*** UPDATED x2 *** Fun with numbers
Tuesday, Jan 7, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Bruce Rauner says those who earn $8.25 cents an hour make too much…
All four Republican candidates for governor are against raising the state’s minimum wage. Gov. Pat Quinn says he wants to raise it to at least $10 per hour by the end of the year.
Bruce Rauner believes Illinois should do the opposite, and lower it to $7.25. “I will advocate moving the Illinois minimum wage back to the national minimum wage. I think we’ve got to be competitive here in Illinois,” Rauner said.
To put this into a little perspective, somebody earning minimum wage in Illinois today (before any Rauner-enforced pay cut) would have to work 6,424,242 hours to match Rauner’s 2012 income of $53 million. That works out to 803,030 days, 160,606 40-hour weeks, or 3,088 years.
Rauner’s income last year averages out to $204K a day for a five-day work week, or $25,550 every hour for an eight-hour day. It would take a minimum wage employee 399 days to earn as much money as Rauner made in a single hour last year. And, again, that’s before any pay cut.
Now, I get where he’s going on the rhetoric about staying competitive with other states. But I’m not sure he’s the best guy to make this proposal.
* And I’m not the only one pointing out Rauner’s wealth, by the way…
GOP gubernatorial primary candidates on Thursday took issue with multimillionaire Bruce Rauner’s declaration that his fund-raising prowess — including $4 million last quarter — makes him the only one in the field who could go “toe-to-toe with Pat Quinn.”
Rauner made the statement as he announced that his campaign took in a whopping $4 million in the fourth quarter of last year — with $1 million coming from his own personal fortune after his self-funding lifted the typically mandated caps on state campaigns. […]
“Mr. Rauner’s finally come clean and admits that his major qualification to be the GOP nominee for governor is that he can buy the election,” said competitor state Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale.
*** UPDATE *** Courtesy of a commenter, this is from Bruce Rauner’s Twitter feed…
I suppose this is designed to show what a “regular guy” he is.
I checked the Marion Super 8 website and rooms start at $59.99 a night. Based on his 2012 income, it would take Rauner less than 9 seconds to make that amount (which is less time that it takes to read this update). A minimum wage worker would have to work about 8 hours to earn enough to stay there.
Just sayin…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Ormsby…
House Deputy Majority Leader Lou Lang (D-Skoke) today fired back at GOP gubernatorial Bruce Rauner’s proposal to cut the Illinois minimum wage, saying that the hyper-wealthy Rauner is “delusional.”
“In my 26 years in the legislature, I’ve seen many candidates roll out anti-poverty plans, but Bruce Rauner is the only candidate to roll-out a pro-poverty plan,” said Lang. “He’s delusional if he thinks that General Assembly would bow to his class warfare on low-income workers. He needs to have his delusion shaken up.” […]
“Rauner is deeply out-of-touch with working people,” said Lang. “He needs to come to grips with the fact that the era of robber barons is over and impoverishing workers is no longer an economic growth strategy.”
Lang is right about the impossibility of something like this passing.
