Back in 2014, the South Dakota Retailers said that raising South Dakota’s minimum wage would reduce job opportunities for everyone…
Experienced workers may not get the raises they deserve as employers are forced to pay entry-level and unskilled workers more each year. Many employers would be forced to eliminate part-time jobs and combine those duties with those of higher skilled workers. Prices will go up for many goods and services — including essentials such as food and clothing — on all families.
However businesses choose to cut costs, the result means fewer opportunities for South Dakota workers. And a wage hike is of little help when you can’t get a job in the first place. We need to focus on expanding job opportunities, and not take steps that hurt employers’ ability to sustain jobs as well as giving back to their community [Shawn Lyons, South Dakota Retailers Association, op-ed, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2014.10.16].
The Retailers and their big-business friends fretted specifically that raising the minimum wage via Initiated Measure 18 would reduce opportunities for young people to work:
After voters approved raising and indexing the minimum wage in 2014, the Retailers pushed for lowering the minimum wage for young workers, again on their contention that a higher minimum would price teens out of the labor force. Voters rejected that effort via Referred Law 19 in 2016, so we are now in our ninth year of guaranteeing teenage workers the same inflation-indexed minimum wage that we guarantee adult workers.
And the Retailers are now telling us that young workers have oodles of occupational opportunities:
Nathan Sanderson, the executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association, said there has been a recent increase of teens in the workforce.
“For at least the last half dozen years or so, the lack of available workers has been the number one limiting factor in South Dakota’s economic growth,” said Sanderson. “There’s lots and lots of opportunities for teenagers, whether that’s a high school student or college student home for the summer, looking for summer employment.”
…“Employers are desperately looking for workers from a teenage workers perspective. That’s really good because they’re going to have better options for the work that they’re interested in doing and the wages are likely to remain pretty strong.”
He expects teenage employment to continue rising as wages and opportunities increase [Madeline Grabow, “Teenage Employment Is on the Rise in South Dakota,” SDPB Radio, 2023.06.20].
Read that last sentence again—”He expects teenage employment to continue rising as wages and opportunities increase.” That’s not what the Retailers said they expected back in 2014 when we talked about raising the minimum wage. But now the Retailers see teenage employment rising in tandem with increasing wages.
Isn’t this amazing?! They at the least are admitting facts to be facts for once. Which in itself is a good sign, should it last.
Low Taxes Are Keeping Businesses From Moving To South Dakota
Sanderson is off the mark thinking that lack of workers is why SD’s economy is and has been stagnant. It’s stagnant because businesses won’t move their employees or desire to employ workers in a state with ultra low taxes.
*Low tax states aren’t at all good for the overall quality of life for workers.
Here are some reasons why:
1. Limited Government Services: States with low tax rates have limited government services such as healthcare, infrastructure, and education, which negatively impacts the quality of life for workers. .
2. Low Wages: In states with low taxes, wages are lower, and benefits such as healthcare and retirement plans are not as viable. This leads to increased job insecurity, which negatively affects the standard of living for workers.
3. Lack of Diversity: States with low taxes may be more attractive to businesses in certain sectors such as low level manufacturing or lower quality cheese production for frozen pizzas, which limits job opportunities for workers in other industries. Limited job diversity also limits opportunities for workers to secure promotions or advance in their fields.
4. Reduced Social Safety Nets: Low-taxed states have a limited social safety net, which makes it challenging for workers facing difficult situations such as job loss or illness. Employees have to take out personal health insurance policies or put aside emergency funds out of pocket, which increases financial concerns and stress levels.
– While low tax states may have some benefits for businesses, they absolutely are not the most suitable places for workers to achieve an excellent quality of life.
** In short, Initiate a state income tax and raise business taxes and your economy will turn the corner and move toward its natural potential. Businesses will be proud of what the provide for their employees.
***What you’re doing isn’t working and hasn’t worked in fifty years no matter what deception your Governor tells.
Workforce demographics mandate that teenage workers are valuable, especially in the retail and service industries. If you are reliable, personsble, and adaptable, you are very valuable.
Keen insight, Mr. Heidelberger. It requires more than stenography to report news, and again you’ve shown how to deliver a coherent and factual narrative. Bravo.
Initiative 18 (and 19) kept anti-democratic lobbyists and other Fascists awake for weeks and reminded them that in order to achieve total control, they needed to restrict the Initiative process and prevent the People from governing themselves. But 18 (with the COLA) stands and one hears hardly a whimper from Mr. Samuelson – for whom “minimum wage” is merely an abstract concept.
You can see the lights of Denver from Edgemont.