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Minimum Wage Amendments in Nevada Hits Casinos

Posted on February 23rd, 2011

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The economic recession which started in 2007 has today ravaged the country, leaving most states with huge budget deficits. One of the states that was hit the hardest is Nevada, with its billion dollar budget deficit. State lawmakers have expressed the difficulty of dealing with the situation. With time running out without any viable solutions raised, one lawmaker in Nevada took a bold step forward to suggest a painful option for the state, its casinos, and its residents.

An amendment to the 2004 & 2006 law has been proposed recently by Nevada Senator Joe Hardy. The law passed by a referendum in 2004 and 2006 increased the the minimum wage for workers who did not have health care benefits by $1. Some employees cannot afford to pay for health insurance so more often than not, they opt for no health care benefits from their employers so that they would have a bigger salary, brought about by not having been deducted for health care benefits. The amendment, if passed, would lower the minimum wage. The argument that Senator Hardy brought up is that local state businesses are having second thoughts on hiring new employees, because of the economy. He said that right now, entrepreneurs are trying to save money and balance their income from their spendings; adding more workers to the job would be disastrous. He noted that businesses are reluctant in hiring new employees because of the higher minimum wage required by existing laws.

Residents of Nevada, particularly those who are working for minimum wage, do not recognize the Senator’s arguments. They expressed that the amendment only favors business establishments and not the workers. “We already voted for this minimum wage law twice, and both times it passed with big numbers in favor of the new minimum wage,” said Barry T. from Reno. “They are just using the economy as a way to ignore what we voted for and promote their personal agenda regarding minimum wage.”

Should this proposal move towards legislation and be enacted, it will be the casinos that will be affected the most. For one, the workers could have lesser money to spend on leisure time such as casinos and other entertainment venues in the area. Casinos, for the most part, will now have to depend on tourists to fill their halls. However, even if there would be an increase in tourists who would visit Las Vegas every year, the amendment will still cause a massive impact if the local residents will not participate as they did before. With the entire country holding firmly to its money, it doesn’t seem likely that casino visitorship will increase.

Cutting down the minimum wage, analysts say, could be beneficial for the state, but only for the first 1 to 2 years. In the long run, when the economy bounces back to a certain level, they (the lawmakers) should consider bringing back the minimum wage to the previous amount, or even higher, otherwise the state will not be able to take advantage of a higher purchasing power caused by an increase in wages received by workers.

The people of Nevada are still hoping for the proposal to be rejected, given the fact that the whole country is slowly moving towards progress. Analysts believe that Nevada is on the brink of recovery; amending the minimum wage would pull the state down from that height. Residents have also reportedly been surprised at this abrupt decision from the Senator. They have protested that the people are an integral part of the state, not just the business establishments. They also added that the senator should not only represent them, but fight for what is beneficial to them as well. Analysts were forced to question the motive behind the proposal for the amendment.

They pointed out that the economy has been moving forward and showing significant strength since the recession. They also noted that it would have made more sense to have passed a bill like this way back in 2009 or 2010, but the timing of this amendment is really off. Nevada is one of the fourteen states in America that imposed a higher minimum wage than what was suggested by the national government.