Both US senators and two of the three members of congress have voiced their unwavering support of increasing the minimum wage. Yet, the state’s lone republican representative, Steve Pearce opposes such an amendment.
The Democratic members of Congress issued a statement announcing their support for a statewide minimum wage increase.
“Increasing the minimum wage ensures families have money to spend at local businesses, and it’s one of the best things we can do to kickstart New Mexico’s economy,” Sen. Tom Udall said in the statement. “At today’s minimum wage, too many New Mexico families work two or three jobs just to put food on the table and fill up the gas tank, yet they still can’t make enough to climb out of poverty.”
“Our economy and our workforce are stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with fair wages. We must be unwavering in our commitment to restore the basic bargain on which this country was built, that if you work hard and play the rules you can get ahead,” Rep. Martin Heinrich said in the statement. “It’s time to raise the minimum wage.”
While Steve Pearce stated,
“A minimum wage increase sounds good on the surface, but it drives stepping-stone and entry-level jobs out of the country, eliminating opportunities for inexperienced workers,” Pearce told New Mexico Telegram in a statement. “This is extremely unfair to the poor, and those trying to find employment. The most important thing is to develop skills among lower-skilled workers, so that they can gain experience and work their way up to high-paying jobs.”
Most fair minded people find that on the surface, raising the minimum wage is right and good. What could be wrong with paying the working man a reasonable living wage? A recent Gallup pole showed that 76% would vote for a law to raise the minimum wage. See, we are a generous people.
Who is actually working for minimum wage in America. How many lives will raising it affect. This is where is begins to get interesting. It turns out that only 1% of the US work force is paid this wage. That’s 1%. Wait, there’s more, of that 1% over half, 55%, are age 25 or under. But did you know that only a third (32%) are even employed full time.
All of this trouble is over .32% of the US work force. It begs the question, Why are progressives so worked up this year to get the minimum wage increased? I mean, they are trying it on the national level, state level and even from city to city, why?
There is a reason, and as deepthroat once said, “follow the money.” An interesting thing about the minimum wage. It turns out that many of the nation’s unions tie their contract base line salaries to the wage. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union explained that this is a commonplace practice.
“Often times, union contracts are triggered to implement wage hikes in the case of minimum wage increases…such increases are one of the many advantages of being a union member.”
Higher minimum wage means higher union wages, higher union dues, more money to spend on Democratic campaigns. A higher minimum wage also means more job security for union members. Notice the photo above the protest signs have AFL-CIO on them. The increase restricts businesses from hiring lower skilled workers who would gladly accept a lower wage in exchange for experience.
That same principle applies to every workplace when it comes to raising the minimum wage artificially. What does that mean for unemployment? A study called “effects of the minimum wage on employment dynamics” from Texas A&M University found that: “a ten percent increase to the minimum wage results in a reduction of approximately one-quarter of the net job growth rate.”
Why do progressives embrace policies that hurt job growth? It is a part of the core of progressive economics and eugenics. Sidney Webb, English economist and Co-Founder of the Fabian Society in the early 1900s, believed that establishing a minimum wage above the value of “the unemployables” as he called them, would lock them out of the market thus eliminating them as a class.
“Of all ways of dealing with these unfortunate parasites the most ruinous to the community is to allow them unrestrainedly to compete as wage earners.” – Sidney Webb
Around the same time, a Princeton economist said this: “It is much better to enact a minimum-wage law even if it deprives these unfortunates of work, better that the state should support the inefficient wholly and prevent the multiplication of the breed than subsidize incompetence and unthrift, enabling them to bring forth more of their kind.”
The point is that raising the minimum wage in New Mexico or anywhere else is not the boon to the poor that some politicians would have you believe it to be. Like entitlement programs that seem to be wonderful for the poor, the opposite is true. These things are destructive, enslaving the poor to their poverty. We should always be wary of politicians bearing gifts, they tend to come at a price we can’t pay.
By the way, on the whole pay a livable wage thing. I forgot to mention a full time minimum wage worker in 2014 makes $3,410 dollars more than the federal poverty limit. So, depending on his family size, a full time minimum wage worker could take as much as 11 weeks of unpaid vacation and still clear the poverty line. He might not make the kind of cash Obama and his friends make, but it is a livable wage. If that worker applies him or her self, they will not remain at this wage very long anyway.