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Mullin
In under one month, the Biden Administration has revealed their partisan agenda, namely, appeasing socialist Democrats. At this critical point when our country is in dire need of economic recovery, the far-Left has decided the solution is to skyrocket the minimum wage to a federally-mandated $15 per hour.
Pelosi Democrats have continually tried to force their one-size-fits-all policies onto American workers, but the minimum wage mandate is a step too far. Raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would increase the federal deficit by $54 billion, threaten the livelihoods of millions of small business employees, and raise the prices of goods and services. This radical idea would hurt American workers and their families.
In Oklahoma, 99 percent of busi nesses are small businesses, and they will feel the impacts severely. The minimum wage hike could be a nail in the coffin for many small businesses who struggled to keep employees on the payroll through the pandemic and have just started to bounce back.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that if this legislation becomes law, it will eliminate 4 million jobs. By comparison, that is the amount of people who live in the entire state of Oklahoma. With millions of jobs already lost from the pandemic, we cannot be adding to that.
The minimum wage was designed to be a starting point for workers just entering the workforce. Employees should be the ones who set the price for their work and drive the job market. Instead of just raising the starting point, we should be focused on helping people get the education and skills they need to succeed.
We all want Americans to have good-paying jobs and for our economy to fully recover but raising the federally-mandated minimum wage is not the answer.