D.C. City Councilman Vincent Orange lost to challenger Robert White on Tuesday after serving on the city council for 17 years. Orange was a proponent of D.C.’s push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and prided himself on creating worker-friendly laws.
Reports indicate that Orange may continue his push to raise minimum wage, though AR Squared, a conservative organization, is encouraging Orange to stop pursuing the new legislation, as studies warn of its detrimental effects.
“After Vincent Orange’s defeat on Tuesday, it would be a direct affront to the people of D.C. for him to go forward with his proposed scheduling legislation,” Jeremy Adler, communication director for AR Squared, said. “This proposal would be yet another roadblock for D.C. businesses, who have said it will cost jobs if it goes into effect. With Councilmember Orange now a lame duck on his way out of office, he should leave it to the next Council to debate these issues which are so important to D.C. workers and businesses alike.”
With his time on the City Council dwindling, Orange should turn his attention towards tying up loose ends with his existing policies and leave the minimum wage issue in the hands of his successor, especially considering that half of all business have expressed a plan to cut jobs all together should the plan be approved.
Orange’s support of raising minimum wage has been met with mixed support, as millennials welcome the opportunity to make $15 an hour, but business would suffer.
Based on the evidence, a reasonable estimate is that current minimum wages have directly reduced the number of jobs nationally by about 100,000 to 200,000. This number is comparable to the period just before the Great Recession.
It remains to be seen whether the minimum wage hike will be of high priority to White in the coming months.
