foolmenot.comThe Liberal, Progressive, etc., Democrat in me is wondering why these business owners (article below) feel they have the moral authority to complain about a minimum wage hike… Obviously they don’t care about teenagers making a decent wage to support their families. Obviously they don’t care about teachers throughout the state who depend on a hike in the minimum wage so they can demand what they call an appropriate differential during contract negotiations. Thank God that Democrats were able to successfully pressure the Republican Legislature to get this passed!
You go Jennifer!
Full article follows…
Business leaders decry action to raise minimum
wage
PUBLISHED: March 11, 2006
Jim Sage, owner of the Sajo's restaurants in Roseville and Clinton Township, said the higher wages would cost him more than $20,000 a year. Of Sage's 92 employees, 60 are paid the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. Boosting his wages by 44 percent over the next two years, he said, is "too big of a hit" and will dictate price increases on his menu.
"I think it's devastating," Sage said. "We would have to raise prices and it's not just us. It's McDonald's and Wendy's and Denny's -- at all these places."
Republicans who control the Legislature have fought minimum wage hikes for years but Thursday the Senate unanimously approved a plan to boost the minimum wage to $6.95 an hour on Oct. 1, $7.15 on July 1, 2007, and $7.40 on July 1, 2008. If, as expected, the state House follows suit, Michigan would soon have one of the highest minimum wage rates in the nation.
Some local business leaders questioned the surprising turn of events in Lansing, asking why legislators are dictating pay mandates to small business owners.
"In these economic times, with the state suffering ... they should let the market decide what wages are set at," said Grace Shore, president of the Central Macomb County Chamber of Commerce. "This is not government's job."
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema said that raising the minimum wage after nine years at $5.15 an hour was "the right thing to do." Political observers say that the GOP-controlled Senate was trying to defuse a Democrat-backed petition drive to raise the minimum wage to $6.85 an hour and require annual cost-of-living increases.
That proposal, targeted for the November statewide ballot, would enshrine the minimum wage in the state Constitution.
Shore said she believes the Republicans calculated that the ballot proposal would boost Democratic turnout in November and hurt the GOP's chances of electing their candidate, Dick DeVos, as governor. A DeVos defeat, in turn, would be a setback for the pro-business agenda in Lansing.
"That's what I hope is happening here, but they're doing this on the backs of small business people," Shore said. "Politics is being played out and it's being done on the backs of business."
A leading opponent of a minimum wage hike, the Michigan Restaurant Association, said the Senate plan would reduce jobs but it's still preferable to a constitutionally protected pay scale.
"Michigan's Constitution was never intended to guarantee automatic annual pay raises to a select group of people -- not to minimum wage workers, not to lawyers or teachers or lobbyists or politicians," the association said in a statement.
Melanie Davis, president of the Macomb Chamber of Commerce, said many in the business community fear that the alternative, the constitutional amendment, would be more damaging than the Senate plan.
But Davis expressed concern that the $7.40 hourly wage could lead to layoffs and price hikes.
"What is business going to do? People say that higher wages will improve the economy, the buying power of these people. But businesses will pass those costs on and those same people will pay more," said Davis, whose chamber represents 600 businesses across the county. "So, it's not having the impact you want it to have. What have you gained?"
About 90,000 of Michigan's 2.9 million workers -- approximately 3 percent -- were paid the minimum wage in 2004.
Sage said he worries that the minimum wage hike would have a "ripple effect" at his business and many others. Higher-ranking employees who earn more than the minimum wage would demand raises once their co-workers in entry-level jobs reached $7.40 an hour.
But Sage said he's determined not to cut his work force, even if he has to absorb some of the costs of a higher pay scale.
"I won't sacrifice service or quality by reducing staff," he said. "I'd rather take the money out of my pocket, out of the bottom line."