"The Squad" has struck again as member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has proclaimed $15 is not a large enough minimum wage, “Now I think that it should be $20 an hour...It should be $18-$20 an hour.”
The video recently released by America Rising was recorded at an event hosted by One Fair Wage on Sunday. One Fair Wage is a non-profit group that advocates for the elimination of the two-tier wage system. In 43 states, restaurant positions like servers, busboys, hosts, and bartenders all have a much lower minimum wage standard, $2.13, compared to the federal minimum wage, $7.25. Although there is no mention of eliminating tipping if workers were to receive the minimum wage.
Rep. Tlaib and the organization hosting the event disregard the notion the jump in the minimum wage would cause food prices to rise, even with the clear evidence this would be the case. She also says the prices of milk and eggs have gone up but according to the Washinton Free Beacon, both these statements are not true as of the last few years.
Democrats in the House recently passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024. Something the Congressional Budget Office said has the possibility of eliminating 3.7 million jobs.
The hidden cost of raising the minimum wage would be the low-skill jobs that would either be outright eliminated or automated. It has already been estimated that around 1.5 million jobs are to be automated away, and this problem would only accelerate if businesses were faced with paying workers $20 per hour. Include the flood of low-skill legal and illegal immigration that the U.S. has been importing for the last 30 years, there would be a lot of people in this country that would be without work.