Opinion

Silver’s job-killer

State lawmakers wrapped up most of this year’s key issues last week, but (alas) there’s three months left in the current legislative session — plenty of time, in other words, to do some real damage.

The still-unfinished state budget, for starters, offers great opportunity for mischief, but some pols — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, in particular — have already made plain the kind of harm they hope to inflict: a swift shot to employers, via a 17 percent hike in New York’s minimum wage, that’s sure to destroy jobs.

Terrific. (Couldn’t they just call it a day and end the session today?)

Silver has said he wants to push for the hike, which would boost wages from $7.25 an hour to $8.50, this year. It may well become Albany’s next big issue, along with a final budget deal.

The speaker, it seems, just can’t wait to throw New Yorkers out of work. We guess the state’s 9.2 percent unemployment rate isn’t high enough for him.

Let’s be honest: Forcing businesses to pay more for salaries will simply encourage them to employ fewer workers. Or high-tail it to some other state (or country). Or not set up shop here in the first place.

After all, a minimum-wage hike might sound sweet to low-income workers — but the extra money to pay for it (need it really be said?) doesn’t grow on trees.

Businesses have to come up with it.

True, some of their extra costs would be passed along to customers — i.e., you.

(Think of it as a back-door tax hike.)

But some would surely come from savings reaped through job cuts.

Indeed, experts agree that mandatory wage hikes translate to higher unemployment — and lower economic activity.

A study just this year found that New York lost a full 20 percent of jobs — one in five — held by 16- to 29-year-olds who lack a high-school diploma when it last bumped up its wage floor in 2004.

Why would anyone want to repeat that?

Nor do such spikes help the poor, as Silver & Co. hope New Yorkers think.

That’s because most minimum-wage jobs are held by workers (spouses, teens, etc.) who live with folks who earn more.

Silver and his fellow Democrats, of course, don’t care about any of this. And Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — a nominal Republican — has refused to rule out the idea. Both take their cues from unions looking to push up wages generally.

It’s up to Gov. Cuomo to stop them.

Cuomo has said he wants to promote job and economic growth — and he certainly has the political muscle to derail a hike.

Will he flex it? He’s mulling the idea.

Alas, evils like this have a way of picking up steam suddenly.

If Cuomo truly cares about jobs, he’ll say no to a minimum-wage hike — n
ow.