That headline sounds like a horrible joke, but it's real. After some states have raised local minimum wage and President Obama and some of congress have urged the raising of minimum wage, Oklahoma has taken a huge step in the opposite direction. The new law bans not only the raising of minimum wages in towns and cities, but also refuses to allow localities from setting required sick days and vacation days.
Critics of this move bring attention to the fact that a petition had been started to add a wage increase to the ballot measures in November. Proponents say that allowing minimum wage to rise would result in loss of business as companies moved out of areas with a higher minimum wage and prices would rise for those that stayed.
Read the article here.
From what we have covered in class, this could be a great move for Oklahoma if the state's goal is significantly reduce unemployment. Setting a minimum wage was one of the ways to raise the natural rate of unemployment, especially if it is binding.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I think every state should have the right to determine if minimum wage is higher or not. Some places have smaller businesses, who will not be able to survive with a higher minimum wage. This is a good example here. State issue, not national politics.
ReplyDeleteI think this will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. From this standpoint, I think the increase in the minimum wage will increase the unemployment rates significantly, but I will be interested to see how much it is impacted.
ReplyDelete