Liberal Wedge Issues, Pt. II

The One-Terminator has jumped on the liberal wedge-issue bandwagon and proposed a one-dollar hike in the minimum wage. What the headline doesn't tell you, but the story does, is that this represents a desperate incumbent playing defense, not offense:

After two years of rejecting increases in the minimum wage at the behest of California businesses, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger next week will propose raising the basic hourly pay $1 over 18 months, administration officials said Friday [...]

Restaurants and retail businesses that rely on unskilled, low-wage workers have maintained that a higher mandatory wage slows economic growth by driving up costs and discouraging them from hiring more employees.

But in California, business owners are facing a ballot initiative that would increase the minimum wage to $8.75 an hour and require cost-of-living increases after that. With internal polling showing widespread public support for an increase, some business groups said Friday that they were inclined to support the governor's plan.

"I think a minimum wage increase is inevitable," said Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Assn. "The governor has come up with the best compromise the business community can get."

It's not hard to connect these dots. Schwarzenegger is trying to defuse the issue rather than inflame it, and give workers the rawest deal he can get away with. When the traditional media blowhards start bloviating about how much of a "maverick centrist" Schwarzenegger is, keep this in mind. He's trying to hold the gates back before they burst, nothing more. And he's vetoed TWO minimum wage increases in as many years. We should all know exactly what side of this issue he's on.

UPDATE: The New York Times has a story about the minimum wage issue. Even the CEO of Wal-Mart is on the record in calling for an increase (since his target audience is the working poor, anyway). And this was new to me:

The 2006 battle over the minimum wage is expected to be particularly intense in Ohio, one of only two states that have a minimum wage below the federal level (the other is Kansas). The minimum wage in Ohio since 1991 has been $4.25 an hour, which applies to small employers, some farms and most restaurants. Workers at larger enterprises are generally covered by the federal minimum wage.

Efforts to get the Republican-run General Assembly to consider raising Ohio's minimum wage have gone nowhere, so labor groups and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, an advocacy group for low-income individuals and families, are planning a ballot initiative to put the issue to a popular vote in November.

This is a winner in a state that will be one of the major hot spots in 2006, with several House seats, Mike DeWine's Senate seat and the governor's chair in play.