1/7/08,
Cap on payday loans would hurt those most in need
Though well-intentioned, proposed legislation capping interest rates at 36 percent per year would kill the payday lending industry in Virginia. Ironically, this removes the best option above but leaves the others.
1/4/08,
Minimum wage is the wrong tool for social engineering
Misguided politicians and citizens in Ohio and elsewhere mandated wage increases because they mistake wages as a cause rather than the effect of the factors that lead to greater income. It is as though we could force winter to begin by defoliating trees. The connection is backward.
11/9/07,
Fantasy Economics
In a fantasy-football world, everyone is a billionaire and your team never needs to practice. In a fantasy-economics world, the disadvantaged and the poorly skilled can be made richer and happier with wage floors and employer mandates. Although fantasy football has no impact on real football, fantasy economics is often turned into legislation.
10/15/07,
Pols Play, You Pay
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California state legislature’s Democratic leadership are knee-deep in their “special session” on health-care reform. If the rhetoric coming from Sacramento’s bigwigs is any indication, they aren’t just scrambling to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic — they’re blowing holes in the ship’s hull in the absurd hope of getting the water to leak out faster.
7/6/07,
A Raise Won't End Poverty
The facts haven't kept two powerful New York state legislators from trotting out the old myth that a minimum wage increase is a much-needed helping hand for the state’s poor.
5/29/07,
The Deathly Living Wage
The living wage recently re-emerged on the national stage when Maryland became the first state in the nation to pass wage-level requirements on all state contractors. And before you could say "slippery slope," living-wage advocates nationwide were calling on their local lawmakers to act likewise.
4/28/07,
New Hampshire's minimum wage hike will damage the economy
Given the adverse effects minimum wage hikes have had on other states, New Hampshire’s sudden support is surprising to say the least. News reports nationwide confirm what economists have been telling us for decades: the minimum wage hurts low-skilled, low-income workers -- the very people it’s purported to help.
8/5/06,
Raising minimum wage would lead to more job cuts
The federal government's recently released June jobs report paints a disturbing picture of the labor market, suggesting that despite strong economic growth overall, the skills divide -- and therefore the wage gap -- is widening.
7/28/06,
Minimum wage hikes hurt low-skilled workers
Entry-level positions often represent the only employment opportunity for those with limited education or high school dropouts — at least initially. But to even get a foot in the door, basic skills such as reading, writing and simple arithmetic are crucial.
7/10/06,
Good intent hits sour note
Right now the nation's complex problem is helping struggling families better provide for themselves. The simple solution is to raise the minimum wage. Unfortunately, good intentions are often trumped by the unintended consequences that have historically followed minimum wage hikes.
4/25/06,
Employers shouldn't be health care scapegoats
There are presently as many as seven competing health care bills under consideration in the California state legislature. In a positive development, only one of those involves mandated employer-provided health coverage. The others all reflect a shift toward seeking a comprehensive statewide solution, rather than a stopgap one driven by political expediency.
4/16/06,
Raising minimum wage not the answer
Ohio will face a ballot initiative in November to raise the minimum wage to $6.85 an hour and then indexed to inflation thereafter. But if a company is forced to raise wages, it will also be forced to reduce hours or cut jobs altogether in order to maintain a profit margin (companies without profits will soon be employing nobody).
4/15/06,
Raising minimum wage not the answer
According to David Macpherson, a Florida State University economist, a wage increase in Ohio would lead to the loss of almost 12,000 entry-level jobs and the economy would take a $308 million hit.
3/9/06,
Minimum wage hike? Maximum problems
According to David Macpherson, a Florida State University economist, a wage increase in Pennsylvania would lead to the loss of more than 10,000 entry-level jobs and the economy would take a $350 million hit.
3/9/06,
Minimum wage hike? Maximum problems
Legislators have a great opportunity during a special hearing March 21 and 22 to work toward developing an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in the commonwealth.
5/11/05,
Minimum Wage Increase Hurts Low-Income Families
Those with the least skills won’t benefit from a minimum wage increase if they’re shut out of the workforce. Instead of pushing for a minimum wage hike, Wisconsin legislators should be forging policies to help the needy without costing them their jobs.
4/22/05,
Hiking minimum wage: Be careful with wish
As Gov. Rendell and state legislators consider a proposal for a $7 an hour minimum wage, they should also bear in mind Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's warning that such a move "prevents people who are at the early stages of their careers... from getting a foothold in the ladder of promotions."
4/12/05,
Minimum wage increase challenged
New Hampshire has a long tradition of marching to its own drummer. With so much at stake for the most vulnerable members of the state’s workforce, now isn’t the time for New Hampshire to start running with the herd.
4/6/05,
Wal-Mart bill would hurt low-skill, entry level workers
Frustrated by their inability to win key organizing battles, labor unions have turned their attention from the workplace to statehouses across the country. Their most recent target is the state of Maryland, where organized labor is pushing legislation mandating employer-paid health benefits they have been unable win at the negotiating table.
4/5/05,
Wage Hike Won't Work for Poor
Gov. Mitt Romney seems an unlikely candidate for Ted Kennedy's pinch hitter. Since the senator's efforts to raise the national minimum wage struck out in Congress, though, Romney has stepped into the batter's box to endorse proposals that would increase Massachusetts' minimum wage to more than 60 percent above the current federal rate with annual adjustments for inflation.
3/20/05,
Least-skilled workers lose with minimum-wage hike
Some lawmakers are hailing a proposed 39% increase in Pennsylvania’s minimum wage as a life preserver for employees struggling in a stormy economic sea. But Harrisburg’s minimum wage bill ensures that the thousands of low-skilled Pennsylvanians who need entry-level employment opportunities will find it even more difficult to stay afloat.
2/19/05,
Increasing minimum wage won't help jobless
Some lawmakers are hailing the proposed 36 percent increase in Minnesota's minimum wage as a life preserver for employees struggling in a stormy economic sea. But St. Paul's minimum wage bill ensures that the thousands of low-skilled Minnesotans who need entry-level employment opportunities will find it even more difficult to keep afloat.
2/18/05,
Raising minimum wage stands to hurt low-income workers
Yet that's exactly what the governor proposed. Falling back on policies forged in Depression-era America, Granholm called on legislators to increase Michigan's minimum wage by 39 percent. Lawmakers may still be promising a chicken in every pot, but raising the wage floor in today's economy will force many of Michigan's most vulnerable into the bread lines.
2/18/05,
Raising New Jersey's minimum wage is bad economic policy
Some lawmakers are hailing the proposed 39% increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage as a life preserver for employees struggling in a stormy economic sea. But Trenton’s “heroics” ensure that thousands of low-skilled New Jersey residents who need entry-level employment opportunities will find it even more difficult to stay afloat.
12/6/04,
Unintended Consequences
If it succeeds, New York's minimum wage will spike to nearly 39% over the federal rate by 2007. But instead of giving low-income New Yorkers an early Christmas gift, senators voting for the wage hike will be saddling them with a host of unintended consequences.
11/21/04,
Higher pay hurts prospects of people it claims to help
New Jersey appears set to raise its statewide minimum wage nearly 36 percent over the federal rate now that Senate President Richard J. Codey has become acting governor. Unfortunately, Trenton's pending wage law threatens the long-term economic prospects of the people it is intended to benefit.
10/27/04,
Free Lunch In Calif. Will Relegate Many to the Bread Lines
A ticking time bomb threatens to devastate the state of California. Powerful special interests watch impatiently as their plan nears fruition, while most everyone else goes about their business, unaware of the impending meltdown.
7/20/04,
Making More Pays Less
While the benefits of a minimum wage increase are not concentrated on low-income families, the costs certainly are
5/21/04,
Hurting poor in name of helping them
A minimum wage hike is wending its way through the Assembly, and it’s a whopper. There’s hope that sanity will prevail in Sacramento, as it did in March in New Hampshire, where legislators had the good sense to kill a similar effort. If it doesn’t, many low-skilled workers may not last at their jobs long enough to see their wages increase, or be able to find jobs at all.
10/30/03,
A truly rotten export
Governor Davis’ handiwork mandates that every California business with 20 or more full-time employees must provide employee health insurance. The cost, according to former UCLA professor Aaron Yelowitz, a nationally respected health and labor economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research, is a cool $11.4 billion a year.
9/1/03,
Minimum wage hikes cost the recipients
This Labor Day, America faces a profound choice over the fate of its low-skilled work force. We can follow a crowd of prominent Democrats including Howard Dean, John Kerry and Dick Gephardt, who are teaming up with Old Deal liberal warrior Sen. Edward Kennedy to promote an increase in the federal minimum wage by 29 percent. Or we can move forward on the path first established by President Bill Clinton when he bucked decades of Democratic Party tradition to sign the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
7/30/03,
High Minimum Wage States Home To Most 'Black Spots'
While state legislators may believe that they are helping the poorest residents in their states by passing these laws, in reality they are locking the least skilled workers out of the labor force.
7/11/03,
S.F. businesses, residents oppose minimum wage hike
Cars carrying workers to new jobs in Oakland will follow the large trucks carrying what’s left of the city’s beleaguered business community to the friendlier confines of neighboring cities. The exodus will result from Gonzalez’s ill-conceived plan to hike the minimum wage to $8.50.