings. In other (other words) HB731 is a kick in the face to job creators who are struggling to get off their knees and stay in business thanks to the government that put them in that situation.
Closed businesses hire no one.
Democrats are either economic imbeciles or, as noted above, it’s just union power politics.
If they gave a damn about workers and wages, they’d be pushing us back toward the growth environment we had before the COVID19 era. Instead, they want us to be like Massachusetts, which has record-high unemployment that’s getting worse, saddled by a mandated minimum wage that will drive more job creators out of business.
