AFL-CIO boss gave bogus
information to Legislature
AFL-CIO leader
Danny Thompson recently testified before Nevada lawmakers that
51,000 Nevadans earn the $5.15 per hour minimum wage and
another 50,000 earn less than $6.15 per hour.
But the union’s
own wholly-owned think tank, in Washington, D.C., says
Thompson is “confused.”
Actually, Nevada
has only about 8,000 workers who earn the minimum wage of
$5.15 per hour, according to an analyst with the AFL-CIO’s
Economic Policy Institute. According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, that is less than 1 percent of the
million individuals employed in Nevada.
The original
Las Vegas Review-Journal story on this matter is at:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-03-Thu-2005/news/25982948.html
On
March 4,
the
Review-Journal also commented editorially:
Meanwhile...
In urging the Assembly to
approve an increase in the minimum wage, state labor leader
Danny Thompson told lawmakers this week that 51,000 state
workers toil for $5.15 an hour. Oops.
Turns out Mr. Thompson was
misinterpreting data from the uber-liberal Economic Policy
Institute, which actually found that Nevada has only 8,000
minimum wage workers.
And how many of those are
younger than 25 or part-time employees simply looking to
supplement their household incomes? How many have been in
their jobs for years without a pay hike?
Union bosses create a
picture of the typical minimum wage earner as a struggling
35-year-old, full-time worker with two kids at home. Reality
paints a different picture.
So it's better instead to
just fudge the numbers.
