Saturday, May 4, 2019 | 2 a.m.
Assemblywoman Jill Tolles, R-Reno, said she understands the push by the Democratic majority in the Legislature to raise Nevada’s minimum wage.
“I don’t think there is anyone in this building who doesn’t want people to make a living,” she said on "Nevada Newsmakers" about her colleagues in Carson City.
Yet she opposes Assembly Bill 456, which would raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour for those who are not offered health insurance and $11 for those who are. Nevada’s minimum wage now is $8.25 without health insurance and $7.25 with it.
Tolles said she would like lawmakers to take a “more holistic approach” to the problem. Some minimum-wage jobs were never meant to sustain people raising a family, she told host Sam Shad.
Instead of raising the minimum wage, lawmakers should find ways to get minimum-wage earners into workforce development programs, she said.
“I appreciate where people are coming from ... because they are trying to address the needs of the vulnerable and provide more of a living wage,” she said.
“So as conservatives, we need to have a response to that,” she said. “How do we get underemployed adults into workforce development programs, educational programs, get them up-skilled? We have to face the reality that more and more jobs are being automated.”
Raising the minimum wage “only tackles part of the problem,” Tolles said.
