Post-Gazette Editorial – 2/4/07

This page was last updated on February 4, 2007.

Minimum support: Congress should compromise on the wage bill; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; February 4, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The U.S. Senate isn’t completely heartless. To its credit, it voted 94-3 last week to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.”

[RWC] I’ve addressed the minimum wage issue in previous critiques of PG editorials, including but not limited to “Minimum sense.”

“If President Bush signs it into law, America’s lowest-paid, full-time workers can expect a gradual bump from about $11,000 to $15,000 a year. But as Goethe’s classic tale about an ambitious man and his deal with the devil illustrates, there’s always a catch.

“To make the prospect of raising the wages of 5.6 million workers palatable in the closely divided Senate, the bill was larded with $8.3 billion in Republican-backed tax breaks for small businesses. The measure now has to be reconciled with a simpler version passed earlier in the House.”

[RWC] Actually, the PG is being too modest when it claims only “the wages of 5.6 million” employees will be raised. Ultimately, as the effect of the increase ripples through the economy, everyone who doesn’t lose their job as a result of the increase will receive an increase. Then, minimum wage “earners” will be back at square one. That’s why I refer to the exercise as akin to a dog chasing his tail.

Note the editorial didn’t mention the reason for the “tax breaks for small businesses.” The belief is that since businesses don’t have extra money lying around to use to pay a government-mandated wage increase, they need a tax break to offset the wage increase or face lost jobs or the business going under.

Here’s something else the editorial failed to mention. American Samoa is exempt from the minimum wage increase. Why? House Democrats argue raising the minimum wage there will result in lost jobs. Why is it when conservatives make this logical argument, we’re “heartless,” but when Democrats make it that’s OK? One other thing. The largest employer in American Samoa is headquartered in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) district.

“President Bush has made it clear he’s in no hurry to sign a wage bill that doesn’t contain tax breaks. While we’d prefer to see the base wage raised without this sort of political clutter, Congress is too close to a deal on helping low-income workers to let the opportunity slip away.”

[RWC] “[P]olitical clutter?” The whole minimum wage BS is “political clutter.”

“Ultimately, the wage plan that makes it to the president’s desk may hold enough compromises to make taxpayers grumble. But the minimum wage has lost too much of its buying power since its last increase 10 years ago to be left alone.

“If this is what passes for the new bipartisanship in Washington, so be it. On this critical pocketbook issue, Americans will have to accept the Congress and president they have, not the Congress and president they wish they had.”

[RWC] True. I wish we had a conservative Congress and a conservative president.