Michigan Minimum Wage Zealots

As GR Pundit readers should already know, there is a campaign in Michigan to get a proposal on the ballot to increase the state's minimum wage to $7.15 an hour. We've already pointed out how increasing the minimum wage increases unemployment, but we've come across an amusing fact about the folks who are pushing this ballot proposal.

An organization called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is one of the prime backers of the proposal. ACORN is essentially a bunch of ill-informed socialists who campaign for living-wage and increased minimum wage laws, in addition to a whole host of other collectivist campaigns such as universal health care, "affordable housing," social[ist] security "protection," etc.

However, the funny part is that when ACORN was confronted with having to pay a "living-wage" in California, they sued the state, seeking an exemption. In ACORN's legal brief, they claim:

"The more that ACORN must pay each individual outreach worker—either because of minimum wage or overtime requirements—the fewer outreach workers it will be able to hire."

Well, that summs it up perfectly, doesn't it? Need we say more?

Oh, by the way, unemployment rates increased in 14 of Michigan's 17 major labor market areas in May. The Grand Rapids area's unemployment rate went from 5.7% in April to 6.3% in May.