Sen. Marshall: $15 per Hour Minimum Wage Would Kill Kansas Jobs

(Washington, D.C., February 25, 2021) – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D., a member of the Senate Small Business Committee, joined his Senate colleagues yesterday at a press conference to discuss the recent job-killing Democrat proposal to increase the minimum wage nationwide to $15 per hour. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a $15 per hour federally mandated minimum wage would kill 1.4 million jobs. An additional study found that it would increase child care costs on average by 28% per year for Kansas families. Another study found that Kansas is projected to lose 34,000 jobs by 2027 due to a $15 per hour minimum wage. You may click HERE or on the image below to watch Senator Marshall’s remarks.

Excerpts of Senator Marshall’s Remarks:

“…Like some of my friends, Tim and Joni and John said, my first job was also working for minimum wage at a sale barn. $1.60 an hour in 1976. That’s right. I was scooping cow manure for a $1.60 an hour. But within a month’s time, I worked myself up. I got a dime raise. I worked with about 15 other high school classmates through high school and junior college with a great part time job, and it was a great supplement to my income and helped me not have any debt when I finished college as well… What you can buy with the dollar in Kansas is different than what you could buy with the dollar in New York City, just like Cynthia said. So one size doesn’t fit all. I think that’s very, very obvious… What frustrates me, though, is issues like this take our eye off the real ball. This long, cold, dreary winter is almost over. I can see spring coming. There’s so much great news out. Our economy is recovering. Our unemployment in Kansas is around 4% across the nation it’s around 6%. We’re predicting a GDP growth this quarter of over 9%. Great healthcare news out there in the past week, we discovered that our vaccines with one shot gives you have 75% to 80% vaccination rates to protect people from the virus. We could have herd immunity by April or May if our president’s team does their job and our local governors do their jobs. That’s what we need to get this economy going and this country going again is getting shots and people’s arms, getting people back to work and getting our kids back in school. That’s where our focus needs to be right now.”

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