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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."
If you really believe that a minimum wage can increase the welfare of poor people, why not raise it to $500/hour? Then we can all be rich!
We get things from large corporations. That computer you are typing on is one. What do I get from lazy morons?
I always find it interesting that the government demands money at the point of a gun and with little to no choice, while a corporation asks for money by providing goods or services that you desire. Yet the corporations are the evil ones???
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
I wish I could mod you +1 Insightful. The socialists need people to "look at the squirrel" - they need to distract people with an enemy while they pilfer from your pockets using the threat of State coercion to do this. Most people don't understand this, and instead they follow what Big Brother has to say (all the while thinking they are the "enlightened" ones - but they are merely zombies advancing the agenda of the Big State sociopaths).
When I make a post like this which goes against the Cultural Marxist narrative it costs me a LOT of karma. So I'm very pleased to see that at least some of the smarter Slashdotters get it - and can see through the century-long (and continuing) project to change the culture and increase the State's ability to regulate any aspect of your life it chooses, as well as take any money it chooses (at the point of a gun).
If it is not voluntary then it is immoral is a good rule of thumb. The Free Market is voluntary, while socialist Central Planning is not. Charity is voluntary, while socialist wealth confiscation is not. Romance is voluntary, while rape is not. The sociopaths want people to never wake up to this fact - so they slander those who oppose their agenda.