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Show j: Garn from f jSy Washington v By Jake Garn One of the most important pieces of economic legislation legisla-tion to face the Congress this year will be the measure which would increase the minimum wage. A House subcommittee has already acted to raise the minimum from the present $2.30 per hour to $3.00 per hour. The full committee will act on the legislation in the near future and a similar bill is expected in the Senate no later than this summer. - The idea of a minimum wage was born in the days of sweat shops when exploitative employers took advantage of less than skilled employees almost to the point of slave labor. There was justification for establishing a wage floor. However, it is now getting out of hand. Just as the bill to increase the minimum wage is one of the most important pieces of economic legislation to come before Congress, so also could it be one of the most damaging. When the wage is set too high, it causes unemployment. unemploy-ment. In fact, every time the minimum has increased, so has unemployment. When an employer is forced by government govern-ment edict to pay a higher wage than he can afford, he ' must cut back on the number of his employees. It is estimated by some experts that if the minimum were increased to $3.00, it would put 750,000 to one million people out of work. Particularly Particular-ly small businesses which could not pay the tab would be forced to reduce the number of employees. The Vice-President of a nationwide fast food chain which employs 18,000 people recently wrote saying that if the minimum wage were raised to $3.00, they would ' have no alternative but to automate and customize their service, to a cafeteria-type restaurant, and to cut their ' work force by one-third. This would result in a loss of 6,000 |