Waguespack: $15 Minimum Wage: 'A Gut Punch to the Economy'

Stephen Waguespack, President and CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, talks with 101.7 / 710 KEEL's Robert J Wright and Erin McCarty about the move to increase the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.

"Wags" tells KEEL listeners that "people in Rouge and Washington don't live in the real world. If you talk to people on the front lines, on Main Street, the ones who actually have the mortgage and the pressure of meeting payroll and the pressure of meeting customer demand...the ones who are grinding it out in the modern economy, they will tell you that this is a ridiculous idea and one of the worst things you could do to our economy. Politicians use it over and over as a talking point, but, in reality, they could care less about the impact on the street."

An increase from the current $7.25 to $15 an hour is backed nationally by most Democrats and has also been repeatedly touted by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.

Democrats are expected to bring a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour to the House floor on Thursday.