Romney Is Right About Automatic Increases Of The Minimum Wage

On Friday, Rush Limbaugh railed against Mitt Romney's comments of the previous day, where Romney said he would support an automatic annual increase of the minimum wage; indexed by changes in the cost of living. Rush even went so far as to say that Mitt's position was "not conservative".

Even though I detest the minimum wage because I think it hurts businesses and actually raises unemployment, I have to agree with Mitt on this one. I think Rush is ignoring reality by being so blinded by his strong conservative ideology. The fact is that the Federal minimum wage will never go away. So, what you want to do is minimize its impact on businesses. The trouble with the minimum wage lies in the fact that, when Republicans are in power, they hardly ever vote to increase the minimum wage. Then, when the Democrats take over, raising it becomes one of their first priorities. And, they don't just raise it incrementally in small amounts. Instead, they play catchup on all the years that the Republicans neglected it. So, as a consequence, businesses are hit with massive wage hikes. For example, in 2007, the Democrats decided to up the minimum wage for the first time in years. As usual, they wanted to make up for all the lost years. As a result, businesses were hit with 3 increases in just two years with the final total being a hike of a whopping 41%; going from $5.15 an hour to $7.25. For a company of just 10 workers, that increase was equal to the 2007 pay of 4.1 additional workers. What's worse is the fact that two of those increases came at the height of the recession. It is no wonder that unemployment soared in 2008 and 2009!

In my opinion, any businessman would prefer to count on small annual increases in theminimum wage over time rather than be bludgeoned to death with massive and infrequent payroll hikes. And, I think most conservatives would agree after hearing the facts. Romney's position is better for business and that makes him a valid conservative.