D.C. Minimum Wage Hike: Liberals Feel Dandy, Low-Income Kids Get Hurt
Of course, they didn't quite put it that way.
As the Washington Post described it, the City Council "unanimously approved a plan to ratchet up the city’s hourly minimum wage to $15 on Tuesday, and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser pledged to sign the measure into law, likely lifting low-income pay rates in the District to among the highest in the nation within four years."
A prominent local labor leader, Jaime Contreras, vice president of the Service Employees International 32BJ, praised the Council and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for “pushing one of the nation’s highest minimum wages to help dig men and women out of poverty.”
Here is a news flash for Mr. Contreras: yes, the new minimum wage hike will definitely help a small number of workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 4.3 percent of hourly workers are paid at or below the minimum wage. Many of these, if their employers deem them worth the new minimum and keep them on, will benefit. But the new minimum wage will likely do long-term damage to far more people than it helps. In other words, it is a typical liberal cause celebre. Liberals feel dandy, poor people get hurt.