The Federal minimum wage will rise to $7.25 per hour on July 24 – affecting businesses in 29 states.
Seven states already mandate a wage floor of $7.25 per hour and 14 other states, plus the District of Columbia, have higher minimum wage laws.
I know that arguing against a minimum wage increase for the convenience store industry may be unseemly – afterall, wouldn’t we rather be seen as a positive place to work with good wages and benefits? I know that many convenience store chains pay well above the legal minimum and benefit greatly with enthusiastic, more productive employees and lower than average turnover.
But, this month’s Federal minimum wage increase couldn’t come at a worse time for the country as a whole. It would be different if the job market wasn’t continuing to decay. At Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference a couple of months ago, Doug Anderson, senior vp, The Nielsen Company, pointed out that the recession to date has caused job losses in the U.S. that are the equivalent of every worker in the state of Ohio losing their job. To date, more than 6 million jobs have been lost in the U.S. In June, another 467,000 jobs were lost.
And so, Congress, in its finite wisdom, decides this is a good time to raise the minimum wage and put more pressure on businesses to not hire?
Although your company may already be paying its workers more than the Federally mandated minimum, the impact of this law going into negatively effect the entire economy – making the economic recovery murkier and more uncertain than ever.
Have our elected officials ever been more out of touch?
-- Don Longo
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