The following commentary by Steve MacDonald has been republished with permission from GraniteGrok.
Vermont’s mandated state minimum wage is rising today to 13.18 an hour. That’s, the new legislators know better what starting labor is worth to job creators rate. All in the name of whatever it is their supporters claim these wage mandates do.
New York State’s forced rate is rising as well to $14.20 an hour. Governor Kathy Hochul says, “fair, competitive wages are essential for helping families thrive and attracting top talent to the state.” I assume that’s what the idiot Dems in Vermont believe.
Government mandate wage is the opposite of a competitive one, and it has never been essential for helping families thrive or attracting people to your state. New York has been raising the wage for years, but people are fleeing in droves because, like all Democrat enclaves, it is an act of fraud.
These states have higher living costs driven by higher taxes which also increase the cost of goods and services. Forcing the wage rate up for unskilled labor does that as well. The net result is a loss in income and buying power. It can shower push-up union rates, which typically means dues increases which translates into more campaign buying power for Democrats.
If Democrats cared about thriving families and attracting talent, they’d cut taxes and regulations. Make it easier to start and run a small-to-medium-size business. That creates competition which drives performance innovations. Job creators need to find, train, and keep good talent and look for efficiencies in their process to compete. Those that succeed attract customers who can spend less and get more — making the dollars they have more valuable to everyone in the marketplace.
Government has no such incentive to do any of this and almost always does the opposite.
Mandating what an hour of starting labor is worth is a good example, especially on the current inflation track. It leads to fewer jobs, higher prices, less competition, and fewer choices.
The current labor market is a mess. And yes, many employers are already offering more to start because they can’t find people to work. So in one way, it appears meaningless. But New Hampshire’s minimum wage is $7.25 and has been for a very long time. New Hampshire has also had a higher average rate of starting pay, a stronger labor force, and a better economy — both before, during, and after the government closed businesses against their will.
So, thank you again, Vermont. Your bad decisions have, going on several decades, made New Hampshire a better place to start a business, work, shop and live. Though to the last point, more than a few Vermonters have crossed the Connecticut river looking for a better deal and a little more economic liberty and took their voting habits with them.
To them, I’d like to say this might be a great time to move back to Vermont. They have a higher minimum wage. And hey, take a few more Democrats with you when you go.
If you don’t want to make minimum wage then strive to get a better job, that’s how capitalism works. Minimum pay is for jobs that don’t produce much profit for the employer. McDonald’s has opened it’s first fully functional robot outlet in TX to cut out the low paying student jobs.. are you happy about that liberals? If political hacks want to do something about take home pay then cut taxes and stay out of our wallets…
I lived in NH for a decade, after longer than that in VT…shortly after moving there, landed the best job I’d ever had, and found NH people to be great mostly. It’s a business-friendly state, and that means a lot for people who need to work for a living.
I forget why I moved back here. It is beautiful, but it seems to be made to favor the already-wealthy over everybody else, and cronyism is strong. Also social goofyness. People traded independence for
socially engineered safety and welfare.
New Hampshire is, once again, leading the country in how to manage an economy in these really strange times. Governor Sununu has done a wonderful job sheparding NH through issue after issue. As for wages, we let supply and demand drive it. In Littleton where I live, the avg. wage just 3 years ago was around $9hr. Today, $15hr. is the minimum folks will pay. I was in Human Resources for 30+ years and I never saw such a market increase in such a short time. The NH government didn’t need to mandate any type of wage adjustment to make it happen.
Actually, the new VT mandate is laughable as it is behind the general wage curve anyway. However, what it does do is continues the mechanism where small businesses that may be viable by finding one or two workers willing to work for say, $11hr. Part-time cannot and will do out of business. Modern Vermont is well known for the law of unintended consequences in its governance and will continue to go down the rabbit hole for all but the rich.
Today before the American People,
McCarthy is laughing at this, he’s laughing at the American People, he moved into Nancy Pelosi’s office without being elected or having the authority.
Since he moved into the office and isn’t elected, perhaps he should be a in jail and free all those from 2 years ago!
This is the true insurrection, happening before our eyes….5 votes????
This is like local vt politics where the selectboard holds many votes to get what they want, during times people are away or on vacation.
Seriously, how is this relevant to Steve’s article above? If you have something to say about a topic, send it into True North and see if they print it.
They did see above. 🙂
Some things are very timely, might be important to get the word out, it’s called spreading the word! Will be interesting to see what comes of the voting. The swamp will show no mercy, that is for sure, nor can they be trusted.
At least I wasn’t talking about, I just made $2,435 from home, call me to see how!
But New Hampshire’s minimum wage is $7.25 and has been for a very long time. New Hampshire has also had a higher average rate of starting pay, a stronger labor force, and a better economy — both before, during, and after the government closed businesses against their will.
Crony capitalism and socialism are brothers. In both environments, everything is unaffordable because the markets are fixed, whereby the fixers benefit and those in the general public suffer.
Vermont is more and more unaffordable.
If we made having a business as easy as dealing drugs and opening up Marijuana shops, we’d be a bit more prosperous and out from under this smoking cloud of corruption and socialism.
Vermont’s ticket to prosperity, do more drugs, have more abortions, legalize prostitution, make the crime for hard core drugs easy – well all crimes……
and take the money from lobbyists. (Hey Rebbeca, here’s looking at you)
What could possibly go wrong?