Who owns Ben and Jerry?
Via Watch Dog
The decision on whether to hike Vermont’s minimum wages may come down to whom lawmakers trust the most: hometown heroes Ben and Jerry, or Vermont’s grocers.
At a recent gathering at the Capitol, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen endorsed H.552, which would raise Vermont’s minimum wage from $8.73 to $12.50.
“When we allow huge corporations that are doing business in our state to pay poverty wages, and we end up having to have our state and the federal government make up the difference, and essentially subsidize these huge corporations that are making incredible profits, I think it’s criminal,” Cohen said.
Speaking to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters, Cohen said that while industries hit by a higher cost of labor might have to raise prices, a minimum wage increase was otherwise “not going to affect their businesses.”
A nonpartisan legislative report accompanying H.552 reached a different conclusion.
The recently released report stated that a $12.50 minimum wage “has serious drawbacks that limit its efficacy in achieving the overall objective of improving the well-being of low-wage, working Vermonters and their families.”
It further warned that raising the wage to $12.50 would cause job losses and “precipitous state and federal public benefit reductions” for workers.
“Minimum wage increases that even approach an average livable wage would result in significantly fewer jobs for low wage workers,” the report said.