The minimum wage, that is.

Via today’s Detroit Free Press, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign into law a Bill that would raise Michigan’s minimum wage to $7.40 an hour.

The most ridiculous item in the article:

Others who manage minimum-wage workers were pleased, saying that the raise would ease staffing woes.

Phillip Hill, assistant manager at a Burger King in Southfield, said better wages would let him hire people who work harder and stay longer. To have enough workers at a given time, Hill said he has to overstaff every day. “And the job is still not getting done,” he said.

Allow me to point out what ought to be painfully obvious:

Nothing about the current state of affairs or minimum wage prevents the Southfield Burger King from employing 16 year olds and high-school dropouts for $7.40 an hour today. It’s called an “incentive.” If $5.15 isn’t enough to keep a full staff, he ought to raise their wages. Unless he cannot afford to do so, which then forces one to wonder how he proposes to give all of his employees a 44% pay raise over the next two years.

Why he, or anyone for that matter, is under the impression that only a State mandated minimum wage hike can accomplish this escapes all logic.

post-script: I sent the body of this post to the editor of the Freep. Perhaps my insight will grace the pages of the paper in a few days…