News that Idaho is No. 1 in the nation in the proportion of minimum wage workers brought a swift retort from the newly elected chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party, Larry Kenck.
In a statement early Thursday, Kenck said decades of GOP control of state policy are at fault, including failure to invest in education and last year’s income tax cuts that reduced rates at the top of the tax tables.
“We need responsible leadership in our state and we as citizens must hold our state elected leaders accountable for the terrible priorities that put workers and education—and ultimately, businesses—last,” said Kenck, who was elected chairman Saturday.
Kenck, of Post Falls, is a former Teamsters Union official who fought against the successful GOP effort to enact Right to Work in the 1980s. Since then, union membership in Idaho has fallen sharply, now ranking seventh from the bottom nationally as a proportion of the workforce, at 7.8 percent.
Republicans have controlled the Legislature without interruption since 1960. A 24-year run of Democratic governors ended in 1995, with Republicans holding the top office since. Kenck said citizens must hold the GOP accountable.
About 33,000 Idaho hourly employees, or 7.7 percent of the hourly workforce, earned the minimum wage in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Idaho GOP declined comment. “Although I appreciate the opportunity to comment the Idaho Republican Party does not have a comment at this time,” said Executive Director Joshua Whitworth.
Kenck’s news release follows:
Idaho Low Wages Result from Years of Failed GOP Policies
Boise, Idaho—IDP Chairman Larry Kenck made this statement in response to news that Idaho leads the nation in the percentage of workers who earn the minimum wage:
Idaho has suffered from decades of GOP policies that do very little to encourage high-paying businesses to re-locate to Idaho or to stay in Idaho.
Every time you ask businesses to name their top need, they will say a “well-educated and qualified workforce.” So, while Idaho leads the nation in minimum wage workers, we are at the absolute bottom of the nation in our investment in education. To make matters worse, just last year our legislators chose to give $35.7 million in cuts to the wealthiest Idahoans even though education budgets still remain far below pre-recession levels.
We need responsible leadership in our state and we as citizens must hold our state elected leaders accountable for the terrible priorities that put workers and education—and ultimately, businesses—last. And, remember, the story about our shameful minimum wage problem is just a statistic in the newspaper and to the legislature and governor, but out here in the real world it isn’t a statistic at all—it’s real families of hardworking Idahoans who need fair wages and a fair shot at prosperity to give their children the bright futures they deserve.
Mr. Kenck is spot on.
I’m a conservative Republican who voted for only one national Dem…until the last election. My party is intent on defunding, privatizing everything public; deregulating everything business so a few may make billions, to the detriment of Idaho Citizens, Idaho’s disappearing middle class.
My Party’s vision for America: Outsource every good middle class job overseas. All of them. Replaced by one giant call center where US citizens will earn $10 per hour. 32 hours per week. No benefits. The aforementioned call center will support the other remaining US Industry, Banking and Finance. The financial sector will thrive as they loan money to increasingly poorer and poorer former middle class citizens.
I’m still trying to understand why my Party voted down legislation that would have rewarded companies for bringing jobs back to our shores, then protected tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs overseas.
A former avid supporter of Right to Work, privatizing public entities, deregulation. Letting the Market be the Market. Anti-union. Fiercely anti-government workers Unions. I changed my mind. This noble experiment did not work. As Greenspan famously stated “there was a glitch.”
Devil; You may say your republican and may be registered republican, But your not conservative. You want big gov’t but big gov’t is inefficient, over-bloated, and fiscally irresponsible. You sound extremely uninformed and spouting out Liberal talking points. Do your research and read/watch other than the liberal media. You’ll find out the truth of why jobs leave, why unions don’t work (anymore), and exactly why gov’t messes everything up.
Education may be the only thing you are close to being right about. We do need to invest in our kids and Luna proposed a measure to do just that. It was shot down by people like you. Alright fine Luna’ plan wasn’t perfect. Where is yours? You want higher paying jobs, Educate our kids, you want the jobs in Idaho, lower taxes and give incentives for them to come here. There are higher paying jobs out there. Sad to say the new working generation is to lazy to go out and work for it. Idaho’s Legislation has not failed Idahoans, Raising our kids in a “everyone gets a medal” society has failed us. Family values have declined, no responsibility has been instilled amongst our children. Sit them in front of the TV / Games/MTV and watching the filth that is on the tube. That is what has failed us. When was the last time you regularly went to church? If you do, when was the last time you invited a troubled teen or adult to church. When was the last time you volunteered for something
Before attacking current & existing legislation, everyone needs to look at themselves and ask what have I done to help the people of my community, my city and my state. Once we start to help each other you’ll live a happier life, and realize that just because we are at the top of the list of states with the most minimum wage workers per capita, your next thought would be, what can I do for them to get them the education to move on up.
Really? When was the last time you went to church? Again, the spouting of religion thrown into the mix. As if religion is the answer to better children. Come on… It’s funny to me how the poorest people in our society consitently vote for republicans because they are brain washed into the notions that there religious rights, gun rights and freedoms will be taken away. Top republicans spout fear in people so they can continue their greedy need of making more money for themselves.
Fear huh. Sounds like someone is making you fear religion, fear guns. And who do you think is reaping money from it. The left. Have you lived in a hole the last 10 years+. Anyone that shows their love of faith is ridiculed. Christmas can’t be called Christmas anymore just because someone can be offended. And now states are pushing for legislation on certain gun confiscations. Its not brain wash into notions that these things are happening. They are happening. I brought up church because it is a positive place for people in need of a path. Look at left leaning people like you when Religion is brought up. Your so scared you blind yourself to the positive aspects of it.
Your statistics are wrong. According to the 2010 census 15.1% of the population live in poverty. Out of that number the two most poorest group of people in the country are Asians 12.1%, Hispanics 26.6% and Blacks are #1 at 27.4%. Your notion that the poorest people in our society vote republican, then we better have a recount of the last election. 73% of Asians voted Democrat, 71% of Hispanics voted Democrat, 93% of Blacks voted Democrat. Your are wrong when you say the poorest people in our society consistently vote republican. Sad to say but the poorest people in our society will vote for anyone giving a handout.
Now back to the the article. Work on Education, work on our society and values and you will see a better working Idaho, a better family values Idaho, and just in general a better Idaho. I pray for you Seriously.
@Pin4six
“Spouting talking points”??? Did you read your own post?
You seem to be doing plenty of that yourself.
Big government being innefficient: Who has been in charge of the government since 1960? and especially since 1995?
Luna’s plan: Cronyism and yet another example of an attempt to reduce wages (teachers). There are plenty of examples of better plans, asking the actual educators for their plan(s) would have been a good start.
Breakdown of society: Your points are debatable and I would certainly agree with many of them, however…even if every point you are making is valid, why does Idaho have the highest number of minimum-wage workers per capita compared to other states? Is it because the young people of Idaho are worse than other states when it comes to being lazy and playing video games? That’s interesting. I would argue that the elected leaders of Idaho for the past few decades should take some of the blame for not working to deal with these issues. Just throwing your hands up in the air and saying “These kids are lazy” doesn’t seem to be working from a policy standpoint and I have always thought that was the job of elected officials. That is kind of what Kenck is saying.
Asking what have we done to help the community: Excellent point and well worth discussing by all who read it. However, if you look at the leadership of Idaho for the past few years, the answer from them would be…not much. I see our elected officials consistently working on legislation and policies that HURT the young people of Idaho and give our young people LESS opportunity for a good future. Example: Your question to us all-”what can I do for them to get them the education to move on up?” …. The Idaho Legislature and Governor’s answer to that question seems to be: Cut funding to education. Cut funding to programs to help children prepare for school. Cut H&W programs that will help families deal with illness (mental health/chronic health).
So…I don’t think that Larry Kenck is wrong. I give him kudos for calling it like it is.
Larry Kenck is doing this for political reason and probably to instill liberal more gov’t ways of solving these issues which would probably be throw more money at it. Tax the rich, yadda yadda yadda. I am talking about our society in a whole and we as the people stepping up and fixing our community and state ourselves without the political B.S. We criticize the current agenda/legislation just to in-turn in 10-20 years start to criticize the Dems agenda/legislation if and when that doesn’t work. Apparently some of you are not getting what I am saying. One political parties answers are not much different then the others as long as our morals and values continue to decline. Hence what can we do to help our community, state. Not what can the state do for us. I pray for you as well Guy.
Pin4Six,
I’m more conservative than you. And I agree with you. Our current State government in Idaho “has messed things up.” I also agree that Conservatives reach out to help others.
Problem is we haven’t yet mastered holding our State Legislators and political appointees accountable when they “help themselves” to ALEC and Abramoff dollars at the expense of those who they represent. We defer to the “wisdom” of Foster & Fields while questioning the integrity of Ben Ysursa when Ben stood in the gap to protect Idaho Citizens and our Sunshine Laws.
Props 1, 2, and 3? Our Party retaliated against, silenced, and punished our best and brightest all-things-education Republicans. Powerful lobbyists for the troubled For-profit education industry had greater access to our Legislators than did Parents, Teachers, and Students.
My heroes are Theodore Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan. Don’t see many in our Party elected or appointed in Idaho with their vision, integrity, or leadership abilities.
A westerner, an Idahoan, I was flying the Gadsden flag before flying the Gadsden flag was cool. We Conservatives used to demand that access trump elitism, that fellow Republicans elected or appointed to State office be effective managers of the highest integrity. We believed that “smaller is better” so we focused first on solid leadership in our cities, municipalities, and state. We didn’t embarrass our Party or hold our Party up for public ridicule.
We Republicans no longer need look to California or Chicago politics for a good laugh.
One Republican charged at the national level to grow our base, famously stated “we have to stop being the ‘stupid Party’.”
Per the recent Idaho Legislator Ethics training session, do Idaho Legislators, Idaho State Department Directors and staff, appointees such as those to our Industrial Commission, et al meet the floor level of “value based ethics;” the floor level of compliance based ethics?
We are not alone. Our Party in Idaho broke the trust of many fellow Republicans and Idaho Citizens. Our Party’s ethics problem is rampant in other Western states. See the links below. Read and weep.
Utah:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/55598812-200/johnson-swallow-rawle-attorney.html.csp
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-77-16068-dialing-for-dollars.html
Arizona:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/tomhorne/index.html
Jack Abramoff: “Fire up the jet baby, we’re going to El Paso!!” Mike Scanlon: “I want all their MONEY!!!” Email interchange between Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon, February 6, 2002
@sundevil
Best post I’ve seen all month!
A good mystery is how do they know that?
Where in the employee/employer world is # of min wage employees reported? It’s not. So this would have to be some type of survey/estimate.
It’s all available through the Idaho Dept of Labor. You think this information isn’t tracked?
DOL- Dept of Labor, get Name, SSN and total Wage. No where does the report include the hourly rate.
I think this specific information is “guessed”.
I live outside of Idaho now; however, while there it was fairly obvious that the industries, farming and support industries were primarily these types of jobs. Accordingly, the cost of living is also much less than where I now live. Granted, there are some higher paying employers, etc., but because of the demographics, the numbers are the numbers. I also note that I live in a state with a deficit (very liberal state – lots of government) and Idaho is a more conservative state that pays its bills and has good budgets. So, as a retired CPA I am not sure that Democrat Larry Kenck is qualified to make any intelligent observation on this issue.
Yup! Idaho is right up at the top in education, healthcare, infrastructure, a prosperous middle class and enlightened citizenry. We’re just the envy of the nation. And why? Because we have such visionary leadership and astute citizens. Just like “pimp2″.
There should be no minimum wage, it should be market, not politically driven/defined.
I always paid more than minimum wage in my fast food restaurants, because the market demanded it. If I paid minimum wages, the employees left after 3 months to work for another fast food joint down the street who paid $1 more.
Having tried to just do minimum wage, the quality of employees hired was poor and turnover was high. When I raised wages to the market level needed to hire and retain better workers, I actually saved money through less turnover, less theft and higher productivity. Before I sold my restaurants the average wage was $8.50 per hour.
Those making minimum wages, also tend to be consumers of businesses whose products or services are sold or manufactured by those making minimum wages, such as fast food, gas stations, movies, grocery stores, etc. The inflation created by artificial wage limits tends to actually hurt those making minimum wages because the inflation applies to their purchasing decisions disproportionately more than those with higher income. In a sense you are taxing the poor to pay the poor, it does not create wealth.
Many minimum wage jobs exist to provide teen income opportunities or supplemental adult income. The fact that many people are choosing minimum wage jobs as a career was never the intent of those jobs. A reduction in the pool of minimum wage job applicants has created the career fast food worker. The reduction in work force is due to government entitlement programs which are more lucrative than working for minimum wage, and a newer lazy generation that does not want to work versus ask their parents (and receive) generous allowances.
About 25% of those I called to interview, did not show up for the interview. Those who gave a reason for not interviewing frequently stated they wanted to stay unemployed to keep receiving government benefits, but they were required to apply for so many jobs per week to keep their government benefits.
Minimum wage should be low to serve as an incentive for higher education and other life betterment strategies. To make a minimum wage job more of a career possibility deters people from making better choices that will benefit their families much more than what a few dollars a week raising the minimum wage would.
They call it right to work for a reason. Right to work for nothing.
As Jared mentions, minimum wage should not be worse than government benefits. Either benefits need to be cut, or the wage increased. In any case, wages should be entirely up to the persons wanting work, and the persons writing the checks. Where malfeasance is involved (not paying an agreed rate at the agreed time, or withholding some pay, or making workers cover expenses like tools or transportation that are clearly job related expenses) then the governments involvement should be cheered.
But mandating the worth of a person (which is what a wage is… how much money is your time worth) is dangerous territory for government involvement.
Where ever minimum wage laws are discussed, we also need to consider that hourly productivity. If the productivity of a worker is poor, then that justifies a low wage. If the productivity of a worker is high, then that justifies a higher wage.
Yes, Idaho now has a number 1 ranking yet again, albeit a rather dubious one. It’s interesting that Republicans blame Democrats and Democrats blame Republicans; yet the simple truth of the matter is that it took both parties to break this state, and this country.
So now we are not only one of the most corrupt states in the Nation, but we have the highest number of people per capita drawing minimum wages, or less. And people wonder why the number of people going onto Public Assistance in Idaho is also the highest per capita in the Nation, and increasing daily.
Perhaps Gov. Otter and our Legislators need to repeal the Right to Work law that has been so injurious to Idaho since it was passed in 1985, and spend more time attracting real business and industry. The proliferating Call Center and Collections Agency Center boom in Idaho isn’t really putting people back to work, it’s merely providing unstable, no benefits, minimum wage jobs. Those are not the industries Idaho needs to build a secure future for itself and its citizens.