As some Democratic legislators tackle a host of labor issues—including a minimum wage increase, equal pay, collective bargaining, paid leave, and ban the box—with the Economic Security Act of 2017, other lawmakers are focusing on more than doubling the minimum wage.
Under Senate Bill 210, sponsored by Sen. Joyce Waddell and other Senate Democrats, the state’s base wage would be raised from $7.25 to $12 per hour by 2020 and again to $15 per hour by 2022. The bill’s title is “Living Wage by 2022,” but minimum wage was always intended to be an entry-level, training wage. And unfortunately, while efforts to increase wages for workers may be well-intended, they often end up hurting workers more. For small businesses in particular, which have thin profit margins, a drastic mandated wage hike often forces them to cut hours, lay off workers, or delay hiring plans in order to stay open at all.
The website Faces of 15 chronicles these stories. In places across the country where minimum wage hikes have gone into effect—such as Arizona, California, D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Washington—there have been business closures, employee layoffs, and price increase for consumers.
SB 210 faces an uphill climb to passage in North Carolina, but the battle for a higher minimum wage isn’t going away anytime soon.
