$13.00/hour minimum wage?

Be sure to check out this morning's article about Walmart and minimum wage in the Chicago Sun-Times at www.suntimes.com

Walmart says it will agree to a higher minimum wage (not $13.00/hour) for stores to be built in Chicago, IF the Chicago minimum-wage law applies to all businesses.

In 2006 the Chicago City Council tried to pass a City minimum-wage law that would have required big-box retailers, including Walmart, to pay $13.00/hour in wages and benefits. Man! Talk about a law that would kill business.

That the Chicago City Council even considered such a high - and stupid - minimum wage showed a total lack of comprehension about what it means to be in business. Even if they were only trying to stick it to the big-box stores.

I recall a sign in an office in 1966, when my office was at Monroe and LaSalle in the Loop. It read, "Your raise becomes effective when you do." The meaning would be lost on most employees today, because they think they are entitled to their jobs.

When I worked for NFIB in northern Colorado, I called on owners of small businesses on behalf of a national lobbying organization that represented small business in Washington, D.C. and in each state. When Pat Schroeder was trying to cram a healthcare bill through Congress, one woman supporter of Schroeder and businesswoman told me that she would provide health insurance, if required, even if she couldn't afford it.

Her annual profit from her computer store was $40,000.
The healthcare bill was going to cost her $50,000/year.

It just didn't compute for her that she would soon go out of business, if she lost $10,000/year. And then her 12 employees and she would be jobless.