In an article by reporter John Quinn, our local paper headlines the news: "Minimum wage hike gets mixed reactions".
Unfortunately, the "mixed" part is perfectly summed up in the article's first paragraph:
No "struggling workers" making the minimum wage were actually interviewed for the article, and no business owner interviewed seemed to be paying minimum wage.
They did interview a couple of politicians, though. Here's one:
To put it kindly, deeming people making the minimum wage "some of our most valuable workers" shows that economics is—literally—the furthest thing from Senator Fuller-Clark's mind. I'm sure minimum wage workers are nice people, but … no, as workers, they are not that valuable, in any sense that might be meaningful to an employer. For businesses looking to their bottom lines, they will be the first to be let go, or to have their hours cut back.
And there will be a number of low-skilled would-be workers who'll never get hired at all.
And the compassionate Senator Fuller-Clark will not be around to be interviewed for that, and in the unlikely case that ace reporter John Quinn does the story, it will almost certainly not occur to him to seek her out.
And as far as "leveling the playing field with the rest of New England", here's the reported unemployment rates for the relevant states:
| New Hampshire | 4.0% |
| Vermont | 4.7% |
| Massachusetts | 5.2% |
| Maine | 5.3% |
| Connecticut | 5.4% |
| Rhode Island | 7.5% |
Anyone want to guess how long it will take for this playing field to be leveled as well?
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