The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Minimum wage hike will prove to be expensive
It’s already started. Notice the increasing number of kiosks at restaurants and in stores?
Congratulations to the state’s minimum wage employees! What a victory! Good for you!
But do you really know what just happened?
On the surface it just sounds wonderful. Raises for all, some as much as $4 to $5 per hour, starting in October with the final increase to $15 in 2023. A living wage! Lawmakers are being hailed as heroes. Look what they have done for us! What everybody seems to have missed is what they have done to you.
Connecticut’s lawmakers have once again let down their citizens. Hoping to lower state assistance doles by raising the minimum wage and garnering additional money from increased taxes, they have chosen to push through legislation disguised as a living wage for quick gains, not a longterm solution to our state’s economic needs. Since our new governor has taken office we have received additional taxes on goods and services, we are about to get tolls back and now small businesses by the score may disappear with the $15 minimum wage requirement.
People in Connecticut who rely on state assistance for food, housing and medical services are going to find they are no longer eligible for some, if not all, of these services at $15 per hour. The estimated increase in annual pay of $10,000 puts minimum wages employees at income levels that exceed several benefit caps. How beneficial is the increase in the minimum wage to a living wage more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour going to seem when your housing and food assistance are cut off and you must pay for your own medical care? The previous minimum wage level allowed most individuals to qualify for and receive assistance. What you can’t do is have it both ways — if you receive a living wage, you have to pay for your living. Connecticut’s $15 minimum wage would put it at the highest in the nation.
Employers, some already taxburdened, will automatically acquire additional tax burdens. Others will soon be forced to pay tolls in addition to existing excessive fuel taxes to transport goods or provide services in Connecticut. All now must pay a $15 minimum wage to at times unskilled, untrained and firsttime workers. Some will be hardpressed to stay in business, let alone prosper and grow. Costs are going to increase across every board. Large companies with excessive overhead, unable to justify higher cost to the consumer, will have to lay off employees. It’s just this simple; I will not pay $12 for a Big Mac at McDonalds.
It’s already started. Notice the increasing number of kiosks at restaurants and in stores? Online ordering, free shipping, home delivery and pickup locations? It cost a lot less to run a warehouse as opposed to a store location. The only way this state will be able to attract any new companies at this point would be to offer tax relief, concessions and/or huge subsidies. Who would want to come otherwise? This will not grow our economy.
Above all the $15anhour minimum wage is a slap in the face of thousands of hardworking people who have spent time developing skills and working up to the newly defined living wage. Parttime minimum wages jobs are supposed to be just that, lowpaying minimumwage jobs where everybody starts. Just like public service was never meant to be a career, minimum wages were never meant to be a sole means of support.
Look what they have done to you. Congratulations.