Here’s a reminder, from the site Uprise RI, that progressives really do think this way.  The topic is the federal rule that allows companies not to pay overtime rates to managers who make over a certain limit.  The Obama Administration wanted to increase the limit from $23,660 to $47,476 annually, but the courts put a hold on the move, so the Department of Labor is spending some time doing research and listening to advocates.  This is from Steve Ahlquist’s coverage of the Rhode Island leg of the tour:

Each month, since the abandonment of the Obama-era threshold, Rhode Islanders have lost about $400,000 in wages, estimated the Center for American Progress and the Economic Policy Institute.

“This is money that could be helping those families,” said [Economic Progress Institute economic and fiscal policy director Douglas] Hall. “They would spend that money locally in our economy, helping the Rhode Island economy to thrive and helping global businesses to prosper.”

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Progressives really do imagine that businesses have some field of uncultivated money laying fallow in the economy from which they can pluck more pay.  To the contrary, if this threshold is increased, businesses will have to reduce either productivity or investment.  Fewer new hires will happen and the demands on workers will increase, losing them benefits and flexibility.

Just let the market be.  The government shouldn’t be an uber labor union imposing blanket rules on our economy.  Money always has to come from somewhere, and as a general proposition, the burden will fall most firmly on those who have the least leverage.