Update: NC Minimum Wage Hike Likely on Hold
It appears increasingly unlikely that the North Carolina Senate will debate the House's proposed $0.85 increase in the minimum wage before adjourning for the year. The measure, however, is eligible for consideration during the 2006 "short" session.
Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch says that the House's approval of a wage hike was "a historic vote to help the working poor and if the bill passes the Senate, more than 100,000 workers would benefit."
In fact, the Senate Finance Committee actually passed an $0.85 increase in the minimum wage earlier in the year, but that increase was part of a larger proposal to cut taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, while making permanent a temporary sales tax increase. This move prompted Sen. Martin Nesbitt from Asheville to tell his colleagues that they were "absolutely mashing the working people of the state."
Hopefully, Senators will think about Nesbitt's words and return next spring ready to, as Fitzsimon of Policy Watch recommends, "forget about tax relief for the rich -- they seem to be making out ok -- and instead pass the House minimum wage bill to help workers instead of mashing them."
posted by John Q. @ 12:58 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
This is all symbolic posturing - a $6/hour minimum wage in real terms is already irrelevant. Even fast food joints and convenience stores most places are paying $7-8 an hour for unskilled laborers.
Besides, if anything is done which really raises the cost of labor to business, businesses will simply find ways to stretch their existing labor budgets, or raise prices. They're not going to pay top-dollar wages for unskilled workers, and anyone who thinks they will is fooling themselves.
While the plight of the poor is regrettable, the answer is not paying them more for the same work, but to find a way for them to produce more valuable labor and not depend on the indirect welfare of mandated minimum wages.
But, as with my previous lottery posting, that requires overcoming a deep-rooted distrust of the value of education among many in this region.
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