Let’s be honest about the minimum wage. It was a racist policy when Davis-Bacon was passed and it’s a vote buying scheme to attract white, suburban teenagers to the Democratic Party. Those promoting it do so with wanton disregard for people trying to get ahead. It hurts single mothers, African-Americans, legal immigrants, and the ambitious.
It’s a scheme to buy off white voters. Don’t take my word for it. Read this article on Think Progress (hardly a conservative periodical):
This split in support has a very distinct class character. Working class (non-college) Republicans supported the proposal by 58-40, while college-educated Republicans opposed it by 60-34. Similarly, low income Republicans (less than $30,000) supported raising the minimum wage by 68-31 while high income Republicans (over $75,000) opposed such a raise by 57-40.
Of course, even strenuous advocacy of raising the minimum wage will not suddenly persuade a majority of white working class Republicans to support progressive candidates. But even modest white working class defections would go a long way, even — or perhaps especially — in red states.
The modern policy promotion is (admittedly) a class warfare tactic. The fact that the promoters are able to fool the public about the results of this destructive policy makes it more insidious. It’s design (attract white voters by keeping low-income minorities unemployed) is aligned with the original intent of the policy.
The original intent of wage-fixing legislation is racism. Don’t take my word for it, read this article about how the Davis-Bacon Act was designed to keep African-Americans from southern states from competing for jobs in northern states:
The debate over Bacon’s bills betrayed the racial animus that motivated passage of the law. Representative John Cochran stated, “I have received numerous complaints in recent months about southern contractors employing low-paid colored mechanics getting work and bringing the employees from the South.” Representative Clayton Algood similarly complained, “That contractor has cheap colored labor that he transports, and he puts them in cabins, and it is labor of that sort that is in competition with white labor throughout the country.” Other derogatory comments were made about the use of “cheap labor,” “cheap, imported labor,” “transient labor,” and “unattached migratory workmen.” While supporters of the Act intended to disadvantage immigrant workers of all races, they were particularly concerned with inhibiting black employment.
Wage-fixing has horrific consequences for minorities by denying them access to the economic ladder. Don’t take my word for it, read what this African-American economist has to say about wage-fixing:
Inflation in the 1940s raised the pay of even unskilled workers above the minimum wage set in 1938. Economically, it was the same as if there were no minimum-wage law by the late 1940s.
In 1948 the unemployment rate of black 16-year-old and 17-year-old males was 9.4%. This was a fraction of what it would become in even the most prosperous years from 1958 on, as the minimum wage was raised repeatedly to keep up with inflation.
A survey of American economists found that 90% of them regarded minimum-wage laws as increasing the rate of unemployment among low-skilled workers. Inexperience is often the problem. Only about 2% of Americans over the age of 24 earned the minimum wage.
Advocates of minimum-wage laws usually base their support of such laws on their estimate of how much a worker “needs” in order to have “a living wage” — or on some other criterion that pays little or no attention to the worker’s skill level, experience or general productivity.
So it is hardly surprising that minimum-wage laws set wages that price many a young worker out of a job.
NO American should be denied the opportunity to work so that Democrats can buy the suburban, white vote. Stop screwing around with this Republicans and call it what it is — a racist scheme.