Oregon $15 minimum wage drive picks up steam
City of Portland contract workers and other employees have begun sounding the bell for a $15 minimum wage in Oregon.
More than 5,000 workers have signed a petition demanding improvements in Portland’s Fair Wage Policy…Rep. Rob Nosse, a Southeast Portland Democrat, wants to introduce a $15 minimum wage measure during next year’s regular Oregon legislative session…
Those working for companies that contract with the city make $10.38 an hour plus $1.92 in benefits. Portland has a Fair Wage Policy that it adopted in 1998.
We Respond & Your Comments
Yes, we’ve talked about minimum wage before. But as long as economic dunces keep telling us it’s a hot idea to raise it, we‘ll keep on teaching basic economics.
Once again here’s why raising the minimum wage is a lousy idea:
- Raising the price of anything (including labor) cuts into demand for it. If you believe otherwise you probably think water runs uphill;
- Raising the price of labor either raises the price of what that labor produces or decreases profits that might be used to expand the business and create new jobs;
- Raising minimum salaries hurts young people. Why hire a kid, when for the same price you could hire an experienced worker?
- According to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, “oftentimes, union contracts are triggered to implement wage hikes in the case of minimum wage increases.”When the minimum wage goes up, lots of union workers also get a raise. And you thought Democrats cared about burger-flipping kids? No – they care about union money and votes.
The next time you hear some politician wanting to give 1.6 million minimum wage workers a raise, ask him to show you how he makes water run uphill.
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