You might have heard by now that the Arkansas Supreme Court issued, from on high, a couple of rulings Thursday. Good. Better now than closer to the election. At least We the People know that 1. we will not be deciding Issue 1, and 2. we will be deciding Issue 5.
Issue 5 is the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $11 an hour in this state, a state that already has a higher minimum wage than any neighboring state.
What happens when government artificially drives up the wage as it would through this directive? Just the opposite of what supporters of Issue 5 would have you believe.
Here's a hypothetical: Shirley works as a full-time cashier for a mom-and-pop gas station in Jasper. She makes $8.50 an hour and is a single mother. She hears about a minimum wage increase, so she votes for it, thinking she could use the extra $2.50 an hour. But when the minimum wage hits $11, her employers decide to cut her hours. Now she's working 15 hours a week making $11 an hour.
That didn't exactly work out the way she wanted, but it's actually a best-case scenario. Worst case, she'd have been laid off, and the mom and pop would have picked up some additional shifts themselves.
Here's what happens when Arkansas raises its minimum wage: Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma start to look like much better alternatives for business owners.
And then there's another group this hurts: younger workers looking for their first jobs. We can all probably remember getting that job at the burger joint in high school, giving up a few nights a week, maybe a weekend, and having a paycheck that allowed us to take our date to the movies. If the minimum wage shoots up, employers are going to be more reluctant to hire these workers, and students will go without that helpful experience.
Those voters who really do care about the little guy should vote no on Issue 5. It's a deceptive illusion of a shortcut to larger paychecks, but it doesn't pan out. It'll hurt workers, small business owners and our state's economy. We've got a strong economy now. Why throw water on that fire?
Editorial on 10/21/2018