Minimum Wage falls on Romney's Desk

The Mass. Legislature has handed Gov. Romney a bill to raise the minimum wage to $8 an hour. That sounds a bit high to me. Gov. Romney's past position on minimum wage to about $7 and pegged it to inflation.

Here's my take on this: Unlike what most people seem to believe, the minimum wage does not exist so that people can live off of it. You can't and, frankly, you shouldn't. Not every job in the country is worth supporting a family with. The minimum wage exists to prevent the exploitation of workers.

Pegging the minimum wage to inflation is just common sense politically and as a matter of policy. If we think a worker is being exploited below a certain wage one year, then the equilivant wage should be considered exploitive the next. Furthermore, pegging the minimum wage to inflation makes the issue go away. Every year the Democrats don't get to make a fuss about the so-called "living wage".

That the national GOP has successfully stopped any raise in the minimum wage for the last nine years. This stand on principle has had negative effects across the country as several states (including Florida) have raised the minimum wage on their own. Basically they've cut their own wrist to satisfy their voters. Companies then move out of town in order to find cheaper workers. This is bad all-around.

As a national problem, the national minimum wage should be increased to the level of the 1997 wage indexed to inflation and then pegged.

What will Gov. Romney do? I think he'll veto it as too high and be overridden.