GOP Actually Prohibits Better Wages

Nathan Newman points out one of the more hideously pro-corporate-at-all-social-costs bills that just passed a state legislature.

According to the Macon Telegraph, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a law barring "any city from seeking to require their contractors to pay higher minimum wages to employees than the $5.15 per hour federal standard."

Atlanta had been considering requiring a $10.15 "living wage" for government contractors, but that was apparently unacceptable to Big Business - so they bought this wretched piece of legislation, meaning Georgia taxpayers have to continue subsidizing companies that provide poverty-level wages. This, in a state that is already plagued by companies that refuse to pay their workers well. A November 2004 New York Times article cites a study in Georgia that found 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees were in the state's low-income healthcare program at a cost to taxpayers of $10 million a year.

But I guess that's how Georgia Republicans like it - low-wages for most people, as long as the big corporate donors are happy.