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<\/p>\nRUSH: A question, ladies and gentlemen. How many millions of jobs will be lost if the Democrats raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour? The national, a federal minimum wage. Not state. Not neighborhood. Not city. Not local. Federal minimum wage. Because back on Tuesday, the Democrats introduced a bill that would raise the minimum wage nationally to $15 an hour over five years.<\/p>\n
It would more than double the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. It\u2019s called the Raise the Wage Act. Oh, it\u2019s so simple. “Rage the Ways Act.” Sorry. I said, “Rage the Ways.” Raise the Wage Act. It would increase pay from $9.50 an hour in 2021 to $11 in 2022, and in 2023 it would rise to $12.50 an hour. It would hit 14 bucks an hour in \u201924.<\/p>\n
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It wouldn\u2019t be until 2025 that it hit 15 bucks an hour. Do you know how many jobs would be lost? This is guaranteed to be true, by the way. This is not speculation. It\u2019s not conservative theory. We have enough data with the imposition of the minimum wage in various states and cities, various local levels. We know what happens with the implementation of a minimum wage.<\/p>\n
The number of jobs that will be lost would be at least 1.3 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Which means that members of Congress are okay with it! They\u2019re gonna move ahead with the legislation anyway, even though their own budget office says you\u2019re gonna cost the country 1.3 million jobs. The truth is it\u2019s gonna be higher than that.<\/p>\n
Most economists who are not socialists think the number will be much higher. Now, I have attempted over the 30 years of this program to explain the minimum wage and why it\u2019s a bogus proposition countless times, and I\u2019m going to do it again. I have found over the course of my hosting the program that the minimum wage is something that a lot of people are just sympathetic to, the way it\u2019s presented to them.<\/p>\n
“Well, you can\u2019t feed a family of four on $15 an hour! (sputtering)” Well, why isn\u2019t it higher than that? This is the question I always ask. What is the minimum wage? The minimum wage is an arbitrary amount of money that business owners, the majority of whom are small business owners, will be required by federal law that they have to pay, whether the people they hire are worth it or not.<\/p>\n
The reason the minimum wage costs jobs is because if the business — small business — currently is paying people entry-level at eight bucks an hour, and all of a sudden they\u2019re told they have to pay \u2019em 10, well, they don\u2019t have the money laying around in a vault that they\u2019re not using. But a lot of people think that if you are a business, that you\u2019re a millionaire.<\/p>\n
(sniveling) “If you\u2019re a business, you\u2019ve got all kinds of money that you\u2019re not spending. You\u2019re hoarding it, and you\u2019re keeping it for yourself rather than giving it to other people and your employees because you\u2019re a cheat, because you\u2019re selfish.” Such is the damage to the image and reputation of businesspeople that the left has succeeded in creating.<\/p>\n
So what has to happen in the real world? Business owners have to let employees go, they have to fire them, because they don\u2019t have an endless pile of money that they could be paying people with but aren\u2019t. Most small businesses have very small margins. They\u2019re not just barely getting by, but it\u2019s not… They\u2019re not a bunch of hedge funders. Let\u2019s put it this way.<\/p>\n
But the real problem is it\u2019s an arbitrary number that is mandated on them. It has no relationship to the business that they\u2019re in. It has no relationship to their profit and loss. It has no relationship whatsoever to the business they\u2019re in, what the costs of doing business are, what the current profit margins are. They just slap on an arbitrary figure that has nothing to do with market conditions.<\/p>\n
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And the arbitrary figure is one that is created by politicians that they can get behind as compassionate and understanding and say they care about people. People end up losing their jobs because of the minimum wage. It\u2019s much easier to trim your workforce than it is to go out and somehow make people more productive — and making people more productive is how you end up being able to pay them more.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s your business growing!<\/p>\n
But the arbitrary minimum wage is a direct assault on small business growth, which is the primary bottom line to why it\u2019s just a guaranteed failure. It\u2019s been tried. It\u2019s been proven over and over again. It doesn\u2019t matter. This is the Democrats using their power when they have it, and the purpose of this is to create failures in small businesses, to run them out of business, to make sure that they have all kinds of trouble making their ends meet.<\/p>\n
You might ask, “Well, why would anybody want to do that?” Because it will turn them into dependents on the government, folks. It always circles back to that. In addition, the nationalization of a $15 an hour minimum wage — which, again, will not hit until 2025. If $15 an hour is what\u2019s needed, why not do it this year? Why have to wait \u2019til 2025? And if $15 an hour is good, why not $20?<\/p>\n
You know, try an experiment with somebody. This always works. Talk to somebody who\u2019s in favor of the minimum wage. You won\u2019t have any trouble finding people. They\u2019ve been brainwashed on this for a number of years. And keep asking them, “Okay, well, if 15 bucks an hour is good, why not 20?” And they\u2019ll agree with you. “Oh, yeah, I could go for that,” and just keep bumping it up.<\/p>\n
“Okay, you like $20. What about $25 an hour?” and they\u2019ll agree with you. At some point when you keep bumping up the number, you\u2019ll reach a number where they will say, “No, no, no, no, no. We can\u2019t do that.” It may be 35 an hour, it may be 25, it may be whatever. But you\u2019ll reach a point where the person you\u2019re talking to who loves the minimum wage will tell you, “No, no, no, that\u2019s too much.”<\/p>\n
At that point, you pounce, and you say, “Why? Why is 35 too much when 30 isn\u2019t? Why is $35 too much when $25 isn\u2019t?” and they will not have an answer for you. Some will, actually, and the answer they have will make your point. “Well, I mean that\u2019s just too much to mandate that somebody be paid for that before you know whether they\u2019re worth.”<\/p>\n
A-ha!<\/p>\n
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“Well, why did it take $35 to get you to realize that? Why didn\u2019t you realize that at $25? Why didn\u2019t you realize that at $15 or $20?” The point is, you\u2019re not really arguing with them that a specific number. The reason you\u2019re doing this exercise is to get them to finally react at whatever number, that it\u2019s not right to put that kind of a burden on business.<\/p>\n
At that point, you\u2019ve won the argument. Here\u2019s what else it does, though. It destroys youth and minority employment, because the minimum wage is not designed to support a family of four. (chuckling) There is no way. It never has been. It\u2019s entry-level. It\u2019s designed to pay people that don\u2019t have any experience doing the job. What it does, is it wipes out entry-level jobs, and that\u2019s what people that have never done work before need.<\/p>\n
They need entry-level jobs to learn how to survive in the work culture. They need to learn how to show up and to show up on time. They need to learn how to follow directions. They need to learn how to engage in productive behavior. They need to learn the satisfaction of doing a job well.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what the whole point of entry-level work is. Entry-level work is not designed to support a family. You weren\u2019t ready to support a family when you were 16 or 17. You left home; you wanted to go get a job. You weren\u2019t capable of it. You had to learn the work culture. That\u2019s what entry-level work is all about.<\/p>\n
But of course, wiping out entry-level positions, destroying minority employment? That\u2019s kind of the plan, isn\u2019t it? It just forces businesses to move to automation. That\u2019s what\u2019s gonna happen. Businesses are eventually gonna say: You know what? I can\u2019t deal with this hassle.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t deal with you people telling me how much I have to pay people when you don\u2019t even know what the work is. You don\u2019t even understand what I do in my business, and I\u2019m not gonna put up with that. I\u2019m gonna try automate as much of this work as I can. Andrew Yang, of all people, has laid this all out. They want to destroy jobs. Why would they want to do that? That\u2019s a tough thing to say, Rush. No, it\u2019s not. They want to destroy jobs by replacing as many as they can with automation. Why?<\/p>\n
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Well, that\u2019s how Andrew Yang believes that he can get his universal basic income of a thousand dollars a month passed into the law, when people do not have any job, when they don\u2019t have work to do, when they don\u2019t have a job to go to, they still need money. They still need food. They still need to pay the bills. Hey, I got an idea. How about a guaranteed universal income, $1,000 a month, universal, basic income. Not to mention this will wipe out a lot of restaurants who managed to make it through 2020 still alive. And they\u2019re gonna raise taxes in the midst of this? They\u2019re a gonna raise taxes while they are raising the minimum wage? I don\u2019t know, folks.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Fort Worth, Texas. This is Laurie. Great to have you. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: How are you?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Good. Thank you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I had to call in. I dialed a thousand times because as a small business owner it isn\u2019t just the effect of the employee, the bottom line employee or the entry-level employee losing their jobs. What people have to understand if they\u2019re way past entry-level and they think, well, this doesn\u2019t apply to me, is that the cost of absolutely every single thing they put in their grocery cart, every single thing they buy will skyrocket. And then you also have employees that have worked for years for you that are loyal employees that may be being paid 10, 12, $15 an hour, and you also have to raise them a commensurate amount. And so it just absolutely skyrockets the cost of everything that you buy.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, if you take on new employees, that\u2019s true, you do have to raise the compensation for existing employees. But isn\u2019t it true that what you normally do, the easiest thing to do is just, for lack of a better word, you fire people in order to maintain what your cost of doing labor, your labor costs are, that\u2019s what your primary outgo flow is, and you\u2019ve gotta maintain that, you know what that is, you want to be able to calculate that for as long as you can. Labor costs are the number one expense you\u2019ve got and so it\u2019s easier just to let people go.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: Well, except that it harms your productivity because then you\u2019re stretching all these other employees to cover what was being done by entry-level positions. You\u2019re having them having to either pay them much more because they\u2019re making more hours or they\u2019re doing other jobs, and so it affects everything all the way around. It is not just an entry-level position. And as somebody that has employed entry-level position people, it takes a long time to get them trained to do, as you said, the culture of business.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Right. And by the way, with the Biden administration, we\u2019re gonna do all this while importing the Third World in via the southern border?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I mean, how much sense does this make?<\/p>\n
CALLER: None.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Exactly right. Zip, zero, nada.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Thank you, Rush, for all you do.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I\u2019m glad you called. Really, it\u2019s a great addition to the point. It\u2019s not very often a caller is able to add additional, salient points to any issue discussed by me, The Big Voice on the Right. But Laurie here did it.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Don in Detroit, you\u2019re next, Open Line Friday. Hi.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hello, Rush. What a pleasure this is. I\u2019ve been listening to you since 1988. I recently even got my mom to finally see the light. She\u2019s from South America and finally was wondering who this entertaining guy was on the radio one day. One day I tricked her, and I said, “Oh, it\u2019s the guy you hate. Rush Limbaugh.”<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh, way to go.<\/p>\n
CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n
RUSH: Only took 31 years.<\/p>\n
CALLER: You\u2019ve got it. It did. It was a long whatever. But I tricked her on the radio, and she says, “That man is so entertaining!”<\/p>\n
RUSH: Isn\u2019t that great?<\/p>\n
CALLER: She was laughing.<\/p>\n
RUSH: That\u2019s a beautiful thing. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: Anyways, I\u2019ll get to the point here. I got so many. But I heard you taking about the $15 an hour minimum wage, and I wanted to talk about construction — I\u2019m a contractor here — and how tough it is all these burdens that are placed on the employer. At $15 an hour, my experience is whether… You know, I\u2019m talking even entry-level.<\/p>\n
Like, you were saying, like, maybe, laborers and so forth. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s $10 an hour or if you give them 15, \u2019cause they got you by the whatever. It\u2019s the middle of the summer and you just need warm bodies to keep the projects going. If you pay \u2019em $20 an hour or $15, I still get the same output.<\/p>\n
I still got the same employee that comes in with the $1000 iPhone. They got… They call \u2019em “sleeves.” They got tattoos on both arms, and that costs a fortune. They\u2019re 20-some years old, grown adults, still living in the mom\u2019s basement. That\u2019s true. All of them make fun about that, but it\u2019s true. It\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I know it\u2019s true, and you got a great point. You\u2019re basically saying no matter what you pay \u2019em, you still get the same productivity out of them which is not much.<\/p>\n
CALLER: The same thing — or you\u2019ll get the older guys; they\u2019re crying about their no-name diapers and the friend of the court. But they\u2019re smoking brand name cigarettes and they got the same ones too with a $1000 iPhones and everything. None of them have a work ethic, and the burden\u2019s on me.<\/p>\n
Just basic, basic math computation, teaching a guy how to read a tape measure or hold a grading stick. You know, we did a lot of excavating, grading work and so on. And, you know, the new guys will fly like an eagle for a week, 10 days, and then it\u2019s the same thing. I become the loan shark, the camp counselor, the bail bondsman.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a psychologist. I can\u2019t tell you how many times I take… You know, I get pirates, and I got to try and turn \u2019em into choirboys here. It\u2019s young, old. (sigh) The young ones, they can\u2019t handle the heat anymore. (whispering) “You gotta watch how you talk to \u2019em. I gotta talk so soft,” or whatever. I\u2019ll have a mom call me up and tell me I need to learn how to talk to her adult “child,” because, you know, he was late for work.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Wait a minute!<\/p>\n
CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n
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RUSH: You had a mother call you and tell you you need to learn how to talk to her adult child?<\/p>\n
CALLER: He was 24 years old, Rush, living in the basement, and he\u2019s 3-1\/2 hours late to work for doing a swimming pool. We need just warm bodies, guys to kick around gravel.<\/p>\n
RUSH: And what are you paying this guy?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Let\u2019s see. At that time, it was $14 an hour to start. That was two years ago, and his mom called.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Out of all the things you said, you would have to sit there and your phone rings and it\u2019s the mother of one of these guys living in her basement, and she is complaining to you — she b-i-itching at you — about the way you\u2019re talking to her son?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: How many millions of jobs will be lost if the Democrats raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":380731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n