NH GOP Dumps State Minimum Wage

Saying that the minimum wage kills jobs, yesterday New Hampshire's Tea Party-dominated legislature abolished the state's rules on the issue. As is so often the case, however, it was a meaningless move.

The change takes effect Sunday, but it will have no consequence for employers or employees because New Hampshire's minimum wage was the same as the federal wage, which remains in force. During the fight over the removing the state law from the books, Republicans insisted the wage law not only makes it harder to create jobs, it kills them. House Republicans also killed a Democratically sponsored bill that would have raised the wage. Democrats argued the 75 cent proposed hourly increase would put $30 more each week in the pockets of the state's 4,000 lowest-paid workers, money that would be spent boosting the economy.

First term GOP state Rep. Carol McGuire, the repeal's sponsor, says young workers aren't worth the minimum wage anyway: "It's very discriminatory, particularly for young people. They're not worth the minimum." McGuire is a member of the legislature's Republican Liberty Caucus.