Democrats risk messing up a state’s economy under the guise of being compassionate legislators who care for the “little guy”.
An Alaskan State legislator, Democrat Les Gara D-Anchorage, proposed an increase in the state’s minimum wage, saying It would “provide something closer to a living wage for the lowest-paid workers for the next tier’’. Who does he think he is fooling besides those lowest-paid workers? Here’s what happens:
We’ll call the lowest-paid workers, “Tier One”. OK, they get a raise and for at least a few minutes they are happier as they now get more money than before. But when the workers on “Tier Two” (and Three, and Four, and… ) find out that they are doing more responsible work than those on the Tier below them, but now make little or zero dollars more, they file a grievance for an increase in their pay. Causing ripple a ripple effect, up the chain it goes getting all levels a comparable increase over the Tier One workers.
In the meantime, because of the additional outlay of wages due to the minimum wage increase, plant management has increased the prices of all the products made by the workers in all Tiers to compensate for the new and higher pay rates.
Other businesses that have to buy those products will now have to pay more for them and that increases the level of the prices they will now have to charge for what they produce.
Going back to that “Tier One” worker mentioned above who started this whole “ring-around-the mulberry bush” and upward pay increases, he has seen increases in all the products he has to buy for everyday living, so the pay raise he got is being wiped out with all the product price increases. And guess what? He is back to where he was before the pay increase and he once again tells his Democrat representative that he needs a pay increase to “provide him something closer to a living wage.” Sound familiar?
And that Alaskan Democrat legislator that started all this “dog chasing its tail” scenario has to once again start all over. It shouldn’t be necessary as that “Tier One” worker knows that as soon as there’s an opening in Tier Two he will probably move up and get his pay raise that way. That way it doesn’t create any ripple upward effect as the companies pay roll remains the same and their product prices can remain the same. It’s called natural progression.
As one of the smarter worker representatives, a Republican Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, says, “The minimum wage was never intended to be a living wage but was geared more toward filling entry-level training-type jobs with high school and college students.” It works as a training and educational tool by paying a smaller compensation for work less demanding and without many responsibilities. It gets an employee, new to the workforce, a chance to learn how industry moves and how workers fit in doing various jobs of varying degrees of difficulty and skill. It prepares and trains those new employees to be able to take on newer jobs requiring more skill and responsibility, thus moving up the pay scale ladder.
Meanwhile it provides industry management with a labor pool of less skilled, less trained and less educated employees doing less important jobs that are also essential to the production of the company, while providing paid, entry level employment to unqualified workers with training opportunities for meaningful upper tier jobs.
It is a system that worked well for America’s industries until overly ambitious union bosses and their Democratic political comrades began to take advantage of the younger and less experienced workers and used them to gain new votes and support within the labor framework of the industry.
Those young, new workers never did gain anything from all this hustle, and it was never the intention of their hustlers, the union bosses and politicians, that they would, but they remembered that it was their Democratic representative that got them an increase in their minimum wage; for a very short time. So guess who they will vote for next time: the politician that got them a short-lived pay increase causing an inflationary ripple, or the one who tried to hold down costs so product prices weren’t increased affecting everyone?
You don’t need to be a rocket-scientist to answer that question. Tier-ones can.
The way this country is headed these days, minimum wage attempts should be given serious thoughts before submission as more could be lost than just a wage increase.
Note: The minimum wage bill was killed in Committee on a tie vote of the Alaska legislature per Anchorage Daily News, Anne Sutton of AP, on Feb. 25, 2007.
Gerald A. “Jerry” McConnell, 92, of Hampton, died Sunday, February 19, 2017, at the Merrimack Valley Hospice House in Haverhill, Mass., surrounded by his loved ones. He was born May 27, 1924 in Altoona, Pa., the fifth son of the late John E. and Grace (Fletcher) McConnell.
Jerry served ten years with the US Marine Corps and participated in the landing against Japanese Army on Guadalcanal and another ten years with the US Air Force. After moving to Hampton in 1957 he started his community activities serving in many capacities.
He shared 72 years of marriage with his wife Betty P. (Hamilton) McConnell. In addition to his wife, family members include nieces and nephews.
