A moral disgrace: GOP Senators still trying to block increase in federal minimum wage

Just when I think I cannot be any more disgusted with the Republican minority in the Senate (or the Republican party in general), they go and pull a stunt so pathetically unbelievable that they succeed in reaching a new low in public policymaking. Just what exactly am I talking about? The new Democratic majority in the Senate made good on one of their high-profile campaign pledges and put forward legislation to increase the federal minimum wage for the firat time in almost a decade. Of course, this doesn’t really represent any sort of meaningful “pay raise” for these workers: these workers would make only $4,200 more a year before taxes if the minimum wage was raised to $7.25. And as most readers of this blog are hopefully aware, there is a little concept in economics called “inflation” which, over time, eats up the purchasing power of a worker’s salary unless it is periodically raised. And due to inflation, in the more than eight years since Congress passed the last increase, the buying power of the minimum wage has eroded over 17% since 1997.

The Democrats have suggested raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. Let’s put this into some context. As the Economic Policy Institute notes in a recent brief, a full-time minimum wage worker (40 hours/week, 52 weeks/year) would earn $10,712 a year, falling nearly 40% below the $17,170 poverty level for a family of three. Additionally, “the minimum wage is at its lowest real value in over 50 years and has not been raised since 1997. This is the longest stretch of federal inaction since the minimum wage was first instated in 1938. As the basic income required to support a family has grown with inflation, the minimum wage has not kept pace with the rising costs of goods. As a result, federal inaction leaves minimum wage workers in an increasingly dire situation.”

So what has been the reaction from the Senate Republicans to the Democrats’ efforts to raise the federal minimum wage to take into account inflation? Well, as the AFL-CIO blog notes, first 43 Republican Senators voted to kill a clean minimum wage bill with no tax giveaways to business on January 24th, insisting any raise in the minimum wage contain tax giveaways for small businesses.

Such a stunt is completely unnecessary, as independent analysis has demonstrated that small businesses actually benefit from small increases in the minimum wage. Also, keep in mind that businesses have received tens of billions of dollars in tax cuts under the George W. Bush administration and the previously GOP-controlled Congress. On both efficiency and equity grounds, the minimum wage should be increased with no strings attached. In other words, there is no reason for Republicans to work against the Democrats’ “clean” version of the bill passed on the 10th.

If only that were the worst news. As the AFL-CIO reports, 28 Republican Senators actually voted “yes” on an amendment from Wayne Allard (R-CO) that would completely eliminate the federal minimum wage. You read that correctly, these Senators voted to lower the minimum wage to nothing.

While they’re at it, why don’t these Senators go all the way and vote to outlaw unionization, OSHA laws, anti-sweatshop legislation and laws preventing child labor. Does Allard believe government should completely get out of the way of regulating business, and allow corporate America to bend their workers over a barrel and figuratively rape them repeatedly?Does he have such confidence in the free market and pure, unbridled capitalism that he believes that management will look out for their workers’ best interest, even if it cuts down on their productivity and profit margins?

The whole thing is so nauseating that I would go so far as to say these 28 Senators are anti-American and anti-worker. They may be sheltered from the realities of working two full-time jobs just to get by (after all, they make $165,000 a year and give themselves a pay raise almost every year), but their lack of compassion and common sense is truly breathtaking.

Finally, not only do I support the necessity of passing legislation increasing the federal minimum wage without additional, and unnecessary tax breaks for business, but I also strongly support indexing the minimum wage to inflation to ensure the wages of workers rises to adjust for cost of living increases.