How Marco Rubio is stealthily pushing Trump to save the working class

I point this all out because one of the biggest promoters of wage subsidies in Congress is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). The former Republican presidential candidate already introduced a wage subsidy bill in 2014, but this week he has done something cleverer, introducing a wage subsidies bill for Puerto Rico. (Rubio sits on the Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico.)

In Puerto Rico, where the median wage is $9.61 per hour, workers earning less than $10 per hour would receive a raise, up to a maximum of $2.50 per hour. And employers could end up paying as low as $5 per hour, thus reducing the cost of hiring new workers.

As it happens, wage subsidies are a particularly good idea for Puerto Rico. For the island’s low-wage economy, federal programs such as the minimum wage and welfare are particularly destructive.

But Rubio is also sending a clear political message by introducing this bill now. It’s hard to read it as anything but an “Ahem!” to the incoming Trump administration, which claims to want to put workers at the heart of its agenda, but doesn’t seem to have any idea on how to go about it.