Raising Minimum Wage Creates More IssuesMarch 3, 2014A contractor’s pay scale is $8-$10-$12. Do we expect higher paid workers to get raises? Another contractor has a pay scale of $10.10-$12.10-$14.10 and requires experience and a high school degree. Will this contractor increase wages to maintain the spread over the first contractor? What plans have we made to pay for the additional cost of these wages? Food stamps, earned income tax credits, Medicaid and other health insurance benefits may be affected. Have we considered the impact on jobs lost to other countries as we become less able to compete with their lower wages? Have we told those working for a minimum wage that unemployed workers with better qualifications may want their jobs? Minimum wages are not the only wages that will increase. This additional cost will be passed on to consumers and taxpayers, diminishing the effect of the wage increases. Most agree that you cannot support a family or yourself on a minimum wage without help. We tried raising the minimum wage many times without eliminating poverty. We tried earned income tax credits, Medicaid and food stamps, yet poverty still exits. Remember when workers were receiving 8 percent and 10 percent raises as a necessity because of rampant inflation? Those increases inflamed inflation and lessened our ability to compete in manufacturing jobs. We cannot lose our ability to create new jobs. The education of our children is falling far behind the rest of the world. We must train and educate our children to compete in the complexity of the world in which we live. If we must continue to print extra money to solve our problems, let us spend it on education.
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