During the same week that the John Locke Foundation has highlighted research explaining the problems with a proposed $15 minimum wage, the Washington Examiner focuses on the hypocritical stance of some of the higher wage’s supporters.
The $15 minimum wage is a ridiculous proposal, designed to win votes with false promises.
Both economic theory and the evidence compel that conclusion. Or, instead, you can take the word of those who, in public, pay lip service to the $15 wage. Because in private, they admit it’s a bad idea.
Among the illegally obtained and leaked emails of senior Clinton campaign staffer John Podesta are several gems, one of which is a warning from Neera Tanden, head of the left-wing Center for American Progress that Podesta helped found. In an email chain discussing New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s decision to come out in favor of more than doubling the minimum wage, Tanden noted that her group had not formally come out for it, and warned that Clinton shouldn’t either.
“Substantively, we have not supported $15 — you will get a fair number of liberal economists who will say it will lose jobs,” she wrote. Still, eleven months later, she was among those praising California Gov. Jerry Brown for signing legislation that will make $15 the minimum wage in California. And Clinton, though supportive of some local efforts, has avoided backing a national $15 wage, in spite of pressure from her left to do so. …
… It is heartening to see progressive activists recognize and acknowledge that threat in their private discussions, even if they hop on the $15 bandwagon in public. As Hillary Clinton noted in one of her $200,000-per-hour speeches, sometimes you need to take a different position in public than in private.
