This is pretty frustrating for conservatives.

North Dakota Republicans, including state Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem and House Majority Leader Rick Berg, have proposed an immediate hike in the state’s minimum wage to $5.85/hour, with subsequent hikes to $6.55/hour and ultimately $7.25/hour annually after that.

Why Republicans, of all people, are proposing this hike is beyond me.

The reality of North Dakota’s minimum wage situation is that just 4,000 workers in this state actually made the minimum wage in 2005 according to the U.S. census.  That’s just six tenths of a percent (0.6%) of North Dakota’s entire population.  And according to the Employment Policies Institute, just 4% of North Dakotans who would be impacted by a minimum wage raise to $7.25/hour are the single wage earners for their families.  The other 96% are young people who live with parents or family members whose income is not the primary income for the family.  Part-timers and students, to be specific.

The small amount of financial gain the minimum wage may provide for the minuscule portion of our population that actually earns it would likely be offset when employers of low-wage workers lay off workers due to the added expense of a higher minimum wage.  Remember that the minimum wage is little more than a subsidy for low-wage workers funded by a tax on employers who hire low-wage workers.  The minimum wage is counterproductive, to say the least.  It is burdensome to businesses, and the actual economic impact it has is minimal.

So again, why are North Dakota’s Republicans doing this?  I suspect they’ve abandoned principles for the sake of politics in this instance.  With the Dems in charge in Washington D.C. these North Dakota Republicans are probably thinking that we’re going to get stuck with a big minimum wage hike anyway.  So why not preempt the national Democrats and institute the minimum wage early so that the NDGOP can cash in on the populist accolades?

Forget that it’s bad for business, less than marginally effective as a tool for economic uplifting and totally contrary to conservative principles.

Given shenanigans like this, one wonders why any principled conservative should support Republicans any more.