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Los Angeles Raises Minimum Wage To $15 an Hour
HughPickens.com writes: Jennifer Medina reports at the NY Times that the council of the nation's second-largest city voted by a 14-1 margin to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Los Angeles and its almost 4 million residents represent one of the biggest victories yet for those pushing wage increases across the country. Proponents hope it will start to reverse the earning gap in the city, where the top 7% of households earn more than the bottom 67%.
Detractors point out the direct cost increase to businesses, which could total as much as a billion dollars per year. If a business can't handle the increased cost, the employees this measure was designed to help will lose their jobs when it folds. An editorial from the LA Times says it's vital for other cities nearby to increase their minimum wage, too, else businesses will gradually migrate to cheaper locations. They add, "While the minimum wage hike will certainly help the lowest-wage workers in the city, it should not be seen as the centerpiece of a meaningful jobs creation strategy. The fact is that far too many jobs in the city are low-wage jobs — some 37% of workers currently earn less than $13.25 an hour, according to the mayor's estimates — and even after the proposed increase, they would still be living on the edge of poverty."
Detractors point out the direct cost increase to businesses, which could total as much as a billion dollars per year. If a business can't handle the increased cost, the employees this measure was designed to help will lose their jobs when it folds. An editorial from the LA Times says it's vital for other cities nearby to increase their minimum wage, too, else businesses will gradually migrate to cheaper locations. They add, "While the minimum wage hike will certainly help the lowest-wage workers in the city, it should not be seen as the centerpiece of a meaningful jobs creation strategy. The fact is that far too many jobs in the city are low-wage jobs — some 37% of workers currently earn less than $13.25 an hour, according to the mayor's estimates — and even after the proposed increase, they would still be living on the edge of poverty."
Is Slashdot TRYING to lose readers? I thought this was a TECH forum.
Well, so you're saying that there is an upper limit beyond which a minimum wage becomes harmful. So there must be a mechanism that kicks in that imposes that limit. So, explain what it is.
(While you're at it, also explain why businesses would pay $15/h for a worker who doesn't increase revenue by significantly more than $15 for each hour he works.)
Two important things to consider:
1. It will increase prices of products as well, so at the end of the day it's just a cycle where nothing really happens.
2. Do you actually think the same amount of employees will be employed if companies are mandated to pay them more? Many of them will lose jobs.
Minimum wage hikes tend to hurt two parties the most:
1. Small businesses, who are typically operating on rather small margins anyway. Unlike larger businesses, they can't easily move to places with lower minimum wage or offshore jobs.
2. Middle class, because they suffer the increase in costs incurred by minimum wage hikes, but don't benefit at all from it because they're already above the minimum wage.
Minimum wage increases try to tackle a real problem, but do nothing to actually solve it. Minimum wage should be adjusted in accordance with inflation and nothing else.
Real jobs don't pay minimum wage. Where I live one can survive on twelve dollars an hour. It's not fun but you can get by and even have cable tv. I'm glad to see LA jack up the minimum wage and I hope all those other cities in Cali do the same. It'll help solve the water shortage problem there as jobs migrate away from the state and the people follow. I occasionally watch some of these real estate shows that have people choosing from between different houses in places like LA and San Francisco and am blown away by the real estate prices there. For what you can buy here for less than 100 grand it often will cost half a million or more there. My electric bill here runs about $100 to $300 dollars depending on the season, a months water bill (including trash pickup) is usually around $30. The mortgage on my 3 bedroom 2000 square foot house is $590 including taxes and insurance. A dollar here is not equal to a dollar in LA.
Because the manager knows that if he fires that worker, he shrinks his own little empire by one worker?
Spoken like who has NEVER actually had an employee. Every small business owner I know hates having employees.
Employees add stress. The only reason a business hires people is because they either can't do it all on their own or
because employees make them more money than they cost. That spread doesn't have to be much. If you have 20
employees and each employee makes you $1/hour more than you pay them then assuming you are working yourself
you are doing pretty good. Now, if minimum wage jumps by $5 per hour then that $1 per hour profit is gone and you
either charge more or you fire that employee and figure out how to do it without. I've met many a small business
owners who have talked about getting rid of their employees and turning away work just because the amount of extra
money an employee brings in is barely worth the headache of having ermployees. A massive wage hike would
make that a lot easier. One such company that did just that was Churchill Trucklines from a town near me. The
workers went on strike and demanded more money and the owner said screw it I don't need this headache and
layed off all 2000 employees.
I am an employer and I actually like my employees a lot. They are smart, they work hard, coming to the office every day is basically a joy. I try to make their life as easy and as productive as possible, and I pay them as much as I can. They know this, and this works pretty well.
I believe that if every employer actually saw their employees as human beings who are doing the best they can, and treat them accordingly, the world would be a much better place.