On a day when it was announced the economy didn’t grow at all for the first quarter this year, liberal Senator Mark Udall and his fellow Democratic cronies thought the best use of their time would be to hold a vote on raising the minimum wage to $10.10. Udall just hopes no Coloradans pay close attention to the fine print.
The Congressional Budget Office earlier this year showed raising the minimum wage to $10.10/hour would result in the loss of 500,000 jobs. A recent Bloomberg News poll shows support for raising the minimum wage drops to just 34% when informed of this trade-off. Yet, as we all know, PeakNation™, raising the minimum wage was never truly about the poorest Coloradans, rather it’s a cash-grab for unions dressed up as a populist measure.
What should also come as no shocker, when asked by Quinnipiac about the most important issues for Colorado in this upcoming Senatorial election, not a single Coloradan said the minimum wage level. Of course, when you add on top of this the fact that among those who work a full-time, year-around job the poverty rate is a miniscule 2.9%, maybe Udall should listen to Coloradans’ #1 concern right now and focus on growing the economy. The more full-time, year-round jobs there are out there, the more people will be empowered to lift themselves above the poverty line.
As for those who keep on shrilling about the minimum wage at least staying up with inflation, we have to say they’re right, we completely concur. Let’s go back to the original minimum wage—a quarter per hour in 1938—and adjust for inflation; let’s set the minimum wage at $4.19.