For years now, the Democrats have pushed through the idea of implementing higher minimum wages all across the country. And at the outset, it might seem like a good idea and one that appeals to American workers. I mean, who doesn’t want to get paid more on the hour?
But what I just can’t understand is how the party that claims to be for the working class doesn’t understand how minimum wage affects the rest of the economy. I keep having to ask myself, are they just that dumb? Or is that they don’t really care?
That’s what we have to ask of our new president, not-so moderate Democrat Joe Biden.
This week, as he begins his tenure in the White House, he put forth a whole menagerie of Democratic talking points, everything from national mask mandates to giving amnesty to just about anyone who walks across our borders. And, of course, talk of an increase in the federal minimum wage was also included.
Currently, the federal minimum wage is set at $7.25. According to Biden, the plan is to raise that to a whopping $15 an hour – more than twice as much.
Once again, inexperienced workers may not see a problem with this. Instead, the only thing they see is their pay doubling, literally overnight.
However, to get the whole picture and understand what a raise in minimum wage really does, we have to look at those who usually don’t earn an hourly wage – people like Adrian Adornetto, who owns a few pizza parlors in the midwestern state of Ohio.
Now, Ohio, unlike some states, doesn’t rely on the current federal minimum wage. Instead, their state government leaders have chosen to make their own, paying hourly workers at least $8.55 per hour. California does this as well; only they pay $14 an hour at minimum.
So what does this to the economy?
Well, as Adornetto explained on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday, it changes everything about how he runs his businesses. As a business owner and boss, I’m sure Adornetto would love to pay his workers more on the hour, showing his appreciation for their hard work and commitment. However, it’s simply not possible.
He said, “It will do several things to my business and my employees. I’ll be most likely cutting hours back. I’m in the pizza business so that $12 pizza night might grow to a $19 pizza, and in my part of Ohio, that’s, you know, very expensive in today’s standards.”
As so very wisely explains, it’s a “ripple effect, and it’s just large.”
Adornetto will have to go from paying his workers a manageable $8.55 an hour to nearly double that with a simple flick of Biden’s wrist. And with no extra funding or revenue coming in.
Where does Biden think that Adornetto and other small business owners like him will get the money to do this? His stimulus package? That will only last for a short time – a one-time payment, which will quickly be used up if it’s not already spent.
To make ends meet, he’ll be forced to do exactly what he said, cut hours and increase menu prices. And when his products become too expensive for the average American already struggling? He’ll be forced to lay off workers or close his doors like thousands of other small businesses that haven’t been able to stand up under the limitations of the COVID pandemic.
So much for getting paid more on the hour…
Adornetto says, “with an industry like ours… we’re at 5, maybe 6 percent profit margin. So to squeeze what we can out on menu, and again, during a time where people are already scared to come out, we’re at half capacity, and try to pass it on to customers who are already feeling as it is with this economy, it’s pretty rough. And, it’s scary.”
Scary, indeed.
Now, you may be asking, “But I thought you said California has minimum wage near $15, and they’re doing fine, right?” Are they?
Have you seen lines of homeless in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego? Have you seen the crime rates that continue to soar because people have to do bad things to keep food on their tables?
If anything, California should be proof that raising the minimum wage isn’t the answer. And yet, according to Biden, California is precisely what America should be modeled after.
If he could only figure out how very wrong he is.