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Jennifer Medina reports at the NYT that the the city council of nation’s second-largest city voted by a 14-1 margin to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national push to raise the minimum wage. Several other cities, including San Francisco, Seattle and Oakland, Calif., have already approved increases, and dozens more are considering doing the same.
In 2014, a number of Republican-leaning states like Alaska and South Dakota also raised their state-level minimum wage by referendum. The impact is likely to be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, more than 40 percent of the city’s work force earns less than $15 an hour. “The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s," says Michael Reich. "There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing.”
It's important to remember that the minimum wage hike comes at a significant direct cost to business — well over a $1 billion a year, according to the mayor's analysis — and it would be foolish to pretend that it won't lead to some job losses and business closures. Critics say the increase will turn the city into a “wage island,” pushing businesses away into nearby places where they can pay employees less. “They are asking businesses to foot the bill on a social experiment that they would never do on their own employees,” says Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a trade group that represents companies and other organizations in Southern California. “A lot of businesses aren’t going to make it. It’s great that this is an increase for some employees, but the sad truth is that a lot of employees are going to lose their jobs.”
(Score: 2) by CRCulver on Wednesday May 20 2015, @02:55PM
I wonder if there is a way around paying a higher wage to local hotel maids, dishwashers, etc. When I went to graduate school in Finland, I occasionally took cleaning jobs because there wasn't much else I could do until I learned the language. Since Finland has much higher wages for such unskilled drudgery than the US, I didn't mind the work at all. However, one day after I had moved on to white-collar employment, I ran into an old boss on the street, and he said that his cleaning company was no longer hiring local people (or foreigners who had come to study like me). Instead, he had found that even taking the airfare and fees to the contracting agency into account, he could get people from China to come on a seasonal basis and do the job cheaper than any Finn would accept. Do Americans have to fear a blue-collar equivalent of the H1B?
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday May 20 2015, @03:39PM
In a rational world, entities (states, countries) would force any worker within their border to abide by their wages and benefits laws, and levy import duties on anyone bringing in good or services from cheaper labor areas.
The moment anyone is allowed to compete with local companies while not abiding by the same rules, the local people lose. It's amazing that the answer is always "race me to the bottom" rather than "play fair or get out of my market".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 20 2015, @03:39PM
The blue-collar equivalent of the H1B, particularly in Los Angeles, is the illegal immigrant paid under the table with cash. That's why you get "DEY TURK URR JERBS!" sentiments from white blue-collar workers whenever the subject of illegal immigration comes up.
The solution to this is to regularly raid employers of low-wage workers and arrest employers who are paying people without having proper and accurate I-9 forms. As it stands, what they do is raid employers, arrest and deport a bunch of illegal immigrants, and the employer just hires more and goes on with life.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:55PM
arrest employers
Too much like right.
The United Farm Workers has an open invitation to anyone who thinks immigrants are taking USAian's jobs:
Come and do the work we do.
See how long you last before your body can't take it any more.
Take Our Jobs [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:15PM
Stop paying people to not work and yes, they will do the jobs we currently pay Americans to not do. Hunger is a powerful motivator.
Of course it would be rrrraaaacccisssstttt to say we should tell those rioters to get their ass on a bus out to a farm somewhere and pick some produce since they have so much free time on their hands and are always going on about not having jobs. But of course it, somehow, isn't racist to declare that wetbacks should be brought into the country illegally so they can be exploited as cheap indentured servants doing the exact same jobs.
[flamethrower: ON]
So tell me, what does the Mouth of Soros have to say about that, you should know since you repost every goddamned article posted on their website over here. Huh?
Oh, you don't have an answer to that one. Because it can't be answered. Purely rhetorical question.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:26AM
Who the fuck is getting paid to not work? And why do dipshits like you keep insisting that people who can't or don't "work" don't deserve to live? The idea of "work or die" may have been fine back when there were more than enough jobs to have everyone employed and then some, but now it really doesn't make sense. There are far more people than there are jobs; instead of forcing people to slowly starve to death, can we at least buy bullets and execute the unemployed, or can we finally move beyond this retarded "work or die" dogma?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @10:46AM
I think we found our irrational gweg_ hater. Forget to click the anonymous check box?
Seriously, chill the fuck out. Your blood pressure is through the roof.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @07:51PM
we found our irrational gweg_ hater
Don't think so.
Pretty sure anti_gewg has never signed up for an account.
The views jmorris holds are pretty extreme but he's not afraid to sign his name to them.
Now, this latest tirade was extreme even for him.
The Faux Noise code that he's using is too far off the deep end for me to even decrypt to formulate a response.
-- gewg_