Toomey On Proposed Minimum Wage Hike: 'A Half Million Americans Would Lose Their Jobs'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall talked to Senator Pat Toomey on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about Republicans blocking a bill that would raise the minimum wage nationally to $10.10/hour.
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Toomey On Proposed Minimum Wage Hike
Toomey said he opposed the increase because he believes it will hurt more people than it helps.
"I don't think we should be putting people out of work and I don't think we should be denying people who need to get their first step on the ladder of economic success. I don't think we should be denying that opportunity. It's not just my biased view that holds the opinion. The Congressional Budget Office, which is non-partisan…in their analysis, said the best estimate for the consequence of the Democrats minimum wage hike, if it were to become effective, is that a half million Americans would lose their jobs. Some different studies that I've seen suggest that over 100,000 Pennsylvanians could lose their jobs," he said.
He explained that raising the cost of low wage jobs will cause employers to look elsewhere.
"There are alternatives. There's automation. There's just not creating the job in the first place…Especially since most employers are in very competitive businesses…If you raise the price of something, in this case labor that is at the lower end of the skill set, you're going to make it less affordable and there will be less of it," Toomey commented.
Toomey also criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada for playing a partisan role in the execution of his duties.
"You would think that the person who is the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, has control of the entire agenda and what happens in the Senate, you would think this person would have some shred of a sense of an institutional obligation to the Constitution, to the founding, to the separation of powers, and to the role that the elected representatives of the people are supposed to play and yet Senator Reid has decided to just shut down the Senate and just let it become an extension of the administration, " he stated.
