Labor: The national battle to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour has created an image of poor, downtrodden workers only seeking their due. But in truth, it's a union scam.
We're all happy when struggling people make more money. That usually comes, however, by working hard, learning a job well and becoming an asset to your company or business, which then pays you more because you're worth it -- not because government forces your employer to raise your pay to a preset level.
And yet, it's hard to deny that for many people struggling to get by, the idea of an immediate raise is quite appealing. What they don't see are the hundreds of thousands of people who will lose their jobs if their employers have to raise their pay, not to mention the hundreds of thousands more will never get jobs, because the wage has been set too high for their education and training. That latter group includes many young people and minorities, who will suffer most from an extreme hike in the minimum wage.
But the worst part is the deception behind all of this, because much of the move to boost the minimum wage comes from unions -- not workers.
The Los Angeles Times recently described how Bill Martinez, a 53-year-old bellhop at the Sheraton Universal in Studio City, was thrilled when he heard the city council voted to raise the minimum wage at big hotels like the one he worked at. That would have boosted his hourly pay 71%.
Oops. The law in fact lets unionized hotels avoid the minimum. So even though Martinez pays $56.50 a month in dues to the union, he won't get the raise. "That's what really makes me mad," he said.
But non-unionized hotels will have to pay the higher wage. So unionized hotels will now have a cost advantage. In short, the unions used minimum wage workers to generate more business for themselves. Please remember that the next time you hear some union spokesperson blabbing about "the working man."
Nor is this an isolated case. In the national Fight for 15 movement, the Service Employees International Union has reportedly spent $70 million to raise the minimum wage. Why? They're losing members fast. But if they can raise the cost to others of employing workers, they stand a good chance of protecting their own members' jobs -- and the millions in union dues they rake in each year.
"When the public realizes both the extent of ... job losses and sees more clearly who wins and who loses from this policy, I suspect the union bosses who funded this fight will face a fierce backlash," wrote economic analyst Jeffrey Dorfman in a recent Forbes piece.
Americans should wake up. Many people will lose their jobs with a massive minimum wage hike. Unfortunately, union leaders won't be among them.
