I say yes, but it often makes me chuckle that South Dakotans consistently support Democrats ideas in the form of initiated measures at the ballot box, but vote for Republicans to represent them. Here’s a clue, SD Voter, if you like and support Democrats ideas, maybe you should vote them in office, just a hint;
The minimum wage hike will come before South Dakota voters next year if its proponents, the South Dakota Democratic Party and two labor unions, manage to get almost 16,000 signatures by November of this year.
Of course the SD Chamber of Commerce is against it, because you know, it’s ‘complicated’
Owen, the president and CEO of the state chamber, predicted his group would oppose the minimum wage increase.
“The higher you drive this up, the more you’re going to complicate people entering the workforce,†Owen said.
What complication? Forcing employers to pay a wage (which ironically) isn’t even close to a living wage.
I am of the opinion that higher wages only boost the economy, the more money (lower income) peeps make, the more they will spend, this of course only adds more profit for businesses, which means they can pay their workers more (or at least they should). It is unfortunate you have legislate greedy business owners.
But Zach Crago, the interim executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, predicted a minimum wage increase would help the economy.
“It’s common knowledge that people with more money in their pockets will spend that at businesses across South Dakota,†Crago said. “That’s money that will ripple through our economy and create opportunities for all people.â€
I also like the idea of tipped servers getting paid more ($4.25 per/hr) though I still think they should at least get $5 per/hr. Restaurant owners in SD and across the country have been very successful at making a lot of dough off of the backs of their poorly paid employees. The restaurant owners will of course argue that prices will have to go up if they have to pay servers more. Boloney. The fact is, what most restaurants will do is cut their service staff, which isn’t a bad thing. Servers will make more money, not just from their wages but in tips, but it also has it’s consequences, less service, but that is for the restaurant owners to decide.
I think it is wonderful if this gets on the ballot, and I think it will pass. Like I said at the beginning, Democratic ideas once again will be approved by the SD voters, while they continue to send loser Republicans to Pierre and DC.
Sioux Falls and Santa Fe are similar in many ways: why not advance it in the City, too?
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/213542/north/push-is-on-for-higher-minimum-wage.html
Absolutely!
The contradiction, which the South Dakota voter seems to practice, is a political calculus stemming from a fear by a substantial number of the state citizenry, who because of abortion and/or the “state income tax stigma” tend to shy away from Democratic candidates.
In the mean time, until the “Democratic White Knight” shows up, Democrats must continue with the initiative and referendum strategy if the Dems are going to have any relevancy in South Dakota politics.
I once took an economics course which outlined several key reasons why minimum wage levels shouldn’t exist at all… and although there were convincing arguments I’ll concede there are convincing arguments on both sides of this issue.
One thing we need to do is stop pretending that raising a minimum wage will only benefit low wage workers and the expense of employers… because it isn’t that simple.
I’d suggest reading this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2011/05/13/should-we-care-about-the-minimum-wage/
Here is one key excerpt: “that a ten percent increase in the minimum wage would reduce employment by 2.5 percent for white males between the ages of 16 and 24, 1.2 percent for Hispanic males between the ages of 16 and 24, and 6.5 percent for African American males between the ages of 16 and 24.”
This is why I don’t think it is as easy as saying if you pay people more, they will be more successful and they will spend more money. Any increase in wages can and will influence prices and you will see inflation adjust to compensate. The gains minimum wage workers experience will be minimal and short-lived, but more importantly it can and will prevent employers from hiring more people.
Perhaps in areas with low unemployment this isn’t a significant factor, but in areas of higher unemployment this can be devastating. Of course those who get raises will be better off for the most part, but those who can’t find jobs due to decreased demand are the ones who really suffer.
I’m not suggesting we should’t do this – I’m merely reminding people that the issue is much more complex than simply putting a bit more cash in the pockets of low income workers.
Also, I have to disagree with DL on one point here… I honestly don’t think a bill to raise the minimum raise would pass. I think we forget how conservative this state is, and those who believe the free market should dictate wages are never fans of such legislation.
Perhaps I’m wrong and it would be well received – I guess there is only one way to find out.
“and those who believe the free market should dictate wages are never fans of such legislation. ”
Funny, if the ‘free market’ was dictating the minimum wage in SD, I am sure many fast food joints would be paying $3 per hour, because gosh darn it, those teenagers need to have this job as a learning experience.
While I agree there is pros and cons to this argument, I do think if the voters approved this increase the pros outweigh the cons. Low wages are never good for the economic status of the workers, only for their employers bottom lines.
I like how employers like to say they pay “competitive wages”. What they really mean is they pay as bad as everyone else.
DL: “Funny, if the ‘free market’ was dictating the minimum wage in SD, I am sure many fast food joints would be paying $3 per hour”
I’d actually disagree with you there. First of all, they would be hard pressed to find any help – not to mention good help, for $3 an hour. Even high school kids would just opt out of the workforce, because by the time they drove across town with their own gas and paid for their own lunch, they would have already blown three or four hours of pay for a five hour shift.
Second, many if not most of our fast food joints in town already pay above minimum wage – because that is what it takes to attract workers. I saw a sign on one local franchise that said they were hiring PT workers at over $9 an hour… and if that is the case a minimum wage increase won’t help them.
Looking at retail, a store like Menards already pays several dollars above minimum wage, because again that is what it takes to get people to do the job. So in some respect, the free market has already determined the minimum wage is insufficient.
I suspect a raise in the minimum wage might help those in smaller towns where jobs are scarce, but in Sioux Falls where the unemployment rate is so low and where there are hundreds or thousands of choices for workers I don’t think you’ll see a noticeable difference.
Menards, whose policies include issuing anti-democratic propaganda, pays its employees subsistence wages while massaging its margins in under-served markets like Rapid City and Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
O’Fallon, Missouri has been passed over according to a local media outlet:
John Menard is one of the country’s richest white men contributing to earth haters like John Thune and Michele Bachmann while joining with Koch Industries in forcing primaries against those resisting its advances.
From Adele M. Stan at AlterNet:
Do 1 in 7 South Dakotans really need to be on food stamps? Raising the minimum wage could certainly help reduce some of those folks’ dependence on government assistance IMO.
Well Larry, I’m not about to defend environmental violations or their political viewpoints, but strictly from an hourly wage standpoint they still pay several dollars above minimum wage to start… and evening shifts, early morning shifts, and weekend shifts pay a shift premium.
I actually worked for Menards back in my college days, and not only was I paid well above minimum wage the very first day I walked in the door, but I also made more money than I had made at another retailer even after three years of employment.
Add to this that Menards paid bonuses to all employees based upon how well the store did, and they sent trinkets/gifts to every employee for almost every holiday that occurred including birthdays. It was a small thing… but more than most companies do these days and it was appreciated.
For department and store managers, the salaries were actually quite good – the store manager for the store I worked at was making a very, very good living (I won’t claim he was a wealthy man, but he did rather well for himself) – and almost all of the department managers were people who worked their way up from within which (in my view) is a sign the employer is treating them fairly.
I have to be honest with you – in terms of non-skilled labor working in a big box store, they were well above their peers. It is possible things have changed, but as far as I know Menards has always paid well above minimum wage… and that is sort of the point here.
Now as to their reliance upon cheap Chinese imports that result in American manufacturing taking a hit… well that is another subject for another day.
carhart605: “Do 1 in 7 South Dakotans really need to be on food stamps? Raising the minimum wage could certainly help reduce some of those folks’ dependence on government assistance IMO.”
Devil’s advocate for a minute here… but if what the study I cited earlier is true an raising the minimum wage actually results in a reduction in employment… you would actually be increasing the number of people relying upon government assistance.
Again – this issue is not as easy as assuming it would improve the standard of living for low-income workers. The issue is very complex.
And we all know that when things get complicated – SDn’s say NO. Because – we don’t want to have to THINK so much. Gimme that old time religiously prescribed manual labor – damn it. The DEVIL is at work with the mind – no idle hands allowed.
We can debate about the effect minimum wage laws have on employment forever, but there comes a point when public policy needs to dictate that if you want to do business then there is a cost to it, which includes a credible minimum wage.
We are not a poor nation and if people are going to oppose a reasonable increase in the minimum wage then you are not only illustrating a serious maldistribution of income mindset in this nation, but you are also advocating the elimination of the one chair the working poor have at the table of public policy concerning wages.
Minimum wage workers do not have bargaining means or rights nor union stewards to come to their aid, nor do they often have lawyer friends at their beckoning call. When you oppose reasonable increases in the minimum wage law you destroy the long term efficacy of the law itself, which is to protect the working poor.
On an other note, I cannot wait until next year when Gov. Daugaard is running for re-election and most likely opposes this initiative. Because it will be interesting to see how he explains how he is opposed to the increase because it could effect the number of jobs we could have in South Dakota, while at the same time he is known to run to malls in other states to try to get workers to come to South Dakota to fill the many jobs which are available in SD, and in many cases pay more than the minimum wage to begin with….. Oh I know, some will say that I am taking about two different classes of workers here, but I am really not, because in both cases the workers are not paid enough and that is why the SD minimum wage needs to be increased and why others do not want to move to SD to work…. A State with such a reality needs to start taking a good look at itself and its economic growth strategy….
There are posers who continue to have power in this state based on the false meme ‘lower wages create more jobs’. This is completely false. As someone who has had many employees over the years, works with employers with many employees, I have seen the quality of South Dakota sink in concert with economically poor citizens. We do not have the money in this state because we do not make the minimum wages in any job class.
Sure we have jobs here but they are just jobs. We do not have any infrastructure here to encourage corporate headquarters to be located here. We have an infrastructure here to encourage ‘temp’ jobs. You and your neighbor may work a 30 to 50 hour jobs but they are not likely a career based job. Oh yea, you may have a job now and think it is a career path but just wait. When a place like Sioux Falls / South Dakota brings in companies promising bottom of the barrel wages, these same companies know with the minimal investment made they can reap rewards and leave.
We as a state, from the days of statehood, have always doing everything on the cheap. Our current governor, by going to Minnesota to scam jobs is perpetuating the problem. State and city leadership since Janklow 1 administration have sold out the state by scraping the crumbs off the job creation tabletops.
The lower wage mentality will never encourage good paying corporate expansion to move here unless the ‘owners’ see a way to bigger short term profits. We end up with more big box stores processing credit cards payments for out of state banks, collecting only a pittance in property and sales taxes.
Go outside of Sioux Falls and see how the concentration of jobs in a few places like Sioux Falls has devastated the rest of the state. The state does nothing of importance to encourage start-ups. It is easier to make a public splash bringing in another big box than the work it takes to help a start-up. The help the state gives a local start-up is a joke.
People need to make a living and most want careers. South Dakota does nothing to encourage careers. A living / minimum wage is only a small price to pay to help the out of state owners of our state return something to the people. Lower wages do not create careers. This initiative is a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. We have ‘leadership’ in this state only interested in serving their out-of-state masters and until we have a two party government it will never change.
testor15
out-of-state masters, soon to also include out-of-country masters when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese.
The South Dakota Economic Development contingent and local city officials seem to wholeheartedly support this move. Obviously, they don’t want attention focused on China’s food safety record and their human rights issues.
A single mom working 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year making $9.40/hr still qualifies for food stamps and Medicad and is considered to be living in poverty by our government.
As has been stated, SD needs more jobs that are not just service jobs. 35 years ago a CEO I worked for stated that SD and the US will become a service oriented job market. Here we are.
Sioux Falls almost lost one of the big credit card processing centers in town when the Chinese bought them. South Dakota is expendable to all the world of business. We are just here to be the pawns of the puppet masters.
You get what you pay for. Cheap mindedness -> cheapening of life.
Target was going to move all of their call center operations here. In fact they had the land and space. Problem? Not only did they not have a ENOUGH people to hire, they didn’t have enough INTELLIGENT people to hire. We have an education problem in this state.
Education FUNDING problem – right back to being cheap.
Who ARE minimum wage workers?
http://www.upworthy.com/the-reality-of-who-actually-works-for-minimum-wage-will-shock-you-5?c=bl3
So I try to divorce myself from typical party politics when considering tough problems.
How about this: we stop setting tax rates for corporations based on our favorites (ie. green or dirty, union or nonunion, profitable non profitable, dem or repub, agriculture ) and we base it on the average wage of the managed portion of the companies workforce. Managed workforce being those not in the corporate or management entity of the company.
Simply put, tax companies on how much money it is hoarding or investing to build the company based on how much it pays it working class of that company. The objective will be to reward businesses via it’s willingness to improve it’s people. This model may not fit every industry but would cover the vast majority of business.
I am sure this will be thought as naive but the gap of rich and poor is widening faster and faster. We simply must start again with new ideas. We have to find a way to pay people fairly as well as encourage those who could work but don’t, to get a job. This would also encourage businesses to compete on a nationwide basis for wages and not just regionally.
A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work was an anomalous idea unique to the mid 20th century. It only occurred because of unionization. We call know the current status of unions in this country.