I’m a bit of a dichotomy on this. I wholeheartedly support a living wage. As an employer, it is my responsibility to pay people enough to live, and not the price I can take advantage of their labor.
This having been said, living wage legislation simply doesn’t work on an empirical basis. It has a negligible effect on the working poor, it restricts job growth, punishes small businesses who cannot afford the increase, and ultimately the costs are passed along to the consumer.
So when I see an effective tax cut wedded to an ineffective minimum wage increase, I really don’t mind all that much:
President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that he supports a Democratic proposal to increase the U.S. minimum wage but said it should be coupled with tax and regulatory relief for small businesses.
‘I believe we should do it in a way that does not punish the millions of small businesses that are creating most of the new jobs in our country,’ Bush told a news conference. ‘So, I support pairing it with targeted tax and regulatory relief to help these small businesses stay competitive and to help keep our economy growing.’
In fact, it’s the best of all worlds. Raise the minimum wage, lower taxes on small businesses, all parties (percievably) win.
Frankly, if you want to do the working poor a favor, eliminate their tax burden and offer low-interest educational microcredit for trade school or post-secondary education. At the state level, eliminate the property and sales tax and move towards a value added and income tax. But that’s way ahead of the game…