This week, Republican Governor candidate, Bruce Rauner (of Winnetka) spoke out on the topic of minimum wage in Illinois. Currently the national minimun wage is $7.25/per hour but Illinois has a $8.25/per hour, a dollar increase. Rauner stated that Illinois should shed off a dollar to its hourly wage in order to, "be competitive here in Illinois". Rauner adds that this decrease in wage salary would create jobs and improve the economy, while minimum wage increase advocates believe this would end up with too many people in poverty from such a significant decrease in their pay.
The problem I see with Rauner is that he seems to view the whole situation as a game for Illinois to meet some type of criteria to be a more successful state. He states that Illinois needs to be, "competitive" but what does that actually mean? I understand he is talking in context of salaries but competitive could mean both working harder, working more efficiency, or what ever interpretation of "competitive" you can think of. The way I saw what Rauner was saying was the fact that he doesn't seem to care about what these families really have to deal with this proposed decrease and only seems to care about what Illinois looks like to both voters and other state leaders. This is an election year (2014) for Governor and Rauner definitely wants to sway voters to his side by saying that he wants to make Illinois a better State because, to the ear, that does sound like an appealing argument. The reasons using a word like competitive is so BAD is because it shows that he is looking at the state as a whole rather than the specific group of people to be affected; people working minimum wage jobs. What are the odds minimum wage will drastically increase the economy, job market and happiness? Its possible but its not the key to the US getting back on its feet and saving the day.
Living with less money is a huge problem for these families at risk of losing money via a minimum wage decrease. He neglects that these families of workers are losing around $2000 per year which is HUGE for people who live pay check to pay check supporting themselves or families . In the end, Is the competitive approach to minimum wage good or bad for Illinois?
*** A few years ago, a report at an Oregon Walmart showed that panhandlers outside of the store were making more money that the workers inside. This isn't really relevant but I found it fascinating in terms of minimum wage throughout the country in modern times.
2 comments:
Will nice job covering a host of issues this term though post total could be a little higher.
This post nicely addresses an important topic and links to an outside source, but it'd be nice to add some fire to your analysis. One way to do this is to relate this proposal to other issues -- the unprecedented disparity between rich and poor; the working poor and the living wage, e.g. Who would benefit from this proposal? You might also check out Daniel Goleman on wealth and empathy.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/rich-people-just-care-less/
Just figured out how to copy and paste with ipad
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