Job killer

Nevada needs jobs. Instead, it's about to lose more of them.

The state's minimum wage will rise again Thursday. Workers who don't have health insurance through their employers are supposed to get a 9.3 percent raise, from $7.55 per hour to $8.25 per hour. Those with company-provided medical benefits are supposed to get a 10.7 percent raise, from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour.

We say "supposed to" because a lot of minimum wage workers aren't going to get that raise. They're going to be let go because many businesses can't afford to pay it.

"This is of significant consequence to businesses who are staying alive in a very tough economy," says Bob Ansara, who owns the Ricardo's of Las Vegas Mexican restaurant on West Flamingo Road and is director emeritus of the Nevada Restaurant Association. "In some cases, it'll put people out of business. In other cases, prices will rise."

They can thank Nevada voters. In 2006, the electorate approved a union-backed constitutional amendment that sets the state's minimum wage $1 higher than the federal standard and provides inflationary increases. Every July 1, Nevada's minimum wage jumps based on federal increases or inflation, whichever is higher.

For businesses that don't offer health insurance, the minimum wage has increased 60 percent in four years.

A 70-cent raise doesn't sound like much -- until you add up the costs for a business with, say, 20 full-time minimum wage workers. Over the course of a year, that adds up to almost $30,000 in new labor costs. That's a job-killing burden.

"I've got people here earning $25 an hour in tips, and this law forces me to give them a raise," Mr. Ansara said. "And I've got people making $9 an hour and I can't afford to give them a raise. The idiocy of it is, the very people it's designed to help, it hurts."

The wage hikes are especially unfair to teenagers. The teen unemployment rate is nearly 35 percent in Nevada, compared with a 14 percent rate overall. Each minimum wage increase prices out more and more kids trying to get that first job and the basic skills that will help them advance their careers.

Nevada needs jobs. To create them, businesses need relief, not a higher minimum wage that gets higher every July.

How bad do things have to get before Nevada businesses circulate a petition to overturn the state's onerous minimum wage requirements?