Minimum Wage Drumbeat Grows Louder

Beginning last April, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Michigan Capitol Confidential predicted that a minimum wage debate would likely take center stage in Michigan in 2014, and might even become a November ballot issue.

This appears to part of a nationwide political gambit that some speculate is intended to distract voters from Obamacare failures come November, among other issues.

Recently the New York Times' Web site carried an article titled, "Democrats turn to minimum wage as a 2014 strategy," that detailed plans to push "a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races." These types of initiatives are known to turn out voters at higher levels sympathetic to particular candidates.

Here in Michigan, the likely Democratic candidate for governor, Mark Schauer, who voted for Obamacare while in Congress, has already come out in favor of a higher minimum wage of $9.25 an hour.

The Mackinac Center has written extensively about the minimum wage. On balance, making it unlawful to employ a worker for less than an amount determined by politicians hurts more people than it helps. It tears away opportunities to advance from those with the fewest skills, and in some cases drives potential employers out of the country.

For more on this topic, see my Jan. 6 Viewpoint on Public Issues titled, "Minimum Wage, Minimum Employment."