Minimum Wage To Jump To $10 An Hour Sooner Than Expected?
It’s obvious that money makes the world go ’round. The issue with that is, business today are trying to save money more and more. That means, they pay the workers as little as they can. Over time, businesses move up prices which allows others to raise prices. So even a discount is a raised item that just went back to the price it used to be for a small time. Due to this, people need more money to live on. Minimum wage is now in need of an increase nationwide, and it seems like the American Federal Government realizes it.
As mentioned earlier, this does not please your average American business man. While President Barack Obama has somewhat helped the unemployment issue, most feel that if he and the government back the minimum wage increase, it could cost people jobs. Since most minimum wage jobs are your fast food, retail, etc. type of jobs, it could force them to not hire the average person.
This also hurts the higher paying jobs, because people who were making good money by making $10 an hour will want more. A manager for example will be making the same as a person just hired, meaning their pay would need to go up. So this makes an entire system go haywire.
This means your teenager or college student could struggle to find work because no one is able to hire. This, despite the need to hire. If it hurts the bottom line, people simply won’t do so.
The average for minimum wage is anywhere between $7.25-8.00 in most states. The movement by the government would place the minimum wage at $10.10 an hour. While most people will rejoice at this, again, the American business man is not so enthused. Obviously if he isn’t, then that means Conservatives are not happy. Keep in mind, there has been an issue when it came to big business dating back to the 2012 election period as well as 2008 election time. The Bush tax breaks ended and President Obama decided not to renew them.
As a result of all of this, there is already tension between the Democrat and Republican parties. While a minimum wage jump would do wonders for current workers, it’s the people attempting to find work that might have an issue. Add in that the Health Care Act was passed, and businesses are losing more than they have been.
While the idea of a minimum wage jump sounds great, the ramifications of such an action would potentially hurt the bottom line of the average company. Yes, many companies can afford the loss. This is not the same case for everyone however, and as a result, there are far more hoops to jump through. This also does not immediately help anyone currently with a job either, as jobs could be cut from the boost as well.
We’ve already seen that in some states, minimum wage has been forced up such as New Jersey where it seemed to take an act of congress….literally.
Last year, the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee from the same office as the Employment Policies Institute, campaigned against a New Jersey effort to boost minimum wage. This according to New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission records. The group spent nearly $1 million opposing the ballot measure which voters ultimately approved, and that resulted in raising the minimum wage number to $8.25.
So despite some efforts to bring it down, the result was that the minimum wage number went up. Obviously this was just for one state, but for the entire country? This might be much harder to pull off.
If it came down to a nationwide vote, chances are that minimum wage would be raised. Sadly, despite being in a Democracy we cannot always have it our way. Therefore, Washington could make the ultimate call on this end. It might not come down to a vote interestingly enough, as President Obama is attempting an executive order that might curb any sort of voting issue.
Last week, President Obama signed an executive order requiring businesses that are getting new or renewed federal contracts soon, to pay their minimum wage workers $10.10 an hour starting in 2015. By doing this, a couple hundred thousand people would be seeing an increase in pay nationwide. This is a massive deal, and even though it may be fought, it still makes the increase in pay a real thing. Usually it’s just talk in Washington, so the fact that an action is actually being taken is at least a step in the right direction.
Mega-business Walmart weighed in on the minimum wage hoopla. Walmart Spokesman Kory Lundberg said:
“We haven’t taken a position either way. We think that’s not the only issue here… it’s more to do with whether (workers) have enough opportunity to grow and have opportunity to earn more.”
Obviously Walmart among several companies would not want to pay for anything more than they do now. It is interesting, however, to note that they are not immediately trying to fight the move hard despite lobbying. Obviously Walmart is a massive American business with thousands of successful stores. They have the money to spend. Thing is, just like any other, they do not want to spend more than they have to. So it seems they are taking the wait and see approach.
Gap, Inc. has already been nice enough to raise the wage, as they announced that they would be raising the minimum pay for 65,000 employees in its stores to $9 an hour this June and then to $10 an hour in June of 2015.
Some businesses are getting with the program, others aren’t sure what they will do, and several are fighting it. Good luck to the fighters, but we all know minimum wage will increase. Could we see many other companies going with the program soon to follow with Gap’s movement soon? That is uncertain.
