Minimum Wage

Saturday, August 5, 2006

I just finished writing my NC Senator regarding his position on minimum wage. This is the second time I have corresponded with him regarding this issue and it served as a response to his letter to me explaining his position. His stance is that entry level positions will be reduced, that small and medium sized businesses will be unable to compete, and that the free market and tax reduction should be allowed to create any improvements.

Of course...I responded that those arguments just do not hold water. Below, you will find a copy of my letter to him.



Dear Senator Burr,

I want to thank you for your written rsponse to my query regarding your stance on the issue of raising the minimum wage. I was heartened to see that you did not take the bait offered by your party and that you refused to vote for a bill that coupled minimum wage and modifications to the estate tax. I cannot be certain as to your motives, but these are two separate and distinct issues and linking them together is sham politics.

Regarding the actual issue of the minimum wage, I take issue with your assertion that a raise in minimum wage would be disastrous for business. It has been shown that, in those states where minimum wage HAS been raised, that small and medium sized busnesses have not been forced out do to an inability to compete. In fact, our state, NC, has recently passed legislation that raises the minimum wage and we will be able to see locally exactly what the effects are.

It has been noted previously that Congress has not hesitated to give itself raises...not once, not twice, but SEVEN times!! Does it not occur to you that many citizens view this as a hypocrisy?

You also maintain that many "conservative" (you say bipartisan, but the majority who subscribe to this view are NOT liberals) institutions support the assertion that an increase in minimum wage will deter entry level jobs. I believe this to be disingenuous...those workers who have the least skills have, for the most part, lost their jobs due to outsourcing and they are facing a shortage of jobs that have been replaced by those very same ones that pay minimum wages...a wage that is well below the poverty line. Any job that has required training or schooling is, most likely, NOT offering entry level positions at minimum wage. Minimum wage is most often found in fast food and basic service jobs. These are NOT the fields of employment highlighted in those polls describing "entry level positions".

As I stated previously...as it now stands...the minimum wage rewards those workers who work full time with below poverty line incomes. We are NOT seeing a leveling of the playing field. Those workers cannot afford health insurance, college educations for their children, medical care or, as is often the case, even nutritional food for the table.

I urge you to reevaluate your position!! I am in school and have the opportunity to interact with many others from various and sundry walks of life and lines of work. Most of them agree with the need for increasing the minimum wage...and...most will be entry level applicants upon finishing their schooling. Again...most will be compensated at wages that exceed the minimum wage.

It should be noted that Mr. Burr did not take the Republican Party's "bait" to pass a minimum wage that had also provided for an amendment to the estate tax. That notwithstanding, however, I would say that his stance on minimum wage and poverty is nothing short of hypocritical in his support of corporatized America versus the rights of individual citizens, particularly because he has also voted in favor of his own Congressional pay raise.

trickster108