The DOL has the raising the minimum wage argument all wrong.
According to the Dept. of Labor . . .
While the federal minimum wage was only $3.35 per hour in 1981 and is currently $7.25 per hour in real dollars, when adjusted for inflation, the current federal minimum wage would need to be more than $8 per hour to equal its buying power of the early 1980s and more than $10 per hour to equal its buying power of the late 1960s. That’s why President Obama is urging Congress to increase the federal minimum wage and give low-wage workers a much-needed boost.
And the reason it is wrong is because the President is an economic imbecile. He is the one that has devalued the dollar. Between the Fed monetizing the debt, printing money under QE1, QE2, and QE3, and his piling on the national debt, the dollar has been devalued.
The end of the DOL’s blurb highlights their ignorance. The government doesn’t “give” low-wage workers anything. They don’t have anything to give. What they mean is to increase the payroll cost on employers. Which will result in fewer people working, or people working fewer hours. So what is it exactly that the government “gives” anyone? More misery, that’s what.
His, and the DOL’s answer is to raise the minimum wage to compensate for his irresponsible monetary policy, instead of increasing the purchasing power of the dollar through fiscal and economic sanity. His way cost jobs. Done the right way will create jobs and “give” low-wage workers more bang for their buck. It is the private sector solution which is antithetical to the spread-the-wealth (spread the misery) “solution.”
