$15 minimum wage will not help workers

Mar 6, 2014, 2:11 PM | Updated: 2:51 pm

I feel sorry for all the people who think this is going to change their life when indeed it's going to have the exact opposite effect of what they envision, it's going to enslave them. (AP Photo/file)

(AP Photo/file)

Taken from Thursday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

There was a big rally Wednesday night for the $15 minimum wage in Seattle. I am hearing so much idiocy and hypocrisy in this minimum wage argument. The people behind this are not for the workers.

A big part of this story that is under-reported is that for any businesses to survive with a 50-plus percent jump in their labor cost, they have to increase the price of what they sell.

First of all, if you raise the prices to where it’s too expensive for people, they stop buying. Number two, the most insidious tax on all of us is inflation. Now, because of these people who want to raise the minimum wage, all of a sudden, the price of everything goes up.

If everything in life gets more expensive because you’re screwing around with the free market, then these workers are not ahead of the game.

You don’t think landlords are going to make rent more expensive if everybody’s making $15 an hour in Seattle? You don’t think the price of burgers and pizza is going to go up? The cost at every Subway sandwich shop? Then what happens to all these workers with all these extra dollars? Well all the extra dollars get eaten up.

Here’s what an opponent of the $15 minimum wage had to say at the rally:

“Yes, I’m for paying people more, who the hell isn’t? But if it’s going to cost me my job, oh hell no.”

It’s going to cost, by the congressional budget office’s estimate, 500,000 jobs nationwide if we increase the minimum wage at the federal level to just $10.10 an hour.

Here’s a Safeway employee speaking at the rally explaining why she wants a higher minimum wage:

“It would be easier to pay bills, feed the family, put a little away for the future. Plus, it would take away the stress that comes with living from check to check.”

You’re going to be able to put money in the bank, really? But you’re paying more for everything. Your rent is going to go up, and a lot of jobs are going to disappear.

One man on TV Wednesday night said he’s worked at Burger King for 8 years. He said $15 an hour will change my life.

No. You know what will change your life? To acquire job skills that make you marketable to more owners of businesses besides just Burger King. That is something you have control over.

I feel sorry for all the people who think this is going to change their life when indeed it’s going to have the exact opposite effect of what they envision, it’s going to enslave them.

Taken from Thursday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.