(IntegrityPress.org) – A radical leftist running for the late Diane Feinstein’s Senate seat is suggesting a radical upgrade to the minimum wage in California: a whopping $50/hour. Betraying a lack of economic understanding, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) suggested folks “do the math” as if simply paying people more money for menial labor would solve California’s problems.
Lee doesn’t seem to understand that firemen, teachers, and many law enforcement officers don’t make that much money and their jobs are incredibly necessary public services.
She made the comments during a debate for the seat on Monday, February 12. During her elaboration she said that a third party report indicated that $104,000/year was barely enough for a single individual to support themselves and did the math in reverse to come to $50/hour.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. California passed legislation last year that will raise the state’s minimum wage from an already inflated $16/hour to $20/hour for fast food workers. Rep. Adam Schiff (R-CA) echoed Lee’s sentiments and blamed the state’s vast homeless population on wages being too low.
Republican Steve Garvey, also competing for Feinstein’s seat, said that the current minimums were appropriate and that further raises in minimum wage would drive inflation as the cost of labor is kicked down the road onto the consumer.
Minimum wage jobs are generally introductory positions or part-time jobs. No one working in their career ten years on is getting paid a minimum wage, and despite that Schiff complained that minimum wages weren’t high enough to let people buy homes, as if that wasn’t obvious.
Some have argued that California restaurant owners don’t even make $50/hour. Upmenu is a website that supports small business owners, specifically in the restaurant industry. They said that the average take-home net earnings are roughly $90,000/year for the owner, which would suggest dishwashers would make more money than that, under Lee’s proposal.
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