Once again a proposal to raise the minimum wage has been rejected at the State Capitol. The Senate Labor Committee voted against a constitutional amendment that would increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.25 an hour on January 1st. Monroe Senator Stewart Cathey says if you require businesses to raise wages, they’ll raise prices on consumers.
“They are just going to absorb that cost,” Cathey questioned. “They are not going to pass that on through an increase in prices of goods? If you give people more money, but it cost them more money to live,” said Cathey.
The measure failed on a four to one vote. The only “Yes” vote came from the author of the proposal, Baton Rouge Senator Regina Barrow, who tried to increase the minimum wage in Louisiana for the first time since 2009.
“Nothing is the same price that is today that it was in 2009, milk, bread, eggs, gas, but people are still trying to make it and have a decent living,” said Barrow.
Vice President of Government Relations at the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry Jim Patterson argued a higher minimum wage could lead to higher prices for consumers and fewer jobs for low-wage earners.
“There can be individuals who lose their employment and if there’s a quicker way to causing poverty than to putting people in unemployed position, I don’t know what that would be,” said Patterson.
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