Jay Dickey: “As a politician, the minimum wage exists and we have to have a minimum wage. Now what I am saying to you as far as the…”

“As a politician, the minimum wage exists and we have to have a minimum wage. Now what I am saying to you as far as the economy is concerned, it is destructive of the economy's best interests. As an employer, I would say that I could take the case that employees are worse off with a minimum wage, whatever it is, than they would be if we did not have it at all. What I am saying to you is from the perspective of the employee, the problem with the minimum wage is that we are giving them an idea that that is the maximum wage. If an employee stays in the employ of an employer to a certain point and does not reach higher productivity than the minimum wage, they probably should be terminated. Because what is going to happen is the consumer... the consumer does not want somebody who is not trying to improve, who does not want to try to reach a higher level of achievement and does not want to please them. If someone is working for a minimum wage and waiting for politicians to come in and give them their raise, if they do, then you are going to have poorer service and you are going to have a lackluster type of performance.”