Secretary of Labor nominee Perez’s minimum-jobs agenda

Posted by hpayne on March 19, 2013

“Like so many Americans, Tom knows what it’s like to climb the ladder of opportunity,” said President  Obama Monday in introducing his new Secretary of labor, Thomas Perez.

By the looks of Perez’s Big Labor agenda, he seems determined to cut off the lower rungs of the ladder so few will follow him.

Obama praised Perez for his stint as  secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor from 2006-2009, where “he helped implement the country’s first statewide living-wage law, because he understood that a minimum wage should be a wage that you can live on.” In truth, fewer people in Maryland have any wage at all because minimum wage laws increase unemployment – especially among youth.

Maryland’s living wage law mandates government contractors pay $11.30 an hour -an amount well above the national $7.25 minimum wage. It has hit young workers especially hard. Youth unemployment in the state is over 20 percent, with black youth unemployment over 40 percent.

Minimum wage workers are primarily under age 25 – looking for a leg up into the job market. The higher the minimum, the fewer young people get crucial entry-level jobs. A study by West Point economist Dr. Joseph Sabia, found that with every 10 percent hike in a state’s minimum wage came a corresponding drop in teenage employment of 3.6 percent. Indeed, after Congress’s 40 percent, phased-in minimum wage hike to $7.25 kicked in 2009, unemployment jumped. Teen unemployment today is at its highestlevels since records were first kept in 1948 with only 25 percent of 16-19-year-olds working.

The Obama-Perez minimum wage agenda (they want the national minimum raised further to $9 an hour) is actually a sop to their Big Labor allies who covet higher minimum floors for collective bargaining talks.

Meanwhile, the lowest rung on the ladder up to the job market gets further away.

Comments are closed.