Chamber urges local business, industry to comply with new minimum wage
Eye-catching headline there, huh? Kind of akin to, Commonwealth’s attorney urges local residents to comply with murder laws. I wish I was making this up, of course.
“Despite these sobering statistics, Congress has not delayed the impending minimum wage increase. Thus, employers should comply with the new federal rate,” read a memo from the Greater Augusta Chamber of Commerce that was sent to members Thursday afternoon.
The “sobering statistics” were a look at how unemployment has doubled since the May 2007 passage of legislation raising the minimum wage from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour.
“The federal minimum wage increase comes amid an ongoing recession and disagreements among economists and political commentators about what effect, if any, the hike will have on the unemployment rate,” the Chamber memo reads. And yet we get nothing indicating the disagreements among economists and political commentators about the impact, if any. Just the one side of the story. That a minimum-wage increase is bad because the Chamber of Commerce says it’s bad.
This same Chamber of Commerce, supposedly a nonprofit barred from engaging in partisan political activity as a condition of maintaining its nonprofit status, has advocated partisan Republican positions on the Employee Free Choice Act and local conservative bloc partisan positions on proposed stormwater utility fees in Waynesboro.
There’s a reason why Augusta Free Press Publishing is not renewing its membership with the Chamber this year.
- Column by Chris Graham
A question has been raised regarding the nature of the political activity being engaged in by the Chamber here. I chose the words “partisan political activity” carefully above. The Chamber can certainly attempt to influence legislation affecting general business conditions. The local Chamber here has consistently been doing so on a pointedly partisan line, and as a Chamber member (now former Chamber member) we have not been polled as to our opinions on general or specific issues.
Also, and this is probably obvious, but the increase in the minimum wage is not legislation, but in fact law. I know of no pending legislation in Congress to reduce the minimum wage. So this was not advocacy, but simple politics, and not very well thought-out politics at that.
I also understand from hearing things through the grapevine today that there might be a question as to whether the Chamber board of directors approved the memo in question before it was sent to members.
In any case, there’s a clear question as to whether the minimum wage will be adverse to the general business interests. There is plenty of data out there to suggest that raising the minimum wage has a positive impact on the economy by giving working-class families more purchasing power, thus spurring demand for consumer goods.
At least we know where Republicans stand on improving the general business climate. They’re against raising the minimum wage, they’re against retraining workers who have lost their jobs for new jobs, they’re against health-care guarantees that take the burden for providing for health care from business and industry, and they’re all for sticking it to the little guy, who also happens to be the consumer driving the whole economic engine.
Talk about shortsighted. This is why our country has moved away from their failed economic policies.
What if you had been polled on various issues and the majority favored the present course? Would that change your mind about the chamber?
I’d at least feel like I wasn’t spending money for a relative few people to lobby against what I think are the best interests of the community.
Taxation without representation sucks.