Andrea Joy Campbell: “what is the compassionate and caring approach to people who need jobs? It is to give them jobs. The problem with the…”

“what is the compassionate and caring approach to people who need jobs? It is to give them jobs. The problem with the minimum wage debate is that the arguments have ignored the fundamental fact that it is better to give somebody a job and get them started on their path in life by earning their own income, getting ready to go to work, and keeping a schedule, rather than not to have a job at all. I would like to be able to wave a wand and make sure that everybody's income rises, but I cannot, and nobody in government can. What we can do though is say ``yes'' to somebody who has got a shot at starting in life with a minimum-wage job. So be it, because one moves on from that to the next. It is not compassionate, therefore, to increase the minimum wage. Every time we have done it since 1974, unless the economy was just shooting through the roof, we lost jobs from what otherwise would have happened. I am afraid that will happen again. Do not put a tax on those people who offer jobs to people who need them; unemployed people who need a start in life. Do not support an increase in the minimum wage.”