Rising inequality is toxic to growth. High levels of inequality exclude people - both as innovators and customers - diminishing both innovation and demand. Nick Hanauer More Quotes by Nick Hanauer More Quotes From Nick Hanauer The fundamental law of capitalism is: when workers have more money, businesses have more customers, and need more workers. The idea that high wages equals low employment, it's absurd. Nick Hanauer fundamentalslawideas The person earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 isn't going out to eat at restaurants. They're not taking piano lessons. They're not going to the gym or the yoga studio. They're not sending mom flowers on Mother's day. What good is this person in the economy? If you raise it to $15 an hour, they're doing all of those things. And all of a sudden, not just business thrives, but small business thrives. Nick Hanauer momflowermother I think the idea that giant profitable corporations should pay their workers enough so that they don't need food stamps - since when is that left wing? How did that become "leftie?" That doesn't seem leftie to me. That seems common sense. Nick Hanauer wingsideasthinking My message is that the counterclaim - which is that if wages go up, employment will go down - is a scam. It's a con job. It's an intimidation tactic. There is absolutely no evidence anywhere that it's true. On the contrary, where you find high wages you usually find low unemployment. Nick Hanauer scamswagesjobs If it was true that lower taxes for the rich and more wealth to the wealthy leat to job creation, today we would be drowning in jobs. Nick Hanauer would-betodayjobs You can go back 150 years and literally find the same people saying the same thing in the same way. "If we have to pay you more, it will be bad for you." And that's because saying that is a much more polite way of saying, "I'm rich, you're poor, and I would prefer to keep it that way." Nick Hanauer paypeopleyears But can we please stop insisting that if low-wage workers earn a little bit more, unemployment will skyrocket and the economy will collapse? There is no evidence for it. The most insidious thing about trickle-down economics is not the claim that if the rich get richer, everyone is better off. It is the claim made by those who oppose any increase in the minimum wage that if the poor get richer, that will be bad for the economy. This is nonsense. Nick Hanauer minimum-wageunemploymentlittles When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it's a little like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it's the other way around. Nick Hanauer squirrelscreatingjobs Raising the minimum wage allows business people to stop thinking about workers simply as costs to be cut and allows you to start thinking about workers as customers to be cultivated. Nick Hanauer cuttingpeoplethinking I was at the forefront of the effort to pass $15 minimum wage in Seattle, and have been collaborating with the people who are trying to make that happen across the country. Nick Hanauer effortcountrypeople The only reason to have a 300-foot-long boat is because they're bigger than 200-foot-long boats. Nick Hanauer boatfeetlong The most pro-business thing you can do is to help middle-class people thrive. Nick Hanauer classhelpingpeople If you care about real change, deep structural change, that involves politics, and all politics is friction. It takes leadership, and the willingness to create that friction, that leads to social change. Nick Hanauer carerealsocial Raising the minimum wage a lot across the board would make a big difference. It's not the only thing, but it's an indispensable part of solving the problem. Nick Hanauer minimum-wageboardsdifferences Fast food workers are all the governor has power to enact. Your state legislature is held hostage by the same nitwits that hold hostage the federal [government]. People who have confused suffocating collectivism, which is bad, for a necessity to solve collective action problems, which is what all human endeavor is based on. Nick Hanauer confusedgovernmentpeople The idea that high wages equals low employment, it's absurd. Nick Hanauer employmentwagesideas Raising the overtime threshold - something that is about to happen. This is more complex so not as many people understand it, but it's equally consequential. Nick Hanauer thresholdcomplexespeople Raising the minimum wage is very efficient. Everybody's on the same playing field, it's a very simple rule, it doesn't require a lot of administration, you don't have to negotiate anything. It just is what it is. Nick Hanauer minimum-wageadministrationsimple The overtime threshold is to the middle class as the minimum wage is to low-wage workers. Nick Hanauer minimum-wagemiddleclass Now one person doing the job of one and a half. So as an employer I can get two people to do the work of three, and think about what that does for profits. Nick Hanauer jobstwothinking
