202 a Trojan horse of old lies, new laws and bureaucracies
by Guest Opinion on Oct. 02, 2006, under Opinion
Former state Rep. Greg Patterson summed it up best:
“There always seems to be an initiative that has apple pie in the title and rat poison in the language. This year, I think the award for stealth language goes to the minimum wage initiative.”
Arizona voters should make no mistake as to what Proposition 202 is.
It is a deception by unions using the Trojan horse of the minimum wage to give themselves total control over this state’s employment policies.
For public consumption, the initiative’s backers have packaged it as a straightforward increase in the state’s minimum wage and a linking of all future increases to the federal Consumer Price Index.
Something so simple, however, should not need 2,000 words to describe it, and this is where proponents give the game away.
The dirty little secrets behind this sumptuous- looking harlot include:
● Exempting state government from paying the state minimum wage.
● Creating a politically appointed commission to oversee minimum wage and employment practices in Arizona.
● Giving that commission full access to all business records, regardless of whether they relate to minimum wage, which would create privacy concerns.
● Granting full enforcement power to the commission to arrest, fine, monitor and inspect.
● Allowing unions and self-styled special-interest groups to file complaints on anyone’s behalf.
● Allowing illegal immigrants to file complaints against American citizens for money.
● Making the accused guilty until proven innocent, which runs counter to our American legal system.
● And allowing allegedly aggrieved workers a full two years to file a complaint.
The above is just a small sampling of the Pandora’s box containing Patterson’s metaphoric rat poison.
These last two provisions cannot be overstated for the potential they have in opening a whole new flock of opportunistic lawsuits for ambitious lawyers.
How easy this initiative makes it for them to not only sue, but also to settle.
Proposition 202 is a grand deception built on a collection of lies big and small, and Arizona voters should see it for what it truly is.
But this will prove difficult, because the minimum wage has enjoyed a public image opposite to its actual effect.
As the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows – and the overwhelming body of economic literature has always known – the minimum wage is actually an entry-level wage.
In short, the bureau’s “Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers 2003″ found:
● Only 2.9 percent of all hourly workers in the nation earn at or below the minimum wage.
● More than half of minimum-wage earners are under age 25.
In short, raising the minimum wage punishes young kids looking for their first jobs.
The minimum wage is therefore not a living wage or a family-sustaining wage.
But if the minimum wage can get away with being something it’s not, why not use it to get away with a ballot initiative that is not what it says it is?
And that is the insidious genius behind the unions’ very crass attempt to grab power that they could never have hoped to achieve any other way.
If the voters buy this lie, they will pay a heavy price for it.
Michelle Bolton and Michael Crowe are co-chairs of the No on 202 Campaign.
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