Groundhog Day, the U.S. Senate and the Minimum Wage

by Mike Hall, Jan 22, 2007

What does the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day and the congressional debate about raising the minimum wage have in common?

Just like Murray relived the same day over and over again, lawmakers who oppose raising the minimum wage unless they add on billions of dollars in tax breaks to business interests make the same tired discredited arguments over and over again: “We’ve got to give businesses tax breaks because they’ll suffer mightily if we give minimum wage workers a raise.” (In fact, that tired canard just ain’t so—read more here.)

But we’re hearing that same old song today as the Senate begins its debate on a clean, House-passed bill (H.R. 2) that would increase the decade-old minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour. The bill, among the first passed in the new House, has no unnecessary amendments, such as the tax giveaways to business favored by some in the Senate.

The mostly Republican opponents who insist year after year—for 10 years now, in fact—that they can’t increase the minimum wage without adding business giveaways, plan to filibuster a clean bill. That means it will take 60 votes to end the debate and hold a vote on the clean minimum wage bill that won a huge bipartisan majority (315–116) in the House Jan. 10.

As a result, the cloture vote on the House bill, expected as early as Wednesday, likely will fail. The Senate will then turn to a minimum wage bill (S.2) that is loaded down with a package of business tax cuts. That bill was introduced by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and contains business tax breaks backed by the Bush administration, which opposes a clean minimum wage bill.

Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

There’s no good reason to lard the Senate minimum wage bill with yet another round of unwarranted tax breaks for business. In the last 10 years, the Republican-led Congress provided corporations with $276 billion in tax cuts and provided small businesses with another $36 billion in dedicated tax breaks.

Despite evidence from economists, recent studies and business owners that businesses aren’t hurt and jobs are not eliminated when minimum wages increase, Bush and his cronies continue to tie together tax giveaways to business and a long-overdue increase in the minimum wage.

According to the business group, Business Owners and Executives for a Higher Minimum Wage:

States that have raised their minimum wages above the inadequate $5.15 federal level have had better employment and small business trends than in other states….Minimum wage workers have less buying power than minimum wage workers had half century ago. We cannot build a strong 21st century economy on a 1950’s wage floor.

Last Friday, several business owners, joined by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chief sponsor of the House minimum wage bill and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who is leading the fight for a clean bill in the Senate, said it’s good business to increase the minimum wage.

Adnan Durrani, president of Condor Ventures in Stamford, Conn., and a venture partner in Blue Chip Venture Capital, says:

Congress should know the facts are very clear versus the misinformation that’s been spread over the years. It is a sound business decision to increase the minimum wage. It increases sales. It increases employment. I have found that without exception in successful ventures we’ve backed, providing sustainable living wages yielded direct increases in productivity, job satisfaction and brand loyalty from customers, all contributing to higher returns for investors and employers.

Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis, says those who claim raising the minimum wage hurts business:

Are flat out, full of it!…A minimum wage increase makes straightforward economic sense. It means more money in the hands of people who are going to spend it.

You can find out more about business owners who back a minimum wage raise here. The group is part of Let Justice Roll, a national partnership of more than 80 organizations working for a higher minimum wage.

Click here to tell your senators to support a clean minimum wage bill without any tax giveaways to business.

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