Senator Josh Hawley has jumped on the $15/hr minimum wage push, but in a different way than what Democrats are advocating:
The biggest corporations in America can afford to pay their workers $15 an hour. Raise the minimum wage for big business, not small business
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 23, 2021
DC EXAMINER – Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is putting his weight behind raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — but with a twist.
Unlike proposals from Democrats that would raise the minimum wage across the board over the next five years, Hawley’s proposed legislation would target only those companies with revenues in excess of $1 billion.
“For decades, the wages of everyday, working Americans have remained stagnate while monopoly corporations have consolidated industry after industry, securing record profits for CEOs and investment bankers,” the Missouri senator said in a statement. “Mega-corporations can afford to pay their workers $15 an hour, and it’s long past time they do so, but this should not come at the expense of small businesses already struggling to make it.”
The bill would also index the minimum wage to inflation after reaching $15 an hour in 2025.
The proposed legislation would operate in tandem with another bill Hawley intends to introduce — the Blue Collar Bonus. That bill would provide a tax credit to those who make less than the median hourly wage of $16.15 an hour, also indexed to inflation in the future. The credit would be “worth 50 percent of the difference between the median wage and the worker’s hourly wage rate.”
I don’t know how crazy I am about this proposal. For one it unfairly targets these ‘rich’ companies, which is what Democrats love to do. I’m sure he’ll get Democratic support for his bill because this is right up their alley.
But even more than that, wouldn’t the increased labor costs just get passed down to the consumer with an increase in prices? Just to give you an idea, Burger King made $21 billion in 2018. They would certainly fall into this category and the price of a delicious whopper would skyrocket, which could kill their business. Same with McDonalds.
I’m sorry, but this populist proposal from Hawley seems like a really bad idea and could have unfortunate and serious consequences to these business subject to it. So just on its face I’d be a big fat NO.