Fleeing to Next Town, Bosses May Find Minimum Wage Is Rising There, Too
By TRIP GABRIEL, NYT
ROCKVILLE, Md. — When Marc Elrich, a county councilman in the northern Washington suburbs, sought to raise the minimum wage, businesses threatened to move across the Montgomery County line to pay workers less.
So Mr. Elrich did something that experts say is unprecedented: Enlisting the governments of Washington and Prince George’s County to the east, he got all three governments to agree to raise minimum wages together — essentially forming a regional pact to make it far less tempting for businesses to flee next door.
“We keep getting bombarded by the business community about our taxes are too high and our social services are too generous,” Mr. Elrich, a liberal Democrat, said on Thursday after a ceremony in which his bill was signed into law in the county Executive Office Building in Rockville. “It’s their wages that cause the government to do this.”
At the previous minimum of $7.25, or about $15,000 a year, many workers in Montgomery County, which includes affluent suburbs like Bethesda and Chevy Chase, were too poor to afford an apartment and received county support, which Mr. Elrich said amounted to a public subsidy for private companies.
(More here.)
ROCKVILLE, Md. — When Marc Elrich, a county councilman in the northern Washington suburbs, sought to raise the minimum wage, businesses threatened to move across the Montgomery County line to pay workers less.
So Mr. Elrich did something that experts say is unprecedented: Enlisting the governments of Washington and Prince George’s County to the east, he got all three governments to agree to raise minimum wages together — essentially forming a regional pact to make it far less tempting for businesses to flee next door.
“We keep getting bombarded by the business community about our taxes are too high and our social services are too generous,” Mr. Elrich, a liberal Democrat, said on Thursday after a ceremony in which his bill was signed into law in the county Executive Office Building in Rockville. “It’s their wages that cause the government to do this.”
At the previous minimum of $7.25, or about $15,000 a year, many workers in Montgomery County, which includes affluent suburbs like Bethesda and Chevy Chase, were too poor to afford an apartment and received county support, which Mr. Elrich said amounted to a public subsidy for private companies.
(More here.)
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2 Comments:
Why not make the minimum wage $15? How about $100 per hour? Why not $1,000/hour - at that rate there would be more rich people and no poor people and all of our problems would be solved. Right? Those in government who think they know what a person deserves for a wage probably believes in Santa Claus and tooth fairy.
I agree. The minimum wage should be $1000 per hour. That would solve poverty right there. Why don't Democrats who are so worried about the poor go for the whole enchilada rather than raising the minimum wage a penny here or a dime there?
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