Minimum wage is just the beginning

Plastered on just about every news site is the President's determination to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors  to $10.10 per hour. One only needs to go to CNN.com or MSNBC.com to see how this is seen as a courageous act and something that is necessary for the stability of our economy. How great will it be knowing now that janitors can make $2 an hour more than before!! Talk about stimulus! One of the justifications for this increase is to increase morale of low wage workers and to reduce employee turnaround. My question is, why would we want to?

First, by increasing minimum wage laws for government contractors this means more money from the taxpayers. The government needs to pay the contractors expenses which will increase due to wage increases, so the government will need to come up with more money aka taxes. Simple enough.

But it's not just that. If someone is a janitor for some federal contractor, why would you want them to have their morale in that particular position go up? Why would you want to reduce turnaround? The purpose of those jobs, besides the obvious, is that they are starting points for many. Also, wages reflect skill. For janitorial type work, it requires little specialization and skill. Turnaround is healthy for a company. Either the person in that position seeks employment with another company for a higher wage or advances to a higher pay grade in the same company. Maybe they change positions all together. Then, some other low skill worker will come along and fill that vacancy. Turns out voting isn't the only thing you can do with you feet, you can negotiate wages too!

Also, does anyone find it fair that a janitor for a government contractor gets paid more than someone working for a private company not making a living off the feds?

This stunt is to just get the ball rolling for when the President pushes for a minimum wage hike for all workers. He is testing the waters and already many Republicans are saying that Obama must not go around Congress. According to Jay Carney, the White House puppet, “You can be sure that the president fully intends to use his executive authority to use the unique powers of the office to make progress on economic opportunity, to make progress in the areas that he believes are so important to further economic growth and further job creation." Interesting, I don't remember that part in the Constitution.

We need to realize that this new found executive authority is unconstitutional. Once we abandon the framework of checks and balances we lose the constraints on federal power. We need to be willing to stand up to those who break the oath they swore on their inauguration. As long as the President has his supporters and the people don't stand up to him, what's to stop this expansion of authority?