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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: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 20 2015, @03:29PM
This is an utterly idiotic idea. The end result is the same, but now you're doing it in a punitive manner. If you want the employer to pay a certain amount so that employees don't need welfare, then set the minimum wage accordingly. It's simple and easy to set a minimum wage, but now you're talking about having a big-government enforcement mechanism to go look for all the employers who don't pay enough, and penalize them somehow with the court system. The costs for that would be huge, much higher than simply raising the minimum wage.
What is your goal here? To require the government to hire more workers to do bullshit jobs? If you want a jobs program, why not put people to work doing something useful, like cleaning up the parks and roadsides?
(Score: 1) by weirsbaski on Thursday May 21 2015, @07:02AM
Maybe to help some of those business owners see the connection between what they're doing and the implications.
Eg- when Papa John's owner John Schnatter says "it's socialism to make me include health insurance for my employees!" one day, and "durr, why are my taxes so high? Where does all that tax money go?" the next. Hey Schnatter- we wouldn't have to pour so much into Medicade/social spending if somebody (*cough*) wasn't forcing taxpayers to pay private employee benefits.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 22 2015, @04:05PM
Something I figured out when I was a teenager was that you can't teach people a lesson by force.
The job of laws is not to teach people morality lessons, it's to allow society to function smoothly.