Spike the hike
Why would we want government to be more intrusive in matters of private business?
The rise of the Tea Party has shown that people want less government in their lives. So, why is it necessary for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to introduce legislation that would raise New York”™s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50?
In announcing his bill last week, Silver said: “We must rekindle the spirit of shared prosperity and dignity of hard work. It is time to raise the minimum wage.”
We are not sure of where this “prosperity” is that he speaks of. Small businesses in this hardscrabble economy are still struggling to eke out a profit. There are a lot of empty storefronts on the streets across Westchester County. Empty stores and commercial space don”™t equal prosperity in any definition that we have ever encountered.
In his speech, in which he was accompanied by members of labor union executives, Silver said, “In 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the landmark Fair Labor Standards Act. The act established a national minimum wage for the purposes of reducing poverty and giving life to the American Dream. Seventy-four years later, that noble purpose is in peril.”
In peril? Where?
The national minimum wage that is enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor is set at $7.25 per hour.
Twenty-three states meet that federal minimum.
Eighteen states have minimum-wage rates higher than the federal.
Four states have wage rates lower.
Five states have no minimum-wage laws.
Some state governments, however, are inventive in their assigning of minimum wages; thinking first of how it would affect the businesses, since not all businesses have the same bottom line.
In Minnesota, for example, the minimum wage is set at $6.15 for large employers, which are defined as enterprises with annual receipts of $625,000 or more. For small employers with annual receipts of less than $625,000, the wage is set at $5.25.
The state of Nevada takes it one step further by taking into consideration whether a business offers health insurance benefits. It”™s $8.25 for no insurance, but the state qualifies it again and makes it $7.25 for health benefits “provided by employer and received by employee.”
Not a bad idea.
Something that should be considered in New York state.
At a press conference in Albany, state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said the bill “could be a job killer, rather than a job promoter.”
Fellow Republican and Senate Deputy Majority Leader Tom Libous said the last increase from $5.15 to $7.15 an hour didn”™t work spur the economy.
“If it is indeed an issue that gets the economy moving, it didn”™t work the last time we did it because we are now in the worst economy since the Great Depression for the last several years.”
Mike Durant, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said, “The proposal is based on good intentions, but it”™s going to have a very damaging effect on the people whom its advocates want to help.”
In addition, he said, “The small businesses that pay the federal standard are the ones that can”™t afford to pay more. This legislation amounts to another costly mandate that will result in fewer entry-level jobs.”
And another costly mandate is not what the business community in this state needs.
What Silver fails to understand is that the majority of business owners are honest and fair. If you are a good employee you will be rewarded. Government does not need to intrude in all aspects of business. Yes, guidelines and laws are of course needed to make sure everyone abides.
Should the wage hike be implemented, those companies that are marginal today will find a way to hire off the books, thus expanding the nation”™s underground economy and reducing tax revenue.
With that in mind, any “prosperity” that Silver might envision will remain elusive.
Leave small businesses to tend to themselves; they”™ve been surviving in spite of government.