Steve Forbes writes in the latest Forbes magazine that he expects President Obama and his allies to try to drive a wedge between Republicans on the issue of raising the federal minimum wage. Forbes offers the GOP a strategy for fighting back.
Obama will proclaim that it’s time to raise it so that everyone can earn a “living wage,” thereby helping the least among us to rise from poverty. Republicans will want to resist–they have the better argument–but may cave lest they be portrayed as being anti-poor.
So what’s the GOP to do? Start with human stories. House Republicans should hold hearings with employers and employees who were hurt by the last boost in the minimum wage. These folks could relate how the increase forced cutbacks in hiring and how their chances of climbing out of poverty were detoured because of it. A number of states have boosted their minimums far above the federal level and should thus provide a mother lode of evidence. These real-life stories can then be supplemented with countless studies documenting how damaging these wage actions are, and big graphs can illustrate the rise in unemployment among young minorities.
Restaurant owners can point out that they’ll be forced to mechanize their fast-food businesses with automatic order-takers, just as a number of convenience stores have already done with sandwiches.
Other points to hammer home: The average income of households with a minimum-wage worker is more than $53,000, and within a year of hiring, two-thirds of those who start at the minimum wage receive a raise.
