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rxqwr <br /> MAXIMUM <br /> HYPE <br /> C� <br /> fl <br /> hen the 1997 legislature She'd be forced to raise prices,cut <br /> considers labor policy, back her hours, and reduce the <br /> Kris Jacobs and her or- number of employees. <br /> ganization of unions and Economist Preston Miller would <br /> social-service agencies want state rather legislators consider the big <br /> Too high or not lawmakers to remember Mike picture and the signals they are <br /> Kochevar. A single father from sending to young workers,particu- <br /> Hibbing,Kochevar works two part- larly to recent college graduates, <br /> high enough. time jobs as a bingo-caller at about like his two sons.They are well- <br /> $5.50 an hour to support himself educated,work hard, live reason- <br /> Wage issues on the and his daughter until he finishes ably well,and still do not earn what <br /> college.They could not survive on some legislators want to put into <br /> legislative docket have his wages alone and so rely on wel- law as a mandated "livable"wage <br /> fare, food stamps, a subsidized that every company receiving state <br /> business interests, apartment, and help from Mike's assistance of more than $25,000 <br /> parents. must pay.If workers with few skills <br /> Union and jobs Judy Cook,executive director of suddenly earn what those with col- <br /> the Minnesota Retail Merchants lege degrees get,education will be <br /> activists, and Association,does not want legisla- de-valued and our work force won't <br /> tors to forget small-business owners be ready for the challenges of a <br /> economists worIUn like Mary Woodward, who runs global, information economy, <br /> g Main Street Tanning in Brooklyn Miller says. <br /> Center. Her business fluctuates This is the tableau against which <br /> overtime. with the seasons. All of the atten- Minnesota lawmakers will take up <br /> dants at her salon work part-time, wage issues in the 1997 session. <br /> and some are high-school or college They'll hear impassioned stories of <br /> BY MARY L A H R S C H I E R students. If the state began setting hard-working people struggling in a <br /> wages much above the current min- service economy and flat statistics <br /> imum, her business would suffer. showing that only a tiny portion of <br /> ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES YANG TWIN CITIES BUSINESS MONTHLY DECEMBER 1996 41 <br />