Sen. Marshall Proposes Minimum Wage Increase

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on January 15, 2017

If memory serves, this is a far more modest proposal than in recent years.  SB 10 provides for a 50 cent increase each year for the next four years, and then, post-2020, ties minimum wage increases to Social Security Cost-of-Living increases.

My first reaction was disappointment at the relatively modest proposal. Why? Because if you aim low you end up lower.  However, what if Sen. Marshall has already talked to Gov.-Elect Carney and Carney has signaled that he would support this?  If that’s the case, I’m totally on board.

In other words, it’s time to let Gov. Carney (inauguration is Tuesday) know that we expect him to reflect the concerns of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Hey, maybe it’ll even have an impact on that Special Election…a Democratic candidate supporting a minimum wage increase in Delaware.  Time to make that the rule, not the exception.

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  1. bamboozer says:

    Good luck on Carney, I expect him to continue to be a faux Dem as in the past in the grand tradition of Delaware’s many corporatist politicians.

  2. puck says:

    This year Democrats will need Brian Bushweller’s vote if this is going to pass, so if you are in his district start working on him now. Last year Bushweller offered a painfully dated and out of touch explanation for recording a "not voting" vote on the Senate minimum wage bill, but the bill passed with 11 votes. This year every Democrat will be needed.

    Bushweller's concept of minimum wage is stuck in the 1970s:

    Unlike some Senators who voted “no” on SB 39, I do not oppose the concept of a minimum wage. In fact, I voted “yes” on the 2014 minimum wage increase, the only other time the issue has been voted on since I have been in the Senate. But, I do have a conception of what a “minimum wage” represents, or should represent, different from some others who have opined on the issue. That difference is one of the reasons for my “not voting” for this bill.

    Some believe the minimum wage should be more like a “living” wage, meaning a wage that may be low but is, nonetheless, a wage on which a person could support him or herself and perhaps a family, as well, for an entire working lifetime. But, that is not my conception of the minimum wage. I believe the minimum wage is an entry level wage, a wage appropriate for low skilled workers. It is a wage any amount below which would shock the conscience or be unacceptable no matter what the relevant circumstances may be. It is not intended to provide full support for all the costs associated with raising a family.

  3. chris says:

    State Chamber will tell Carney NO and that will be the end of that! Case closed.

  4. ModernProgressive says:

    Do you ever get the impression that Drumpf’s entire economic platform is a plot to make us seem irrelevant and steal our votes from the poor, working class and middle class?

    For example, if you incentify companies to keep their jobs here, this has an inflationary impact on wages. If you deport undocumented immigrants and severely restrict legal immigrants, this diminishes the pool of labor and thereby drives up wages even more.

    If you strip companies of countless meaningful regulations and cut corporate taxes, you may get horrific social consequences. However, those companies will likely expand and hire even more, thereby further driving up wages and creating additional opportunities.

    Now there is a danger with this: if wages rise too quickly, the economy could quickly grind to a halt. We could also show up at work one day and find that we are all replaced with robots.

    Let’s assume Drumpf hits the jackpot and does not start a trade war with China, does not destroy the economy nor cause the robot apocalypse. Let’s assume Drumpf succeeds in all this. Then what are we bringing to the table? A dollar an hour raise to the 1% of the population with no work experience who is just getting started in the labor market?

    We’ve got to find better issues than raising the minimum wage.

  5. Yo, Modern Progressive. Stay on topic, OK? You want to post this stuff? There’s always a daily thread to post it on. This is about an attempt to raise the minimum wage in Delaware.

    I’m starting to think that Steve Newton is correct–that your rantings are a parody of some sort. JEE-zus.

  6. puck says:

    Modern Progressive may be a trollbot but I give him props for “incentify,”