National Minimum Wage: Sorry, President Obama, A Raise Doesn’t Solve Anything

COMMENTARY | President Obama has proposed a new minimum wage increase, but I’m sorry to say it really doesn’t solve anything.

The last five years of recession have led to a painfully slow recovery, and President Obama thinks the US economy is now in good enough shape to provide workers with raises.

When did that ever fix anything? Employers are only going to raise their prices to compensate for the raised minimum wage, and we’ll be in the same boat with the water level a little bit higher.

In President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, he ordered Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2015. According to the Huffington Post, this would happen gradually over two years.

Can you say, “Been there, done that?” How do you think we got to $7.25 in the first place?

According to NPR, President Obama stated in his speech:

“We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families.”

President Obama, do you not understand that the same thing happened less than twenty years ago and all it did was make employers reluctant to hire more people? And what happens then? Unemployment rises. Retail outlets will suddenly have everybody except upper management on part time and doing the work of three. A higher minimum wage doesn’t solve anything.

What do you think? Will the raised national minimum wage really solve anything?

The president lowered expectations from his 08 campaign, where he campaigned to raise minimum wage to $9.50 per hour. bit.ly/WmSSvw

— Red Alert Politics (@RedAlert) February 13, 2013