The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released its unemployment rate for the year and a look at the report, see here, shows that many states (15 or so) have reached or surpassed their historically lowest unemployment level on record.
Is it a mere coincidence that at a time when the minimum wage is at a historic low that we also find many states dropping to some of their lowest levels of unemployment in history? Those who advocate for a minimum wage would say yes, those of us who know the minimum wage increases unemployment would say no the two go hand in hand.
Again, I must repeat, the fight to increase the minimum wage is not about the poor, it is about politics and it is politics at the expense of the poor and minority.
A restaurant owner friend of ours is sweating the minimum wage rate….it seems that it hurts the small businesses the most. He will have to lay-off a few to be able to afford paying the rate hike to the rest. He will be operating his business with less people now. Somehow not too many people understand that the most hurt are the small business owners. Not to mention the college student who was working to help put himself/herself through.