It Is My Opinion

The US House of Representatives today (Wed. 1/10/07) passed and sent to the Senate a bill to increase the minimum wage from the current $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr by a vote of 315-116. All Democrats and some Republicans voted in favor of the bill; the majority of Republicans voted against it.

Earlier the House defeated a Republican motion to send the bill back to committee for the purpose of amending it to exempt small businesses that provide health insurance to employees. This provision could have allowed the exemption even if minimal cost high deductible insurance was provided.

Admittedly this increase in minimum wage will cause some businesses, particularly restaurants and hotels, to pass along the increase to their customers. However, because only a few employees would be affected and only part of the cost of business is wage related, the increase should be small. And what is wrong with those who can afford to eat in restaurants and travel to hotels paying a small amount more so that the working poor will be able to have a significantly higher income?

See Robert Reich’s comments here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.