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Ryan Joins DNC Chair to Push Minimum Wage Hike
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour will generate economic growth, not inhibit it, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan asserted Tuesday during a press event with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Ryan and Wasserman Schultz joined Akron grocery worker Nicki Strong on a conference call with Ohio reporters. He argued that a federal minimum wage below Ohio’s current minimum wage, now at $7.95 per hour, is holding back the economy and workers.
Increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 would increase Ohio’s gross domestic product by $1.3 billion and create nearly 6,000 jobs over the next few years, he said, citing statistics from the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive pressure group.
Last week, President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union Address that he would increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers and called on businesses to raise their wages.
Ryan, D-13 Ohio, and Wasserman Schultz, D-23 Fla., blasted Republicans for resisting efforts to increase the federal minimum wage.
“Hundreds of economists and nearly ¾ of Americans support this minimum wage increase. That’s because basic research shows that this wage increase could lift five million people out of poverty, ensuring a more secure future and increasing economic activity in their communities,” Wasserman Schultz said. “It’s just a no-brainer.”
Republicans who claim boosting the federal minimum wage will hurt business ignore economic studies “that clearly indicate that a minimum wage hike would strengthen the economy, not harm it,” she continued.
Immediately following the president’s speech last week, Republicans “jumped back into their tired, hyperbolic taking points, refusing to understand how this would help our country’s working families and strengthen our economy,” Ryan said.
Strong, the Akron grocery workers, said she makes $8 per hour, pays for her rent, utilities and health care and attends school part time. “Every month it’s a struggle to make ends meet,” she said. “There are plenty of Ohio families making the same if not less than me and face the same struggle every month.”
The National Federation of Independent Businesses, which opposes increasing the federal minimum wage, in an advisory posted on its website argued that an increase would have “a deep and disproportionate impact” on small businesses, which “are the least able to absorb such a dramatic increase in their labor costs.” Large corporations don’t have to absorb the cost of minimum wage increases because small businesses offer most minimum wage jobs.
In response to critics who charge that business is too fragile and companies can’t afford an increase, Wasserman Schultz said, “That’s what they always say.” She cited the 600 economists who support increasing the federal minimum wage who say such an increase would not only be a boon but is critical. “If you look at statistics, that criticism has never really borne out,” she said. “In fact, in many cases jobs increased not decreased.”
“Those workers who now could be making $10 per hour instead of $8 per hour will have money in their pockets to go out to these other businesses and spend,” Ryan added.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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