Costco CEO does not receive Lindsey Graham’s problem with a minimum wage of 15 USD

Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) woke up on Thursday to the right of even the chief executive of a large corporation, while the two debated a minimum wage of $ 15.

Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek has failed to understand why Graham was arguing over the higher salary – perhaps because Costco is preparing to raise its own minimum wage to $ 16 an hour starting next week. The company, which employs 180,000 workers, paid $ 15 an hour in 2019, and more than half of its workers now earn $ 25 an hour.

Raising “is not altruism,” Jelinek said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing. “At Costco, we know that paying well-paid employees … makes sense for our business and is a significant competitive advantage for us. It helps us in the long run by minimizing turnover and maximizing employee productivity. ”

He added: “We are certainly not perfect, but we try to take care of our employees, because they play such an important role in our success.”

But Graham tried to tell Jelinek that now was “not the time” to set a higher minimum wage because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The senator said he was not concerned about big companies like Costco. But he was “worried about the small business owner” – though apparently not the workers – “who are fighting because COVID has reduced its ability to make a living.” Do you understand where they come from? He asked.

Jelinek said yes.

“So if you run a restaurant or a hotel and no one can travel in the country and the capacity of the seats has been reduced … incomes are declining … you can understand why an increased mandate from the government in terms of costs would be an effect devastating to blow? ”Graham asked.

Jelinek replied: “I can’t understand why it would be a devastating blow. I think it’s a devastating blow to employees, “he began, probably to make a point about the minimum wage, but Graham talked about it.

The senator reproached him for not seeing the difficulties of the business of “doubling the minimum wage. Don’t you understand that? He snapped.

“I don’t know if we were suggesting doubling the minimum wage,” said the CEO of Costco.

When asked by Graham if he would support a minimum wage of $ 11, a proposal by Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), Jelinek said, “It’s better than $ 7.25.” Graham replied, “Fair enough.”

Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Highlighted a study by the Government Accountability Bureau that showed that millions of American workers are paid so poorly at companies like Walmart that they need food stamps and Medicaid in order to survive, which he characterized as a massive taxpayer subsidy for corporations.

Congress was preparing to pass legislation aimed at gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour by 2025 – a campaign commitment by President Joe Biden. The federal minimum has been blocked at $ 7.25 per hour since 2009, although many states already have higher minimum wages.

But the Senate lawmaker decided Thursday that Democrats’ strategy of approving the $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package violates Senate rules. The decision was almost certainly a fatal blow to quickly give tens of millions of workers an increase, at least as part of the aid bill.

Watch Graham try to explain to Jelinek about the difficulties of business owners – but not workers – in the video above.