Pritzkers Minimum Wage Falacy
People need to be pad a living wage. The concept of a livable wage differs from location to location. State borders do play into minimum wage discussions.
JB Pritzker states that the minimum wage needs to be increased nationally. Sounds like a good idea. But is it?
Pritzker must not like that four of the five states bordering Illinois have the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Personal experience in three areas along the border, more economic happenings are on the Iowa side comparing the quad cities, Clinton, IA -Fulton, IL, and Dubuque, IA, - East Dubuque Illinois. I have also known that in the I-80 trek by Chicago and Western Indiana, that there seems to be much more commercial happenings with the exception of Gary Indiana which has other tremendous problems. St Louis MO is stronger than the East St Louis/ Alton Illinois area.
Also adding to the problem is gasoline in surrounding states average according to gasbuddy.com upwards a dollar a gallon less. Comparing all border state areas.
Looking at Pritzker’s Illinois situation he wants to force the minimum for all to be bloated like that of Illinois, Missouri, DC, et. al. Why should gas be a dollar a gallon higher in Illinois? Why is the dollar so devalued in Illinois, New York City and state, Washington DC that this floor needs to be raised? Especially when it is said a smaller amount of the population actually earns the minimum wage.
Gasoline is an obvious one. Illinois not only charges a road gas tax on gasoline, it also charges a percentage based sales tax on each gallon of gas. The higher the gas rice is, the higher Illinois gas price. If gas goes down significantly, that percentage based sales tax raises less revenue. There are moderate changes in driving with higher gas prices, but not that much.
Another look at the minimum age not keeping up is inflation, but government taxation hits those wages hard because there is no guarantee of a government service from the taxes. If a kid wants to get a job after school or for the summer and makes minimum wage said kid will be less likely to have an income tax liability that if said kid make $7.25 ab hour that if he makes $15.00 per hour. If the minimum wage is $15.00 per hour that job may be reduced hours or non-existent.
One example of minimum wage earners are custodial parents who when the kids get t a certain age want to start getting back into the workforce. They may start at a minimum wage job in fast food, get what ever pay raises come but then cross over to another type of industry such as banking or transportation doing customer service. The minimum wage is transitory during the job growth process.
Raising the minimum wage can cause job deserts as many types of jobs can be moved to lower paid location or replaced by the ever bugger of technological advances.
For the custodial parent who goes back to work, it is well possible that a minimum wage with the addition of the spouses income drive the family to a higher tax bracket nullifying the benefits derived by the lower income. Representative Lauren Boebert recently stated “When the income tax was first introduced it was a temporary measure and was around 3%. Today people are paying up to 37% of their income, plus being taxed on everything else that you can possibly image. The fact of the matter is that taxation is theft.”
With the revelation of all of the fraud that is being found in various states and how some states do not seem to try to curb it in fear of offending various ethnic groups, said fraud eats more money which had to come from some where. States and local municipalities tax based on income, property valuations, and purchasing power (sales tax). Some of that can be controlled by the individual tax payer, but government entities have a strong hand in inflating prices.
Taxes are one. Valuations of properties are another. Post WWII there was a need for housing and boy did we make houses. Nothing really fancy but very utilitarian. Molettes in Moline, IL, build the shell and you finish the inside in many parts of the country. Men know how to build things, and some wives helped out. Valuations were low.
Try to find a new subdivision building basic simple roof ranch or bungalow style house. I have not seen it. Municipalities now want houses to be big, have not just two car but three car garages. Anything to inflate the price of the house. That brings in more tax dollars per property and less can afford.
Pritzker has to realize that Illinois driven by the ever corrupted Democrat party run Chicago and the every incompetent Democrat controlled House and Senate are the cause for Illinois unafordability. Crazy high taxes, obnoxious regulations, the thought that the government can help everyone and fix everything drastically inflates prices. If a gumball cost a penny which they used to a three percent sales tax would be negligible. But charging a quarter for a gumball that three percent is just about a penny. If the gumball is a dollar, that three percent tax on the gumball would be three cents. It also says that the raw value of the gumball was a penny that penny is now a dollar. Inflated currency degradation.
Government and spending has caused the dollar to devalue. Raising minimum wages has proven to cause jobs to be eliminated. Raising the minimum wage will inflate income tax revenues, but only for a short term. During that short term payroll masters look for ways to use technology to keep their costs down by replacing people with technology.
And not that that technology will make products and services better, but will cause some businesses to lose business as people may not want to deal with technology.
To Governor Pritzker, please stick to destroying Illinois. Leave the rest of the country alone.