It should come as no surprise to you that Florida and Arizona lawmakers advocate discriminatory employment practices. After all, Arizona’s discrimination against Latinos as evidenced by their anti-immigration policies is among the most outrageous in the nation.
The latest ridiculousness is the move to lower minimum wage for younger part-time workers and tipped workers. The justification for such a move is that the wage floors are too taxing on businesses. This is yet another example of favoring corporations over individuals.
It’s bad enough that Republican lawmakers want tipped workers to bear the brunt of maximizing profits for the corporation, but what they’re talking about doing to teen workers is on par with exploitation of child labor. If Arizona Republican lawmakers have their way, it’ll be legal for businesses to cut the minimum wage for part-time or temporary teen workers from the current rate of $7.65 to $4.65.
If a teen worker does a job, they should receive equal pay for equal work. This is age discrimination and the people of Arizona and Florida should not let this stand. Apparently all the corporations and complicit Republican lawmakers want is cheap labor–any way they can get it.
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers in Arizona are pushing legislation that would lower the legal minimum wage for younger part-time workers and tipped workers such as restaurant servers, just as Florida lawmakers are considering dropping their state’s tipped rate as well.
In both cases, proponents of the measures are arguing that the wage floor for such employees is too onerous on businesses.
The Arizona proposal, HCR 2056, would amend state law so that an employer could pay a teenage worker $3 less than the current minimum wage per hour if the worker is employed either part-time or on a temporary basis. The Arizona minimum wage is currently $7.65 — forty cents more than the federal rate — meaning that many teenagers could end up being paid $4.65 per hour if voters approve the proposal in a ballot initiative later this year.
Source: Huffington Post
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