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Raising New Jersey’s minimum wage is bad economic policy
February 2005 · Craig Garthwaite · Trenton Times
Some lawmakers are hailing the proposed 39% increase in New Jersey’s minimum wage as a life preserver for employees struggling in a stormy economic sea. But Trenton’s “heroics” ensure that thousands of low-skilled New Jersey residents who need entry-level employment opportunities will find it even more difficult to stay afloat. The State House ought to remember that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cautioned Congress just last summer… -
Raising minimum wage stands to hurt low-income workers
February 2005 · Craig Garthwaite · Detroit Free Press
No one who listened to Gov. Jennifer’s Granholm’s State of the State address could have mistaken her administration’s top priority — job growth. And no wonder. While the nation added 2.2 million new jobs last year, Michigan lost nearly 50,000, bringing the statewide unemployment rate to 7.3 percent — tying for last place with Alaska. “We will recover … but not through the traditional solutions of another… -
Unintended Consequences
December 2004 · Craig Garthwaite · New York Sun
When it convenes on Monday, the New York Senate is expected to vote on rejecting Governor Pataki’s veto of an increase in the state’s minimum wage. If it succeeds, New York’s minimum wage will spike to nearly 39% over the federal rate by 2007. But instead of giving low-income New Yorkers an early Christmas gift, senators voting for the wage hike will be saddling them with a… -
Higher pay hurts prospects of people it claims to help
November 2004 · Craig Garthwaite · Asbury Park Press
New Jersey appears set to raise its statewide minimum wage nearly 36 percent over the federal rate now that Senate President Richard J. Codey has become acting governor. Unfortunately, Trenton’s pending wage law threatens the long-term economic prospects of the people it is intended to benefit. Lawmakers who make wage floors the centerpiece of their fight against poverty have ignored the changing demographics of the minimum-wage labor… -
Free Lunch In Calif. Will Relegate Many to the Bread Lines
October 2004 · Dr. Aaron Yelowitz · Investor's Business Daily
A ticking time bomb threatens to devastate the state of California. Powerful special interests watch impatiently as their plan nears fruition, while most everyone else goes about their business, unaware of the impending meltdown. This isn’t a Hollywood B-movie script. Proposition 72 is poised to blast a hole through California’s economy. If it passes on election day, Proposition 72 will force every California business with 20 or… -
Increasing lowest wages harms poor
September 2004 · Craig Garthwaite · Los Angeles Daily News
“One thing I learned about America,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the Republican National Convention last week, “is that if you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.” Schwarzenegger should keep those words in mind as he considers a bill – now sitting on his desk – to increase California’s minimum wage to $7.75 an hour. The…