NH House passes bill to end NH minimum wage

[Keith and stuff]

The NH House passed HB 133 to end the NH minimum wage by a vote of 239 to 106. The federal minimum wage would still apply. Currently, NH is one of the states that has a minimum wage law but has it set at the same rate as the federal government.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0133.html

 

[Keith and stuff]

Apparently I misread this bill. It doesn't actually end the NH minimum wage (which wouldn't actually change much anyway as there is a federal level.) It is still a good bill, though not as good as I though it was. I am sorry for this mistake.

I may not have been the only one to make this mistake. The New Hampshire Union Leader, the statewide NH newspaper, just came out with an editorial calling for an end to the NH state minimum wage and supporting HB 133.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110512/OPINION01/705129999

Here are a couple of the comments on the article.

Spike said:
SA 279:21 is the law that provides for a minimum wage for New Hampshire businesses not covered by the federal minimum wage. HB 133 would not repeal this law! The law extends the federal rate to all state businesses. It also provides a separate wage floor (most recently: "On and after September 1, 2008 $7.25"). All HB 133 does is delete the dates and amounts (which are currently identical to the federal minimum wage anyway). A committee member reporting to the House said, "This bill strikes...redundant language [and] would additionally alleviate the need for the legislature to...amend...RSA 279:21 each...time the federal rate changes." The Democrats replied that the table in the law makes it easier for the state to go above the federal rate.

Tammy said:
HB133 does not eliminate or change the minimum wage at all. It does clean up the RSA to take out redundant and out of date language and leaves in the portion of the RSA that says we recognize the federal minimum wage - which currently is $7.25.

 

[Keith and stuff]

I guess it's not so big a deal that I misunderstood this bill at first. It turns out that even the Democratic Governor of NH, John Lynch wasn't able to understand the bill after having is paid lawyers look over it. Or maybe he is just being super political for some reason. In an effort to make everyone laugh, Lynch even tries to make a states right argument out of it.

The bill passed both the NH House and NH Senate by veto proof majorities and is just considered a technical correction to the law.

Lynch vetoes bill eliminating state minimum wage law
By GARRY RAYNO
Published Jun 9, 2011 at 10:14 am

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110609/NEWS06/706099951/-1/NEWS06

Here is a interesting comment to the article,

Spike said:

Again, this bill did not "do away with the state's minimum wage law," which dictates terms to businesses too small to be covered by the federal law. It merely deleted an obsolete table of specific wages in favor of the formula, already in the law, that ties the state minimum wage to the federal minimum wage.

Governor Lynch's rationale for vetoing the bill is, therefore, a lie. The state could at any time raise (or lower) the state minimum wage through future legislation. The state minimum wage will continue to rise automatically whenever the federal minimum wage is raised. Governor Lynch is simply thumbing his nose at Republicans, and posturing that he is on the side of the worker and they are not.

 

[Keith and stuff]

The NH Governor vetoed this bill as I mentioned above but the NH House and the NH Senate thought that was silly as this is a clean-up bill. They both voted to override the veto

http://www.nhinsider.com/rep-steve-...g-bang-bang-three-lynch-vetoes-shot-down.html

Republicans were 261-14 for the bill, Democrats 0-96 against it for a total of 261-110 or 70.4 percent.

 

[libertybrewcity]

The democrats are just mad because it will make them harder for them to pass a bill in the future that raises minimum wage 7 or 8 dollars (starting from zero) to go past the federal wage.

 

[Keith and stuff]

2011 News
More great news. Not only did the legislature in NH pass a bill to defer to the federal minimum wage this year, but last year it actually reclassified some jobs to a different wage category.

2010 News

Last year, the Legislature expanded the definition of tipped workers to include people who deliver pizzas and Chinese food, even though some of them do not work inside restaurants that serve meals on the premises. Senate Bill 416 sailed through the House and Senate on voice votes. Four of its five sponsors were Democrats.

tipped workers can be paid as little as $3.26 an hour

More 2011 News
And guess what, the legislature is looking to reclassify some jobs to a different wage category again.

Card dealers and other gambling industry workers would no longer qualify for minimum wage under a bill that the House Labor Committee endorsed Tuesday.

By a vote of 8-7 the committee recommended passage of House Bill 494, which would treat dealers like waiters, motel maids and other tipped employees.

The bill was sought by owners of charitable gaming operations, including Rockingham Park in Salem and the River Card Room in Milford.

Labor Committee chair Rep. Gary Daniels, R-Milford, said he believes the gambling operators when they say that the bill will help their business, and the economy.

“One of the compelling arguments is that it would enable an employer to use whatever money is saved, if you will, and in turn, allow them to expand the business and possibly put more people to work,” he said.

The bill adds employees of game operators to existing state law on workers in the restaurant and lodging industries. The law says workers can be paid 45 percent of the minimum wage if they customarily earn more than $30 a month in tips.

Most people that understand economics agree that the lower the minimum wage, the better it is for the economy and workers. I'm glad to see so much progress on this issue in NH. Unemployment is 4th lowest and the median household income is higher in NH than any other state. However, we can do better. Yes, we can do better.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111019/NEWS06/710199973

 

[libertybrewcity]

This is amazing. I wonder how far they could take this. NH is creative