House Passes Minimum Wage Legislation with Exemption
House Passes Minimum Wage Legislation with Exemption
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on H.R. 2: The Fair Minimum Wage Act 2007. H.R. 2 would raise the minimum wage by $2.10 over 2 years without helping ease the burden this would have on our small businesses. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and employ a large percentage of our workforce. This legislation, if enacted without offsetting at least some of the costs to small business, will endanger the jobs of low-income workers and greatly slow the pace of our economy.
Since August of 2003, our economy has added more than 7 million new jobs, posted job gains for 39 straight months and attained a 4.5% unemployment rate. The backbone of this growth is small business. Stand alone minimum wage legislation would force small businesses across Texas and the nation to slow their pace of hiring and possibly lay-off workers. By some accounts, raising the minimum wage as a stand alone measure could result in the loss of up to 1.6 million minimum wage jobs (20% of this workforce).
I will consider supporting an increase in the minimum wage as long as there is assistance in the form of tax credits or Association Health Plans for small businesses. Only legislation that is fair to both workers and entrepreneurs will sustain our economic growth and ensure our nation remains the strongest economy among all industrialized nations. We should not allow stand alone minimum wage legislation to be enacted.
Another issue with the bill is a last minute exemption added for what appears to be purely political purposes. The bill's only exemption was American Samoa, whose largest employer, StarKist Tuna, is owned by Del Monte - a company based in Speaker Pelosi's San Francisco district. Starkist Tuna is the Pacific island's top employer and employees there earn an average of only $3.15 per hour.
I voted against H.R. 2 as it passed the House of Representatives 315-116.
http://www.conawayblog.com/?p=177#more-177