Mike Rowe outlined what could be the downside to raising the minimum wage and liberals online went into meltdown mode in response.
The former “Dirty Jobs” star spoke to Fox Business about the opportunities that might be lost to workers if the minimum wage is raised.
“I want everybody who works hard and plays fair to prosper,” Rowe said.
“I want everybody to be able to support themselves. But if you just pull the money out of midair you’re going to create other problems, like there is a ladder of success that people climb and some of those jobs that are out there for seven, eight, nine dollars an hour, in my view, they’re simply not intended to be careers,” he explained.
“They’re not intended to be full-time jobs,” he added. “They’re rungs on a ladder.”
Biden has vowed to fight to increase the minimum wage, but an analysis of the Democrats’ plan by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that it could lead to the loss of 1.4 million jobs.
Rowe was also concerned that lower wage jobs were opportunities for workers with few skills to gain those skills in order to gain better employment.
“[Those jobs] are ways for people to get experience in the workforce doing a thing that might not necessarily pay you as much as you’d like, but nevertheless serves a real purpose,” he added.
“I worry that the path to a skilled trade can be compromised when you offer an artificially high wage for, I hate the expression, but an unskilled job,” Rowe explained. “So to me, the brightest line needs to be drawn between skilled and unskilled work. We need to encourage more people to learn a skill that’s actually in demand.”
Supporters of the minimum wage were angered by Rowe’s argument and took to Twitter to excoriate him.
“I come from a family of minimum wage and blue collar workers. I worked minimum wage jobs before and during college to pay the bills after I left the Army. Guys like Mike Rowe are hacks who perform white masculinity and American Exceptionalism’ with remarkably uncalloused hands,” tweeted Charlotte Clymer, LGBTQ activist.
“Hi, I’m mike Rowe. And today on Dirty Jobs, I’m going to introduce you to some people I don’t value nor give two s***s about. Let’s have some fun,” said Jessica Huseman, a liberal journalist.
“A guy named mike rowe definitely exists. the real him is nothing like the dude who shows up on television to sell trucks, starvation wages and right to work,” responded Nathan Bernhardt.
Rowe also addressed the minimum wage debate in 2017 in an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
*story by The Blaze
