Opinion

The wages of humor

Can’t New York Democrats take a joke?

We were jesting Thursday when we suggested that if a higher minimum wage is an easy way to guarantee a better life, why stop at $8.75?

But it looks like Assembly Dems took us seriously. That same day, they announced they intend to push for a hike larger than what they had been proposing before.

This is just the latest in minimum-wage leapfrog. It started last year when Assembly leaders tried to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour.

Last month, Gov. Cuomo one-upped them by proposing an $8.75 minimum wage in his State of the State speech.

Last week, President Obama one-upped him by floating a $9 federal minimum wage in his State of the Union.

The Assembly is determined to catch up. On Thursday, Democrats announced their intention to pass their own $9 minimum-wage law.

At best, this is theater: If Obama gets his way with a federal minimum-wage hike, all the states will have to abide by it and the dogpile in New York becomes moot.

But if Obama fails and state Dems succeed, New York’s minimum wage will become 24 percent higher than New Jersey’s, and 9 percent higher than Connecticut’s.

That would make New York even more expensive and less attractive than its neighbors for business — and harder for low-skilled workers and the young to find work.

You’d think state Dems would keep all this in mind. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says that “New York cannot wait while Washington weighs the pros and cons . . . We must act now.”

Translation: Damn the consequences!

And that’s no joke.