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Blowing Sunshine…

Calling it “a ray of economic sunshine”, Doug Chuck Sheketoff at Blue Oregon heralds Oregon’s impending minimum wage hike from $7.95 to $8.40, marveling over the fact that it will mean “an extra $936 a year for a family with one full-time minimum wage worker.”

As one person in the comments section of his post mentions, this is probably going to have consequences for  small employers who may have to cut hours (or even jobs) to continue to make the bottom line.

Almost comically, another commenter replies that, in order to offset the harm of the wage increase, business owners should… you know… just raise prices a little bit.

And the wheel goes ’round…

[EDIT 09/17]

Apologies to  Chuck Sheketoff for somehow mixing up his first name. Fixed now.

  1. […] few months ago, we covered the predictable cheerleading by progressive types over the then-impending minimum wage hike. Well, the raise in the minimum wage has come and gone […]

  2. Andy says:

    Damn that was a sick commend thread…

  3. Andy says:

    I made a post on this same time last year…can someone link it?

    Done
    -ed

  4. Vincent says:

    Kari: Gah. I have no idea where “Doug” came from. Fixed now. Thanks!

  5. Kari Chisholm says:

    And by “Doug”, you mean Chuck, of course.

  6. Chris says:

    So what is the answer? Income is already rising at a rate below inflation per year for many people. Prices are going up regardless of this wage hike as well. People cannot afford to get by in many situations and they’re doing everything ‘right’ according to what ‘good Americans’ should. That is, they work full-time, pay their taxes, contribute to the community…and are slowly getting punished over time by an economy that isn’t exactly forgiving for them.

    If the market is the answer, then this wage hike will have its consequences and the market will adjust. Your average worker, however, still won’t have the luxury of a government bail-out.

    Maybe if Americans could sacrifice more during a war, the Federal government would stop borrowing and spending faster than a democrat can raise taxes and spend, if people stopped buying the canard that current engine technology is maxed out (despite Asian producers proving that it’s not) and MPG increases cannot work, and so on and so forth…maybe if Republicans could govern more efficiently, traditionally conservative approaches might experience more support and/or success.

    I don’t know.

    I do know that a lot of people are fooked.

  7. EC says:

    Constantly bumping up the minimum wage is not the answer to trying to ride out an economic downturn. It’s been consistently shown that raising the minimum wage in recession leads to job losses and difficulty for those looking for jobs because firms can’t afford to pay them. In addition, the marginal effects of $936 a year is very small (not to negate an extra grand a year), but it will most likely get eaten up with price increases across the board due to increased costs for every local business.

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