OOPS: GOP Rep. Inadvertently Makes The Case For Nearly Doubling The Minimum Wage

[ProSense]

OOPS: GOP Rep. Inadvertently Makes The Case For Nearly Doubling The Minimum Wage

By Travis Waldron

President Obama’s State of the Union proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour and index it to inflation so that it keeps up with growth in the economy was quickly rebuked by top Republicans like Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who claim the minimum wage will kill jobs and hurt small businesses.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) chose a different reason to oppose the proposal today. A stronger minimum wage, Blackburn said, would negatively affect the ability of young workers to enter the workforce as teenagers, and would prevent them from learning responsibility like she did when she was a teenage retail employee making a seemingly-measly $2.15 an hour in Mississippi:

BLACKBURN: What we’re hearing from moms and from school teachers is that there needs to be a lower entry level, so that you can get 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds into the process. Chuck, I remember my first job, when I was working in a retail store, down there, growing up in Laurel, Mississippi. I was making like $2.15 an hour. And I was taught how to responsibly handle those customer interactions. And I appreciated that opportunity.

Watch it:

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Making $2.15 an hour certainly does sound worse than today’s minimum wage, which federal law mandates must be at least $7.25 an hour. But what Blackburn didn’t realize is that she accidentally undermined her own argument, since the value of the dollar has changed immensely since her teenage years. Blackburn was born in 1952, so she likely took that retail job at some point between 1968 and 1970. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, the $2.15 an hour Blackburn made then is worth somewhere between $12.72 and $14.18 an hour in today’s dollars, depending on which year she started.

At that time, the minimum wage was $1.60, equivalent to $10.56 in today’s terms. Today’s minimum wage is equivalent to just $1.10 an hour in 1968 dollars, meaning the teenage Blackburn managed to enter the workforce making almost double the wage she now says is keeping teenagers out of the workforce.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/14/1596051/blackburn-minimum-wage-oops/

Republicans really have a hard time grasping math and science.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Easy to claim that 7.25 is enough when you aren't trying to live on it. nt

[yellowcanine]

2. $2.15 was good money for a 16-17 yr old in 1968. I made $1.50 working on a golf course.

The owners said it was agricultural work so they didn't have to pay minimum wage or time and half for overtime. I worked 60 hours a week, which was probably also illegal for a 17 yr old.

[ashling]

3. I made $1.25 working at a veterinary clinic

cleaning dogshit out of cages, etc.

[ProSense]

4. Kick! n/t

[Cha]

5. Hard time grasping math, science, and

Common Sense! Thanks ProSense

[drm604]

6. The problem is that she's not trying to convince thinking people who will do the math.

Those people already know better.

Blackburn may very well know the problems with her argument, but propaganda like this isn't meant to be accurate, just persuasive.