Minimum Wage Quotes

One of the best things I can say, when you get the government out of micromanaging the economy -- you don't want government to set price controls, you don't want government to set wage controls. It's an archaic system that frankly has not worked.

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John Raese, Republican candidate for the West Virginia Senate. ABC News.
316010/12/2010 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

A closer look at the unemployment [nearly 10 percent unemployment rate] suggests that minimum wage laws also deserve a big share of the blame….businesses are not charities and that they only create jobs when they think a worker will generate net revenue. Higher minimum wages, needless to say, are especially destructive for people with poor work skills and limited work experience.

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Dan Mitchell, senior fellow, Cato Institute.
06/15/2010 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

We cannot legislate prosperity. When we increase minimum wages by legislative fiat, we kill jobs. Government creates nothing but what it has first taken away.

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Fox Business’ John Stossel.
04/30/2010 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

The minimum wage is kinda like a sacred cow in Washington, with many lawmakers thinking it’s a win/win for low-skill workers. What if those good intentions backfired on the very people they were supposed to help? One school of thought says lowering the minimum wage will actually create more jobs.

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FOX news.
12/15/2009 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

Now, what is the effect of this law? Indeed, I admit, some will have a mandated pay raise in America. Those will be the lucky ones. Many more will have their hours cut, Mr. Speaker. Many will have their benefits cut due to this law, and many will lose their jobs. And again, thousands, thousands will be denied that opportunity to climb on that first rung of the economic ladder in America and, instead, be condemned to a life of poverty. This should not happen in America.

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Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Congressional Record.
315501/10/2007 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

A higher minimum wage will trigger thousands of layoffs in lower-paying jobs, hurting, rather than helping, Ohioans who need higher wages the most.

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“Ohio November Ballot Book” Submitted by Ohioans to Protect Personal Privacy; John C. Mahaney, Jr., Andrew Doehrel and Ty Pine.
10/30/2006 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

The proposal is couched in the soothing and smarmy rhetoric of leftist populism….But if that's all it takes, why stop there? If a simple legislative act increasing the minimum wage to $7.75 is all that is needed to improve the lot of the working poor by just a little, then why not raise it to $10 an hour and get them to the poverty level? For that matter, why not raise it to $50 an hour, assuring every working Californian a comfortable living?

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Tom McClintock, California Republican state senator. “The Los Angeles Times.
04/11/2006 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

The truth is that if your labor is worth $6.75 an hour and the minimum wage is raised to $7.75, you simply become unemployable. The first rung of the ladder is gone, and there's no place to start….This legislation is the ultimate expression of the cruelest of all human lies: ‘I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'

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Tom McClintock, California Republican state senator. The Los Angeles Times.
315304/11/2006 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

Wage mandates ignore the principals of free market economies; they prevent businesses from making profits, growing and hiring more workers; and they base wages on what the worker wants instead of on the value of work performed.

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Amicus brief filed by Chamber of Commerce with the Supreme Court of Louisiana.
11/21/2004 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

If raising the minimum wage to $12 or $15 per hour will raise the standard of living for the working poor, why stop there? Why not raise the standard of living for the middle class as well by increasing the minimum wage to, say, $25 an hour? If we raised it to $100 an hour, we could have the best standard of living in history!

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Summers, Adam, Orange County Register.
08/18/2003 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

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