Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) even found himself on the right side of the chief executive of a major corporation on Thursday when the two debated a $ 15 minimum wage.
Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek couldn’t quite understand why Graham was arguing about the higher pay – perhaps because Costco is preparing to raise its own minimum wage to $ 16 an hour starting next week. The company, which employs 180,000 workers, paid $ 15 an hour in 2019, and more than half of its workers now earn $ 25 an hour.
The increase “is not altruism,” Jelinek said at a Senate Committee on Budgets hearing. “At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages … makes sense to our business and represents a significant competitive advantage for us. It helps us in the long run by minimizing turnover and maximizing employee productivity. “
He added, “We are certainly not perfect, but we try to take care of our employees because they play such an important role in our success.”
But Graham tried to tell Jelinek that now “is not the time” to set a higher minimum wage because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The senator said he wasn’t really concerned about big companies like Costco. But he was “concerned about the small business owner” – though apparently not about the employees – “having a hard time because COVID has diminished their ability to make a living. Do you understand where I’m from?” He asked.
Jelinek replied that he did.
“So if you run a restaurant or hotel and no one can travel across the country and the number of seats has been reduced … the revenues have gone down … you can understand why a larger government mandate in terms of costs is a devastating one. would be blowing? ” Graham asked.
Jelinek replied, “I cannot understand why it would be a devastating blow. I think it’s a devastating blow to the workers, ”he began, perhaps to make something about the minimum wage, but Graham spoke of him.
The senator chided him for failing to see the business difficulties of “doubling the minimum wage.” Don’t you understand that? “he broke.
“I don’t know if I proposed doubling the minimum wage,” replied the Costco CEO.
When asked by Graham if he would support a $ 11 minimum wage, a proposal from Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), Jelinek replied, “It’s better than $ 7.25.” Graham replied, “Fair enough.”
Budgets Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Pointed to a Government Accountability Office investigation that found millions of American workers are so poorly paid at companies like Walmart that they need food stamps and Medicaid to survive that he characterized huge taxpayer subsidy for companies.
Congress had prepared to vote on legislation that aims to gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour by 2025 – a campaign promise from President Joe Biden. The federal minimum has been stalled at $ 7.25 an hour since 2009, although many states already have higher minimum wages.
But the Senate MP on Thursday ruled that the Democrats’ strategy to implement the increase as part of their $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package violates Senate rules. The decision was almost certainly a fatal blow to quickly giving tens of millions of workers a pay rise, at least as part of the emergency relief act.
Watch Graham Jelinek try to explain about the hardships faced by business owners – but not employees – in the video at the top.
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