Council members speak out on the minimum wage ordinance

(Due to my lack of time and Jordan Green's excellent, relevant reporting, I'm afraid this blog has turned into a digest of Green's articles, but the subject matter continues to be relevant and rich. Thanks, Jordan.)

Check out the last in Yes! Weekly's Jordan Green's installments in his series on the Greensboro City Council's Human Relations decisions. He ends by sharing thoughts from Mayor Holliday and council members Yvonne Johnson and Sandra Anderson Groat. (Get to the end of the article for this section, but read the first part, too, because it is informative as well.)

Holliday, on the proposed increase in the minimum wage:

"That's too much of an emotional issue without studying it, and figuring out how it would affect local businesses, whether businesses would be laying people off," he said. "On the upside, that's that much more social income in people's pockets."

I've got at least two thoughts on these comments. First, there are studies out there about how the wage increase would affect local businesses (just check out the hundreds of links on this site). If Holliday finds them inconclusive, then perhaps he could talk with some of the local universities about conducting further research. Second, I'm not sure what Holliday means by "social income." Does anyone else understand that term?


Yvonne Johnson:

"I believe folk ought to have a livable wage," she said. "It does better for everybody. I certainly think people would appreciate making enough money so if they were in crisis they would know how to handle it. You would have less tension and probably a more productive workforce."

My sense is that Johnson is more accurate when she implies that minimum wage workers would use their improved wages for dealing with crises than is Holliday when he suggests that these increased wages would be "social income."

Our committee members have been talking with all of the council members and council hopefuls and we will publish their comments on the minimum wage effort soon.

I'll just predict now that it is going to be an interesting fall.