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President Obama called for a minimum-wage increase in his State of the Union address this week, and within about 10 hours, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered his response: forget it.
Predictably, Boehner said what the right usually says when the subject comes up: "When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it."
This has been an ongoing debate for many years, but the evidence clearly favors the Democratic position: raising the minimum wage does not hurt businesses, and arguably helps them when more consumers have more money in their pockets.
But there's an angle to this that's often overlooked. GOP leaders, including Boehner, have no qualms about rejecting a minimum-wage increase, but are generally reluctant to oppose the existence of a minimum-wage law. It's the logical end to their line of thinking, but Republicans are loath to look like extremists given support for the minimum wage with mainstream voters.
There are, however, exceptions.
After President Barack Obama suggested raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour in his State of the Union speech, rising Republican star Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) quickly joined other prominent GOP lawmakers in denouncing the proposal as bad policy.
"I want people to make a lot more than $9," Rubio said Wednesday. "Nine dollars is not enough. The problem is that you can't do that by mandating it in the minimum wage laws. Minimum wage laws have never worked in terms of helping the middle class attain more prosperity."
"I don't think a minimum wage law works," he said flatly.
Is that so.
Remember, it's not at all uncommon for Republicans to balk at a minimum-wage increase. It wasn't always a sharply partisan issue -- even Bush/Cheney accepted an increase -- but given how far the GOP has moved to the right, objections to Obama's proposal were predictable.
But that's not where Rubio drew the line. Instead, the far-right Floridian went further than most in his party are willing to go -- he's arguing against the very existence of a minimum-wage law.
As Rubio moves forward with his national ambitions, I have a hunch we'll be hearing about this again. In the meantime, I'd love to hear other GOP leaders go on the record saying whether they agree with Rubio -- do they support a minimum wage or not?
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From savior to scapegoat in 3, 2, 1.....
Really makes the Onion article ring true: http://www.theonion.com/articles/rich-white-people-get-latino-guy-to-do-some-work-f,31285/
Note that Boehner and the right are framing this in moral terms ignoring the science of economics. The Liberal framing must stay fact based- our voice must be that of demonstrating the GOP is out of touch on economic principles.
The principle is that increasing purchasing power of the middle class increases the size of the Consumer Economy. It must be applied to the Global Consumer Economy using Presidential discretionary power in future trade agreements to make minimum wage a requirement in partner countries.
Last night Ezra touched on the economics principle in play, but the trouble with Obama's proposal is that it only addresses the domestic consumer economy, Robert Reich says that our Trade Agreements must include the requirement of a minimum wage law set to half of the national mean wage. I believe he meant non farm wage.
The global economy is set to triple in size within the next 20 years. Nothing says that this wealth necessarily will create a middle class. It can and is being pocketed by elites in the countries we are importing from. They can easily share more of that wealth in order to safeguard access to our markets.
We have vital economic interest in building an emerging global market for our products catering to middle class consumption. Reich's proposal is a sound one, and the beauty of it is that trade negotiation is something the President can execute without Congressional approval.
Most third world countries are not going to agree to a minimum wage standard. If countries do not agree to a proper wage, their goods will still come in cheaper to US consumers. The only ways they will raise wages is for tariffs to be imposed on goods from countries that do not agree to a minimum wage and/or goods from countries with a minimum wage get a preference to US markets. If the EU, Canada and Japan follow the same path, then third world countries will be forced to raise wages. China is a large market but these third world countries need the West markets. It may take an international trade agreement among the industrialized West to set a single standard for wages for trade.
Little Marco, busy putting the Rube in Rubio.
Marco Rubio does not need the minimum wage to be raised. People making $8.00 an hour do. No one should work 40 hours a week and live in poverty.
Rubio, I find you a morally offensive human being. You may be the T-party's dream but you are my nightmare.
I can see that countries would find it disagreeable if competitor nations were not also given the same requirement.
Whether or not a set o trade agreements was required, couldn't it still be done via Presidential action? The tariffs you were suggesting are necessary imply congressional action, correct?
I am not sure if Congress approves trade agreements or tariffs, but I suspect they both need Congressional action. There is nothing in the Constitution that grants those powers to the executive branch. But it would be difficult for Congress to resist if the other industrialized countries join in such a trade agreement.
The constitution says Congress has exclusive authority over regulating trade. I was wondering if the President had some latitude for action due to his enforcement authority to designate or rescind things like favored nation status. Cursory study of the subject suggests he does not.
The Congressional Research Service has an interesting report pointing out the weak negotiating tools we have due to the expiration of the Trade Promotion Authority in 2007. The report makes the case this will be a big issue for the 113th Congress (link to pdf)
I would expect that the Senate must approve the outlines of a trade agreement like a treaty. But I think the President may have some discretionary authority granted in the agreements and enforcement, e.g. Obama has filed multiple trade complaints against China with the World Trade Organization. Some of those executive powers may be granted by statute for all trade agreements.
Mr. Rubio raise the minimum wage for all plastic water bottlers! You have the power! -Kevo
Sooooo the market doesn't take care of it's self? If companies need people they will hire them regardless of cost. They might not like it but they will do it.
Oh and for the people who love to complain that When they were teenagers they "Made 0.85 cents an hour and were glad to have it" they need to think about that and adjust for inflation...a nickle in 1935 was worth a whole hell of a lot more than it is today
I'm guessing they weren't trying to raise a family on that 0.85!
It occurred to me that many family businesses would be immune from minimum wage laws due to their reliance on family member slave labor. So this would tend to tilt the playing field away from massive chains and towards small businesses. I note the average national wage is $23.76, and if former labor secretary Robert Reich is correct that minimum wage should be half the median hourly wage in a given country, then the minimum should be closer to $11.50 per hour. So say we put this on a sliding scale to incentivise small businesses. Those businesses with lower gross profits pay minimum $9, and those with highest advantages due to size must pay $11.50 minimum wage.
This would correct for the "winner take all" problem of large chains cannibalizing local economic activity.
Is that bad economic theory or good? If bad, what principles are violated?
No he was a teenager living at home with parents to provide food, warmth and shelter.
JohnMesserly
I could write everything I know about economics on my thumbnail, so I can't really comment on that aspect of your proposal other than to say it seems logical. As I was reading your post, however, I began thinking about the Republican narrative portraying President Obama as a hater of success, a re-distributer of wealth, and I think they would have a field day with this . Even though it makes perfect sense, burdening "Successful" companies with higher wage requirements will maybe be seen as unfair. Additionally, retailers of high margin goods like furniture will likely claim they're being demonized or something silly like that, because they chose to sell a product that returns a higher profit.
Maybe what we need is a maximum wage law- you know, the one we had under President Eisenhower, when the top tax rate was 90%.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/31/154895/gop-loves-child-labor/
Actually the GOP is trying to eliminate the minimum wage.
Employers could hire children at a rate lower than the minimum wage had Maine's law passed. If I remember correctly, some in Missouri tried to do the same thing.
Nice bunch of people. Let's make it legal to hire kids at $0.50/day. I thought this country was trying to get BETTER.
But Republicans are trying to make the country better! Oh, you mean for the 99%? Well, they don't count, unless they vote tea party! And only their vote is important, so let's eliminate the opposition vote by any means necessary!
I swear, that's how the modern right rolls nowadays.
A low minimum wage is yet another example of corporate welfare.
It is a simple equation, if you pay your employees less than a living wage, those employees turn to government services for additional support in healthcare, housing and other basic security needs.
Subsidizing a low-cost service labor system in our economy comes back to us in the form of higher taxes on all levels from local to federal to support the underpaid employees which directly translates into artificially lower costs for fast-food, restaurants, and box-stores selling goods mainly from China.
Mr Rubio continues to show that he understand very little of our economic engine, and this argument that business will hire less workers to meet any form of growing demand is ridiculous.
See the century old idea of Henry Ford, pay your employees higher wages so that they can participate in the economy that includes your own aspirational products (cars). It worked well then, the same fundamentals still apply.
And once again I feel compelled to remind all GOP people that hiring employees is a TAX DEDUCTION against business expenses. There is no relationship between personal income taxes and hiring, so lose the premise that 'job creators' are magical beings that have we all have to coddled to produce jobs.
Economic demand creates jobs, and a well paid middle class is far more likely to grow the economy than anything I've heard from a Republican in a decade.
And as a job creator I can tell you that when I have demand, I hire more people, when I don't then I don't. Taxes are not part of this equation AT ALL and the cost of skilled labor is far higher than minimum wage in the form of training and retention so that again, is not a factor on the hiring decision.
You're making a reasonable argument for why the "minimum wage" needs to be raised, and just in case you haven't paid attention - the GOTP don't/won't hear you it doesn't fit in with their ideology of "welfare for the rich & corporate" they call "free market".....
"Rising Stars" aren't supposed to make fools of themselves.
This young man just isn't ready for prime time. The poor guy. He needs another decade to either develop some wisdom, or go full-on stoopid. His choice, I suppose.
No, he sounds right on par with Bush and Mittens. He's not white enough for the right to suffer as president, but he'd make a great Palinesque VP.
What the right really needs as their "savior" candidate is someone half black, half Latino, half caucasion, half female, and half gay (but only half), then the Republicans could garner just about all the ethnic and cultural votes!
After the buildup for Rubio, even anoiting him "savior" most thought he must be pretty smart. What a let down! He was pathetic & not referring to anything to do with water, that speech was really awful. The speech is what we should be talking about instead of the water. There was no substance, no fresh ideas, but certainly a great deal of bashing our President & the worn out talking points. Then add his astounding lack of professional presentation, in the end much like Jindals attempt, woefully inept.
I swear, it was like he took a Romney speech and read it, no basis in reality.
And as far as the savior bit, I remember Republicans being snarky and calling Obama the messiah. How's your savior, tea party?
Rochester12: Mr. Rubio is doubling down on idiocy here. I think he's made the choice for full-bore stupid.
Okay. Every Democratic candidate needs to take Boehner and Rubio's words. They need to show them on the television at every opportunity. They need to have that dramatic voiceover guy say something like "Republicans say they work for the little guy, but do they really?" And then some kind of dramatic red letters and a faded black and white portrait of their Republican opponent before a happy picture of the Democrat engaging with an average middle class family "I'm Democratic Candidate, and I approve this message."
Now that sounds like a great idea.
If you are trying to solidify your image as the party of rich businesspeople who loathe their workers, then Rubio is a superstar. But hey, it's just a messaging problem, right...
He sees millions of workers struggling because they make minimum wage. And his solution is not to increase the minimum wage, but eliminate it altogether.
I guess he figures some employers only offer the minimum wage because it's the least they can do by law, but if there were no law, they'd have to pay more?
Which is what stupid people think?
It's classic libertarianism. Eliminate the minimum wage law, and different businesses will be free to set their own rates - the free market will decide the winners and losers. If you don't like the wages set by company A, then get a job at company B.
If there was no minimum wage law, the companies would just get a bunch of oompa-loompa slaves.
Yeah, tried that a hundred years ago, they had the medical condition of being children.
He didn't take no steenkin' stand, he's just reading the script.
I'm shocked Sen. Rubio isn't more concerned about all those families in that working-class community he lives in.
I think he's missing the point. Minimum wage isn't about the middle class, it's about the lower class. You know, the people who actually have the minimum wage jobs and still can't make ends meet. The middle class would never be able to *stay* middle class if they had to live on minimum wage.
Oh for God's sake...OF COURSE he did. Now go read Gerson. 'They' think everything the President proposed was inconsequential. With no ideas of their own, they will waste time and media space opposing everything.
Lets face it republicans like Rubio are against anything that helps the middle class or the working poor. Against Social Security, against Medicare, against Medicaid, against a minimum wage, against unemployment comp, against health care. Far to many others to list here. They use their standard talking points. "the job creators" or "we have a spending problem" to hoodwink the vulnerable in general public. The only time they have a problem with spending or anything else for that matter is when a Democrat is President.
Don't do business with China, Mexico, or India unless/until they have minimum wage laws. Anti-slavery.
Absolutely! This would turn the economy around as well because of incentive to manufacture again in the United States. Our "leaders" are idiots.
I'm sorry, I just can't take anything that this rube has to say seriously. I had to think that when he gave the GOPers response to the State Of The Union delivered so perfectly by Obama that if this is the best the GOP has to offer, it is clear sailing on flat seas for the deomcratic party for many years to come.
This is the best you've got? God help you, but I don't think he likes you either
""I don't think a minimum wage law works," he said flatly." Flat is the right descriptor, as in flat earth thinking that minimum wage increases mean nothing. Currying favor has made him forget what an impact an extra 50 cents or a dollar an hour can make in someone's life!
We know whose pocket he's in, now don't we?
when you set the minimum wage on the federal level, you even the playing field for all businesses. by not supporting an increase in minimum wage the gop says they are helping people. really! your kidding, right! a couple of dollars an hour can help poor families live a better life. if your burger or donut and coffee cost 10 or 20 cents more so what. what will low wage businesses do if the minimum wage increases? they will do what they always do when any business expense goes up, they will raise their prices! does everyone out there realize that companies don't pay for anything, you the customer pays for every cent! if a business is paying for things out of their own pocket, they are just getting started, or are getting ready to go into bankrupsy. i thing the businesses and their lackeys, the gop want to go back to the days of the 'bossman'!if you want to tell me you are an american, and you want to own a business here, thats great. but don't tell me your a good american when you move thousands of jobs overseas; because in my opinion you are not!
A friend of mine's father owns a McD. They have .01 invested in a hamburger...meat, bun wrapper everything....01. They can't afford to put .02 into it and pay a livable wage ?????
Rubio takes a stand against a minimum wage
The title is precious.
I hope they never do away with responses to the President's SOTU. Everytime the teapubs have a new hope, he dies in his screwed up response. I love it.
I wonder if Rubio's parents agree with him or stuck this idea into his head? Did they come home bit--ing about the reason they were so poor was because of the minimum wage law? Did they see it as a chain that kept them at minimum wage or as a stepping stone to better wage and living opportunities? Does Rubio think that Employers will just gladly pay all thier starting employees above the minimum wage? Maybe he should talk to Wal-mart and fast food employees. If he wants to make the arguement that a mandated minimum wage law is one contributing factor of increased costs - i.e. product cost - then he has a logical point. But to say it doesn't outright work and that it should no longer exist will not reduce inflated costs - especially for housing - since people have already invested more money than this essential is worth and want their return. Denying people a starting point in wages to at least have a roof over their head is short-sighted and irresponsible. If Rubio wants to do away with the minimum wage law, then he will need govt. to step in and lower the cost on Everything so people can live on the penny a day big corps and less empathitic employers would pay thier employees. (A bit exaggerated - but no more so than Rubio's naive thought that employers would pay 9/hr starting wage without a law requiring them to do so).
WalMart has just had one of its worst months in memory. Ask them what happens when working people don't have money to spend. If the minimum wage went up, they would have to pay a bit more in wages to get a lot more in business. Most businesses like that idea.