Murkowski's minimum wage stance will hurt everyone over time

Frontiersman editorial board

In a move touted to protect small businesses, food and retail operations, Gov. Frank Murkowski recently signed HB 199, repealing an automatic raise in minimum wage based upon the CPI or Consumer Price Index.

In a press release, Murkowski was quoted saying, "We are concerned with the long-term effects an automatic adjustment could have on smaller employers, such as those in fisheries, tourism, food service and retail stores. The result would likely be fewer entry-level jobs in these areas, and less ability for small, local companies to expand and create new economic and employment opportunities."

Voters are well-advised to use caution when approaching politicians using words like, "likely." It suggests a confident guess, and lawmaking, particularly when it so directly effects people, should always be based on what lawmakers know -- not what they think is likely.

Apparently, the governor did not familiarize himself with Alaska's minimum wage law before signing the bill. The governor's concern for the small businesses he mentioned is largely unnecessary, since the state's minimum wage law already includes many protections for those businesses. The minimum wage requirement does not apply to "agricultural workers; fishing industry workers; hand shrimp pickers; domestics; volunteers for nonprofit religions, charitable, cemetery or educational organizations; newspaper delivery persons; watchmen or caretakers of property that is not in use for four months or more; executive, administrative and professional employees; outside salespersons; workers searching for placer or hard rock materials; part-time workers under 18 years of age, working not more than 30 hours per week, houseparents at nonprofit educational or child care facilities; and taxi drives are also excluded."

That means most of those kids taking your order at the fast-food restaurant and a lot of other people working in the businesses Murkowski wants to protect are not required to make the minimum wage, anyway.

In the end, the people who will be hurt most by this are those who are working low-paying jobs in an effort to support a family. The repeal of the automatic wage increase will mean that those people will fall behind as the cost of living goes up, and that they'll have to rely upon legislative action to help them catch up again.

This bill will not be an improvement over the current law for most small businesses, but it will help to drive more people further into poverty over time. Any law that hurts the lowest wage earners in society puts a drag on the entire system. Any law that makes it harder for people to become self-sufficient is a law that hurts the community at large.