Sara S
02-11-2014, 10:58 AM
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Fight Over Minimum Wage Illustrates Web of Industry Ties
by Eric Lipton-New York Times
WASHINGTON — Just four blocks from the White House is the headquarters of the Employment Policies Institute, (https://www.epionline.org/news/) a widely quoted economic research center whose academic reports have repeatedly warned that increasing the minimum wage could be harmful, increasing poverty and unemployment.
But something fundamental goes unsaid in the institute’s reports: The nonprofit group is run by a public relations firm that also represents the restaurant industry, as part of a tightly coordinated effort to defeat the minimum wage increase that the White House and Democrats in Congress have pushed for.
“The vast majority of economic research shows there are serious consequences,” Michael Saltsman, the institute’s research director, said in an interview, before he declined to list the restaurant chains that were among its contributors.
<aside class="marginalia related-coverage-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled">
</aside> The campaign illustrates how groups — conservative and liberal — are again working in opaque ways to shape hot-button political debates, like the one surrounding minimum wage, through organizations with benign-sounding names that can mask the intentions of their deep-pocketed patrons.
They do it with the gloss of research, and play a critical and often underappreciated role in multilevel lobbying campaigns, backed by corporate lobbyists and labor unions, with a potential payoff that can be in the millions of dollars for the interests they represent.
“It is the way of Washington now — and that is unfortunate,” said John Weaver, (https://thenetworkcompanies.com/our-team/john-weaver-1) a Republican political consultant who has helped run several presidential campaigns. “Because if it’s not dishonest, it’s at least disingenuous.”
In this case, the policy dispute is over whether increasing the minimum wage by nearly 40 percent to $10.10 an hour within two and a half years would reduce poverty or further it.
Even if the legislation never passes — and it is unlikely to, given the political divide in Congress — millions of dollars will be spent this year on lobbying firms, nonprofit research organizations and advertising campaigns, as industry groups like the National Restaurant Association (https://www.restaurant.org/advocacy/All-Issues/Minimum-Wage/Overview) and the National Retail Federation (https://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=1756) try to bury it. Liberal groups, in turn, will be spending lots of money as they try to make the debate a political issue for the midterm elections.
The left has its own prominent groups, like the Center for American Progress (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2013/02/15/53603/a-higher-minimum-wage-will-not-hurt-u-s-businesses/) and the Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/), whose donors include nearly 20 labor unions, and whose reports, with their own aura of objectivity, consistently conclude (https://s4.epi.org/files/2013/Raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-1010-would-lift-wages-for-millions-and-provide-a-modest-economic-boost-12-19-2013.pdf) that raising the minimum wage makes good economic sense. But none has played such a prominent and multifaceted role in recent months as the conservative Employment Policies Institute.
Continues here (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/us/politics/fight-over-minimum-wage-illustrates-web-of-industry-ties.html?_r=0).
Fight Over Minimum Wage Illustrates Web of Industry Ties
by Eric Lipton-New York Times
WASHINGTON — Just four blocks from the White House is the headquarters of the Employment Policies Institute, (https://www.epionline.org/news/) a widely quoted economic research center whose academic reports have repeatedly warned that increasing the minimum wage could be harmful, increasing poverty and unemployment.
But something fundamental goes unsaid in the institute’s reports: The nonprofit group is run by a public relations firm that also represents the restaurant industry, as part of a tightly coordinated effort to defeat the minimum wage increase that the White House and Democrats in Congress have pushed for.
“The vast majority of economic research shows there are serious consequences,” Michael Saltsman, the institute’s research director, said in an interview, before he declined to list the restaurant chains that were among its contributors.
<aside class="marginalia related-coverage-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled">
</aside> The campaign illustrates how groups — conservative and liberal — are again working in opaque ways to shape hot-button political debates, like the one surrounding minimum wage, through organizations with benign-sounding names that can mask the intentions of their deep-pocketed patrons.
They do it with the gloss of research, and play a critical and often underappreciated role in multilevel lobbying campaigns, backed by corporate lobbyists and labor unions, with a potential payoff that can be in the millions of dollars for the interests they represent.
“It is the way of Washington now — and that is unfortunate,” said John Weaver, (https://thenetworkcompanies.com/our-team/john-weaver-1) a Republican political consultant who has helped run several presidential campaigns. “Because if it’s not dishonest, it’s at least disingenuous.”
In this case, the policy dispute is over whether increasing the minimum wage by nearly 40 percent to $10.10 an hour within two and a half years would reduce poverty or further it.
Even if the legislation never passes — and it is unlikely to, given the political divide in Congress — millions of dollars will be spent this year on lobbying firms, nonprofit research organizations and advertising campaigns, as industry groups like the National Restaurant Association (https://www.restaurant.org/advocacy/All-Issues/Minimum-Wage/Overview) and the National Retail Federation (https://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=1756) try to bury it. Liberal groups, in turn, will be spending lots of money as they try to make the debate a political issue for the midterm elections.
The left has its own prominent groups, like the Center for American Progress (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2013/02/15/53603/a-higher-minimum-wage-will-not-hurt-u-s-businesses/) and the Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/), whose donors include nearly 20 labor unions, and whose reports, with their own aura of objectivity, consistently conclude (https://s4.epi.org/files/2013/Raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-1010-would-lift-wages-for-millions-and-provide-a-modest-economic-boost-12-19-2013.pdf) that raising the minimum wage makes good economic sense. But none has played such a prominent and multifaceted role in recent months as the conservative Employment Policies Institute.
Continues here (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/us/politics/fight-over-minimum-wage-illustrates-web-of-industry-ties.html?_r=0).