Vermont’s Progressives are very fond of minimum wage laws, but as with many economic initiatives that yield unintended consequences, government control of wages is not as simple as “let’s help the little guy.”
Federal mandating of higher hourly pay rates places the burden of fighting poverty on the employers of the low-wage workers and the customers of low-wage businesses. It deprives the most vulnerable, least-skilled and least-experienced workers of an opportunity to earn their way into better paying career jobs.
The New Hampshire Senate has rebuffed a Democratic-led proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage in a vote that went along party lines.
First, the Democrats’ $15 federal hourly minimum wage mandate was ruled out by the Senate’s parliamentarian because it didn’t conform to the rules of the Senate for passing reconciliation bills with a 50-vote threshold. So, Democrats pivoted to a new, even worse plan.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which the House will soon vote on, must remove tax deductions from major corporations that don’t pay a minimum of $15 an hour. Further, Sanders said the bill should include provisions that incentivize small businesses to raise their wages.
“If your goal is to shut down independently owned mom and pop shops on Main Street and grow the market share of big-box megastores then I can think of nothing better than passing a federal $15 minimum wage today, because it will devastate small businesses,” NIFB’s Jeff Brabant said.
Bernie Sanders has made it this year’s great cause to increase the federal minimum wage to $15. But regulatory law expert Mario Loyola writes that “Americans don’t fully understand the many ways it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help.”
With the ball in hand and blockers out front, President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose progressive brand of politics pushes into democratic socialism, lurched last week into the idea of raising the federal minimum wage to $15.
A $15 minimum wage would result in 1.4 million jobs lost and disproportionately hurt younger workers and those with less education, a new Congressional Budget Office report says.
The future of many Vermont small businesses is at risk due to a perfect storm of economic, regulatory and pandemic-related threats. Small business leaders are recommending several steps to support jobs and economic recovery.
Democratic lawmakers and advocates for the working poor want to raise New Hampshire’s minimum wage, but the move faces pushback from business groups who say it will cost jobs and hurt the state’s economy.
Large corporations have endorsed and lobbied for a $15 federal minimum wage in recent years, but while they can afford such a policy, small businesses would be harmed, studies have shown.