There are several conservative reasons for supporting a minimum wage hike
By Carrie Wofford
US News & World Report, Jan. 27, 2014
Tuesday night, in his State of the Union address, the president will raise the problem of wealth inequality in America and how to ensure America is still a land of opportunity, with the possibility of a middle-class American Dream open to all. This will likely include the need for a minimum wage increase. ... More families who were formerly middle class are moving into low-paid service jobs.
... The minimum wage increase is a great issue for Republicans. Just not in the way they think it is. The federal minimum wage today is $7.25 per hour – which gets you only $15,080 if you work full-time, 52 weeks straight. ... Some beliefs are universal to all Americans, and one of them is that people who work full-time should not live in poverty. But the federal minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation, and minimum wage workers fall far below the poverty line. ... You and I are subsidizing Wal-Mart and McDonald's low pay for their employees, while the Walton family that owns Wal-Mart accounts for 5 of the 10 wealthiest billionaires in America and the CEO of McDonald's made almost $9 million in 2011. The University of California found that half of fast-food workers rely on public assistance, costing taxpayers $7 billion annually. Taxpayers in New York, alone, are paying almost $1 billion each year to subsidize bank tellers in New York, while the top banks in New York comfortably pay million dollar bonuses. ...
Raising the minimum wage is also great for business, a key Republican constituency. The CEO of Costco, who pays his full-time workers an average of $45,000 per year, says he gets lower turnover, more loyalty and better productivity by paying them liveable wages. Trader Joe's, Starbucks, Stride Rite, Dansko, Eileen Fisher and many other major American companies pay better than minimum wage and are pressing Congress for an increase in the federal minimum wage. McDonalds and Wal-Mart have nothing to fear. A minimum wage increase will bring them more business. Why? Guess who eats at McDonalds and shops at Wal-Mart?
Moreover, raising the minimum wage would be great for America's consumer-driven economy, because low-wage workers put every penny of their paychecks into consumer spending (while wealthier Americans hold back more for savings). ...
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