Earning $6.55 an hour doesn't sound like much, but
for more than 50 people employed by the state of Idaho, a steady job
adds robustness to life spent in a state institution for the
developmentally disabled. That work experience is being jeopardized
because of Congress' decision to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an
hour.
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Tom
Shanahan said some residents at the Idaho State School and Hospital at
Nampa and at the State Hospital South at Blackfoot are hired to do odd
jobs, and they're paid minimum wage. Jobs like washing cars add a
dimension that improves the quality of life of the residents.
"It
does give them satisfaction having a job a couple of hours a day," said
Shanahan. But Shanahan said clients will soon find their hours slashed
because there's not enough money for the department to keep the jobs
intact and to raise wages in compliance with the new federal wage law,
which took effect Friday. The 10.7 percent increase is too much to
absorb in the agency's already-austere budget, he said.
Similar decisions are being made across Idaho - in business and in government.
According
to the state Department of Labor, there are about 40,000 workers who
have been earning less than the new mandated $7.25 minimum wage. The
state of Idaho employs more than 360 who have been earning less than
the new minimum. In addition to the Department of Health and Welfare,
others are employed at Eastern Idaho Technical College, Lewis-Clark
State College, Boise State University and the Lava Hot Springs
Foundation.
I suspect that many of those on school payrolls are
students, who stand to be hurt by the increased pay rate. If their
hours are slashed, they'll earn the same money they've been earning but
pay the higher costs for goods and services as a result of the minimum
wage increase.
City and county governments also employ low-wage
earners who have been bringing in less than $7 an hour. Thousands more
state and local employees earn between $7.25 and $8 an hour. They're
not getting raises, but there will be mounting pressure to compensate
these employees more because it would be unfair and demoralizing for
good, hard-working employees to get nothing when their counterparts are
making more. The state of Idaho employs more than 300 people earning
between minimum wage and $8 - those denied raises while their peers
clock in with up to 70 cents an hour more.
In my business, I
wouldn't hire Congress to make copies, let alone set the wages of my
employees. Congress has slightly more business acumen than Michael
Scott of "The Office" and a lot less than my dog. But by some strange
twist of fate, we've asked Congress to be the boss, to have the power
to run our companies and, from Washington, D.C., make such monumental
decisions as how much to pay employees in Idaho and elsewhere. This is
the same Congress that thought government bailouts of banks and
automakers were a good idea.
But congressional collectivist
mentality leads to legislation that forces business owners to figure
out how to squeeze more money out of bottom lines already stretched by
the recession.
Businesses from Boise to Idaho Falls are telling
stories about how they're facing the prospect of cutting employee hours
because they can't afford the new pay rate.
And now taxpayers
are being compelled to pay more to thousands of employees in state,
city and county governments at a time when those governments are laying
off employees and curtailing services.
The higher wages only compound the pressure to raise taxes and fees, or to fire workers or reduce their hours.
For
generations, researchers and economists have debated the impact of
government-mandated wage hikes. I tend to agree with those who say that
increasing the minimum wage merely disrupts free markets, results in
higher costs for businesses, higher costs for products and fewer jobs
for low-skilled laborers. I have yet to meet someone who benefited
through the minimum wage, but I can see plenty of examples of Idahoans
being hurt more than they're helped.
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