Voice For Liberty

Who will watch for Kansas minimum wage victims?

Bob Weeks

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Oops, there’s a mistake below. I’ve just been told the higher wage doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2010. So if this law is such a good deal for Kansas, I wonder what’s the reason for the delay until it takes effect?

Today, the new Kansas minimum wage law takes effect. It’s likely that as employers are required to pay their workers more, some will lose their job.

So now minimum wage supporters have a duty to perform. They need to watch for people who may lose their job and for companies that may close due to this law’s effect.

It could be the case that everyone in Kansas is already paid more than the new, higher minimum wage. If so, we wouldn’t expect to see any job loss. But if this is the case, why need for the law?

Higher minimum wage advocates need to be on the watch for workers who lose their jobs because of the effects of a law they agitated for. They are responsible for the plight of those who lose their job.

These unfortunate workers, unfortunate first because they don’t have skills that allow them fill jobs that pay good wages; unfortunate again in their role as sacrificial lambs for those who see social injustice through the fog of social liberalism; unfortunate again to lose their jobs during a recession — what are they to do?

Will the newspaper editorialists who supported the minimum wage seek out these people?

Will newspaper and television reporters feature their stories? It’s easy for reporters to find the workers who will be paid more when the new wage takes effect. Finding the newly jobless is more difficult. But their story is more important.

The unions who supported the higher minimum wage: will they help the newly jobless?

Hopefully no one will lose their job and no firms will close because of the Kansas minimum wage law. This is not likely, and finding the victims of the law will not be easy.

More background is at Kansas minimum wage and Kansas minimum wage at issue again. A collection of articles on this topic is at minimum wage.

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Comments

8 responses to “Who will watch for Kansas minimum wage victims?”

  1. Anonymous

    It doesn’t go into effect until January 2010….

  2. Anonymous

    Don’t they have prisons, don’t they have orphanages?
    How dare these masses of inequality ask for more; how can they have any pudding if they don’t eat their meat.
    These liberals just don’t know when to leave well enough alone!

  3. Cybex

    Most businesses are already paying above the minimum wage so no reason to panic. Some staff at restaurants do make below the minimum wage and make the rest on tips, again no reason to panic. A little inflation, yes!

  4. LonnythePlumber

    The unions have started five new jobless programs and are continuing to support the existing programs at the food banks, United Way and others. We don’t limit our help to just union members.
    You have been using the $2.65 an hour employees as sacrifices for business. Requiring them to also be supported by government assistance programs. You may consider respect and fairness in wages as liberalism in your hate for the lower income brackets but they are humans that don’t need to be sacrificed to prosperous Americans.

  5. Bob Weeks

    Lonny, I don’t know who you’re referring to when you talk about hating lower income people.

    The simple fact is that as the price of these people’s labor is increased, the demand for it will fall, and less workers will be demanded. It’s the same effect that unions have. Unions raise the wage for workers, at least for those who still have a job. But because labor is more expensive than firms are willing to pay for otherwise, they demand less of it. So there are fewer workers.

    If calling attention to simple economic facts is hateful, then so be it. To gloss over the harmful effects of the minimum wage seems to me to be hateful. Who speaks for the least productive workers, who can’t produce enough with their labor to justify the new required wage?

    If we’re really concerned about the long-term prospect of low-wage workers, there are two things we can do: let firms raise and retain more capital, and improve the education system. But liberals and the teachers unions stand in the way of both.

    By the way: does anyone know any workers who earn the old Kansas minimum wage, or anything near it? Senator Dick Kelsey asked minimum wage supporters to introduce him to one, but none could be found.

  6. kimpot54

    Hate for those in lower income brackets? Typical of liberals to try to make this personal. Lonnytheplumber, I don’t know how much regular contact you have with those living in poverty, but their plight is usually a result of the poor decisions they’ve made in the past and continue to make in the present and future. I have family members who’ve lived their lives this way, and I’ve watched them take every opportunity this country has to offer and turn it into crap. A virtually free public education? They were too lazy to finish school, and now they complain about not being able to find a decent job. Not having enough money to buy the things everyone else buys? Well, maybe if they’d finished school (better wages) and refrained from having children they couldn’t support, they would be able to buy more of what they want. Not having a decent place to live? Well, I have personal experience with this as a landlord. Some long-term tenants of ours with 5 children they could not adequately support (and all the issues I mentioned above) abruptly vacated one of our properties. I recall when the father came to pay the rent the first time, right before moving in. He told me how grateful they were for the opportunity to live in such a nice house. When my husband and I entered that property, there were 10 broken windows–no, not cracked, but completely broken out. The flies and gnats were thick, and the kitchen walls were so crud and food caked that the gnats were feeding on them as if they were a piece of fruit. This guy was the first one to complain about not making enough money to support his family, and yet he and his wife had so little regard for their own property that they left useful stuff they had purchased behind, AND destroyed what my husband and I owned, even though we had made countless arrangements for them to pay their rent late, just so they would have a roof over their heads. (This guy made between $11 and $12 per hour making deliveries.) Now aren’t you sorry you got me started?

  7. Anonymous

    In regard to Kimpot54, it seems that responsibility, discipline, respect, and even hard work, are shunned by an overwhelming number of people. It always seemed to me that individuals who are on the public dole have to work even harder to stay there than they would have to work if they had a job to go to each day. Too many people want equal outcomes and not equal opportunity. Let us help the physically and mentally disabled who are truly in need of assistance.

  8. craig

    Lonnie the plumber you are terribly confused any $2.65 per hour waitress that doesn’t make $10 per hour in tips needs to find a new line of work.
    Anonymous The sad thing is that most truly disabled people would and do anything to earn a living. In the past 3 years I have lost 5 employees to SSDI. One day they are able to work (yes they have had problems with drugs or alcohol) the next day COMCARE has them on Social Security Disability. And why would they ever want to work again, free rent, free health insurance, free utilities, vision card. I work 70 hours a week to provide my family with these luxuries.

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