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Show CONGRESSIONAL REPORT BY DAN MARRIOTT The new minimum wage levels being proposed by President Carter and labor leaders around the country have me wondering If they won't do more harm than good. The AFLCIO wants to raise the minimum from the present $2.30 to $3.00 an hour. President Carter has agreed to support it at $2.50 an hour. Both of those r could have a detrimental effect ef-fect on our economy. Of course, the majority of this country's workers deserve de-serve $3 .00 an hour and more and I don't begrudge anyone any-one his fair wage. But to increase the minimum wage for everyone without exception excep-tion could actually create m ore problem s than it would solve, especially In the ranks of the unemployed. Recent studies have indicated in-dicated that the $2.50 proposal pro-posal would cost this country coun-try 900,000 jobs, 4,000 of those In Utah. At $3.00 an hour, the figure would reach 2 million jobs nationwide nation-wide and 14,000 in Utah.Most of those are among groups most In need of Jobs women, teenagers, minorities minor-ities and older workers. It could easily have the effect of squeezing these people even further out of the job market, at a time when we need to do more to bring them In Instead. That concern was expressed expres-sed among the labor union leaders In Salt Lake recently. recent-ly. As I met with them during dur-ing the April recess, they were quite evenly divided on the minimum wage issue. ' Their concern, and mine, Is that jobs are created, not destroyed. H, indeed, these figures are accurate and a new minimum wage would hurt the job situation, we'd better not have a new m inimum wage. In addition to the direct effect on unemployment, the studies show that an Increased Increas-ed minimum wage would cost each one of us in the form ! of consumer price Increases. At the $2.50 level, labor costs would go up an average of 1 .4 with consum er prices following at nearly one percent. per-cent. If the AFLCIO proposal pro-posal Is adopted ($3.00 an hour) labor costs would soar i by 4.4, jacking consumer prices 2.9. That kind of inflation is totally avoidable and is the last thing we need Certainly, the matter needs more study. Utah labor leaders still have questions. I have questions. And if there is any doubt that It is not In the best interests of the state and the nation to raise the minimum wage, it should not be done. in a sensitive, recovering economy. We need more jobs not fewer. If there is an increase, it should be a very small one and should not be tied automatically auto-matically to the cost of living. liv-ing. It should retain a credit for tips and a 25 differential differen-tial for the youth. Without those kinds of limitations and provisions, a new minimum wage law could do more harm than good to our economy. |