Showing posts with label Minimum Wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minimum Wage. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2015

NEW YORK GOVERNOR’S PANEL VOTES UNANIMOUSLY FOR $15 AN HOUR MINIMUM WAGE FOR FAST FOOD WORKERS!!

The Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo is determined to destroy what little employment we have in this state just for political points as his political panel recommends that fast food workers’ minimum wage be raised to $15 an hour!
I love this girl who says the raise will “transform” her life. Yeah, if she’s the lucky one to get the raise instead of being unemployed. Then she’ll be magically transformed onto welfare!
A panel appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended on Wedesday that the minimum wage be raised for employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state to $15 an hour. Wages would first be raised in New York City and then the rest of the state.
The $15 wage would represent a raise of more than 70 percent for workers earning the state’s current minimum wage of $8.75 an hour. Advocates for low-wage workers said they believed that the mandate would quickly spur pay raises for employees in other industries across the state.
“Chalk one up for the 99-percenters,” said Bill Lipton, director of the Working Families Party in New York, which has campaigned for the $15 minimum wage. “There’s clearly a new standard for the minimum wage and it’s actually a living wage for the first time in many, many decades.”
Awesome!! I can’t wait to see the headlines of people being laid off by businesses in NYC just like they did in Seattle! LOL!!

Via: The Right Scoop


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Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Seattle sees fallout from $15 minimum wage, as other cities follow suit

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But there may be a hitch in the plan.
Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent.
Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle that several workers want to work less.
“If they cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn’t actually help get them out of poverty, all you’ve done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people,” said Jason Rantz, host of the Jason Rantz show on 97.3 KIRO-FM.
The twist is just one apparent side effect of the controversial -- yet trendsetting -- minimum wage law in Seattle, which is being copied in several other cities despite concerns over prices rising and businesses struggling to keep up.
The notion that employees are intentionally working less to preserve their welfare has been a hot topic on talk radio. While the claims are difficult to track, state stats indeed suggest few are moving off welfare programs under the new wage.
Despite a booming economy throughout western Washington, the state’s welfare caseload has dropped very little since the higher wage phase began in Seattle in April. In March 130,851 people were enrolled in the Basic Food program. In April, the caseload dropped to 130,376.
At the same time, prices appear to be going up on just about everything.
Some restaurants have tacked on a 15 percent surcharge to cover the higher wages. And some managers are no longer encouraging customers to tip, leading to a redistribution of income. Workers in the back of the kitchen, such as dishwashers and cooks, are getting paid more, but servers who rely on tips are seeing a pay cut.
Some long-time Seattle restaurants have closed altogether, though none of the owners publicly blamed the minimum wage law.
“It’s what happens when the government imposes a restriction on the labor market that normally wouldn’t be there, and marginal businesses get hit the hardest, and usually those are small, neighborhood businesses,” said Paul Guppy, of the Washington Policy Center.
Seattle was followed by San Francisco and Los Angeles in passing a $15 minimum wage law. The wage is being phased in over several years to give businesses time to adjust. The current minimum wage in Seattle is $11. In San Francisco, it’s $12.25.
And it is spreading. Beyond the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week also approved a $15 minimum wage.
New York state could be next, with the state Wage Board on Wednesday backing a $15 wage for fast-food workers, something Gov. Andrew Cuomo has supported. 
Already, though, there are unintended consequences in other cities. 
Comix Experience, a small book store in downtown San Francisco, has begun selling graphic novel club subscriptions in order to meet payroll. The owner, Brian Hibbs, admits members are not getting all that much for their $25 per month dues, but their “donation” is keeping him in business.
“I was looking at potentially having to close the store down and then how would I make my living?” Hibbs asked.
To date, he’s sold 228 subscriptions. He says he needs 334 to reach his goal of the $80,000 income required to cover higher labor costs. He doesn’t blame San Francisco voters for approving the $15 minimum wage, but he doesn’t think they had all the information needed to make a good decision.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Sanders Battles Boehner on Min. Wage: ‘Who’s Out of the Mainstream?’

2016 Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders responded on Face the Nation Sunday morning to criticism from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) that he was “out of the mainstream” with his desire to raise taxes to pay for his policies.
“Well, let me respond to that issue by issue, and you determine who’s out of the mainstream,” Sanders said.
“I want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. A recent Wall Street Journal poll said majority of the American people want to do that. John Boehner is not going to bring up any legislation in the house to raise minimum wage. Many want to get rid of the concept of minimum wage.”
Sanders repeated the formula with Social Security and infrastructure.
“In terms of who’s out of touch with the American people, I’d say Republican party is,” he concluded. “They want to give tax breaks to billionaires, not help the middle class.”

Friday, July 3, 2015

DC Bumps Its Minimum Wage To Highest In The Nation But Activists Still WANT MORE

NEVER ENOUGH

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser was proud to announce Wednesday the minimum-wage hike that took effect that day, though just across town activists were still fighting for more.
At $9.50, the District of Columbia minimum wage was already higher than any state in the nation before it rose to $10.50 Wednesday.
“Raising the minimum wage will give tens of thousands of Washingtonians a raise and boost the bottom lines of our local businesses,” Bowser said. “It’s good for workers, businesses and our economy,”
The minimum-wage hike came as part of a three-year initiative approved by the D.C. council in 2013 that will see it climb again in 2016 to $11.50– but some in the city still want more.
At a Board of Elections hearing later Wednesday afternoon, activists fighting for a $15 minimum wage attempted to get a ballot referendum in place to vote for another wage increase.
The “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2016,”  a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, would continue the city’s incremental minimum wage increases, starting at $12.50 in 2017. It would creep up again each year until reaching $15.00 per hour by 2020.
Upon reaching $15.00 in 2020, the minimum wage would then increase annually to match the rising cost of living in the city.
D.C. government employees, though, would be exempt from the minimum wage levels if the law goes into effect.
If the board decides that the proposed initiative deserves a spot on the ballot, the activists will need to collect more than 20,000 signatures on a petition before it makes its way to voters.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Rhode Island Hikes Minimum Wage for the Fourth Time in Four Years


Rhode Island lawmakers have approved legislation that will raise the state’s minimum wage.



The Ocean State will increase its hourly wage from $9 to $9.60 starting on Jan. 1, 2016. According to NECN, the increase will be Rhode Island’s fourth minimum wage hike in four years.
Gov. Gina Raimondo, D-R.I., signed the bill into law on Monday.
“We’re going to give a chance to Rhode Islanders who work hard and it’s just a start, you know. Just even at $9.60, you know, it’s very challenging working full-time at $9.60, it’s still a huge challenge but it’s a start. It’s a step in the right direction,” Raimondo said during the bill signing ceremony.
In a statement, President Obama praised Rhode Island’s decision. “Since I first called on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage in 2013, 17 states have acted on their own, which will grow the paychecks of millions of American workers,” he said.
“This year, more than half of our states guarantee their workers a wage higher than the federal minimum, but despite this progress we still have work to do,” Obama added. “I continue to encourage states, cities, counties and companies to lift their workers’ wages, and I urge Congress to finally do the right thing and give America a raise.”
Opponents say that a minimum wage hike places an additional burden on employers, particularly small businesses, and that it will reduce the number of available jobs.
“What we should be doing is lowering the burden, lowering the regulations on employers in the state and that’s the only way we’re ever going to see rapid growth,” Mike Stenhouse, the CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, told WPRI.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Los Angeles, California: Mayor Garcetti Makes Minimum Wage Law Official at Signing in South L.A.

Update:
Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law Saturday afternoon a measure that will increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020, according to a news release from the city of Los Angeles.
Original post:
Mayor Eric Garcetti will formally sign into law Los Angeles’ landmark ordinance boosting the city’s minimum wage at a ceremony Saturday in South Los Angeles.
The signing will take place at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, a symbolic nod to the civil rights leader’s campaign to improve economic conditions for low-wage workers.
The law would raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 an hour by 2020, improving the financial outlook for hundreds of thousands of workers and making L.A. the largest city in the country to mandate higher pay for workers at the bottom of the income ladder.
Backers predicted its passage here could reverberate across the nation, ultimately aiding millions of Americans.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Labor Unions’ Minimum Wage Push: A Shameless Scheme to Fatten Their Own Coffers

Protesters calling for pay of 5 an hour and a union march toward McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Utterly shameless. There really is no other way to describe what some unions are trying to pull when it comes to the minimum wage.
The issue, of course, has been in the news quite a bit lately, especially in Los Angeles, with supposedly incensed workers waving their “Fight for 15” placards. It’s all perfectly packaged for the media, an alleged David versus Goliath fight. Will those mean ol’ fast-food joints and other stingy employers finally start paying a “living wage”? Tune in for the dramatic video.
Never mind that a substantial hike in the minimum wage would price many unskilled workers right out of the market. Goodbye, entry-level jobs for men and women who will later become workers making a much better wage at a job with more responsibilities.
And never mind how this minimum wage hike would make the price of fast food soar. A huge part of the draw for fast food, after all, is the fact that it’s relatively cheap. Take that away, and now it’s goodbye to the industry, which, of course, will hardly help the workers who are supposed to benefit from the wage increase.
Employers, after all, don’t have a bottomless safe in the backroom from which to pull vast reserves of cash for these salaries. They’ll react by cutting hours, for one thing. Labor expert James Sherk, for example, found that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cause a 36 percent drop in hours worked in fast food.
Think of what such a hike would mean for a major city such as Los Angeles. “If the effects are the same for all low-wage food-service occupations,” writes economist Salim Furth, “the ‘Fight for 15’ will cost more than 20,000 Angelenos their jobs in those occupations alone.” We can expect the same type of effect everywhere if such a drastic hike is enacted.
Of course, we don’t hear about any negative effects from much of the media or from breathless proponents of such “wage equality.” Or if we do, the effects are shrugged off as the scaremongering tactics of employers who just don’t want to pay up.

Via: CNS News

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Saturday, June 6, 2015

Unions Are Utterly Shameless. Here’s the Real Story Behind Their Minimum Wage Campaign.

Utterly shameless. There really is no other way to describe what some unions are trying to pull when it comes to the minimum wage.
The issue, of course, has been in the news quite a bit lately, especially in Los Angeles, with supposedly incensed workers waving their “Fight for 15” placards. It’s all perfectly packaged for the media, an alleged David versus Goliath fight. Will those mean ol’ fast-food joints and other stingy employers finally start paying a “living wage”? Tune in for the dramatic video.
Never mind that a substantial hike in the minimum wage would price many unskilled workers right out of the market. Goodbye, entry-level jobs for men and women who will later become workers making a much better wage at a job with more responsibilities.
And never mind how this minimum wage hike would make the price of fast food soar. A huge part of the draw for fast food, after all, is the fact that it’s relatively cheap. Take that away, and now it’s goodbye to the industry, which, of course, will hardly help the workers who are supposed to benefit from the wage increase.
Employers, after all, don’t have a bottomless safe in the backroom from which to pull vast reserves of cash for these salaries. They’ll react by cutting hours, for one thing. Labor expert James Sherk, for example, found that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cause a 36 percent drop in hours worked in fast food.
Think of what such a hike would mean for a major city such as Los Angeles. “If the effects are the same for all low-wage food-service occupations,” writes economist Salim Furth, “the ‘Fight for 15’ will cost more than 20,000 Angelenos their jobs in those occupations alone.” We can expect the same type of effect everywhere if such a drastic hike is enacted.
Of course, we don’t hear about any negative effects from much of the media or from breathless proponents of such “wage equality.” Or if we do, the effects are shrugged off as the scaremongering tactics of employers who just don’t want to pay up.
But it’s harder to ignore the fact that the same Los Angeles unions who campaigned so hard and so successfully for a $15 minimum wage want unionized companies to be exempted from the new requirement.
As Rusty Hicks, head of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, told the Los Angeles Times: “With a collective bargaining agreement, a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both. The agreement allows each party to prioritize what is important to them. This provision gives the parties the option, the freedom, to negotiate that agreement. And that is a good thing.”
A new low in hypocrisy? Oh, no. It’s even worse than that.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Survey: $15 Minimum Wage Could Shutter 1 in 5 NY Fast Food Joints

AP
AP
BY:   
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D.) promised minimum wage hikes for fast food New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D.) promised minimum wage hikes for fast food restaurants could shut down one out of every five chain restaurants in the state, according to a new survey.
The Employment Policies Institute, a free market think tank and critic of minimum wage hikes, surveyed nearly 1,000 self-described fast food entrepreneurs about how they would respond to statewide, industry-specific wage hikes. More than 20 percent of respondents said they were “very likely” to go out of business if the state raises the minimum wage for fast food joints to $15, a 70 percent increase from the current $8.75 statewide minimum wage.
Such a hike could spur higher costs for customers and reduced employment opportunities and hours for workers. Business owners responded overwhelmingly that such policies would hurt the very workers that Cuomo and activists claim to want to help.
Only 5 percent of respondents said they were “unlikely” to raise prices to cope with a $15 wage; 70 percent said they were very likely. In order to retain customers and remain competitive, a majority of the owners said they would be forced to cut employee hours or curb hiring.
“Low single-digit profit margins, which are typical for the fast food industry, explain why business owners in the state report considering a series of off-setting measures to adapt to a $15 minimum wage,” the report says.
Cuomo is seeking to increase wages on the fast food industry through a three-member board that is debating a potential $15 wage at chain restaurants. EPI analyst and report author Michael Saltsman attended Friday’s hearing, criticizing both Cuomo’s methods and also the policy.
“Our survey shows that a dramatic minimum wage hike would have the same negative effect in New York that it’s having on the west coast. Employers and employees should hope the wage board can tune out the noise and take a careful look at the consequences,” Saltsman said. “An unelected board hearing where proponents shout down the other side—is this what democracy looks like?”

Saturday, May 30, 2015

MCDONALDS TO INSTALL COMPUTER ORDERING SYSTEMS! NO $15 AN HOUR!

Congratulations liberals! You’ve freed thousands from minimum wage McJobs. And put them on McWelfare! But that’s what you McDo, isn’t it, libs?
The problem with liberals is they function primarily in emotion and a keen ability to ignore reality. They have been trained by their college professors (most of whom teach because they can’t earn a living in the real world) that there is always more of someone else’s money to spread around to “the people.” And there’s always the ‘EVIL CORPORATION’ where the CEO makes millions while line employees make minimum wage. It’s just awful and wrong!! But, unfortunately for liberals, it’s reality!
But liberals never realize that the business model of fast food restaurants requires virtually zero skills of their employees. Traditionally, McDonalds and others offered first jobs to kids in high school. It taught them how to work, to arrive promptly, to deal amicably with the public, to shoulder responsibility, etc. More than anything, it taught kids that they didn’t want to work at McDonalds the rest of their lives.
Like being born into poverty, there is no shame in working at McDonalds. There should be great shame in never working to rise above either poverty or a McJob. Enter the liberal mindset. Libs believe those McWorkers are victims too stupid to work and rise above their current state. Like the black trolls who comment on this page, liberals blame their every problem on someone else. Blacks have whitey and the mythical white privilege, liberals have evil corporations.
Via: Angry White Dude

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Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Costs of a $15 Minimum Wage

In the 1970s, when oil prices jumped, most liberals embraced a simple solution: price controls. It should be illegal, they thought, to sell oil or gasoline for more than a certain amount. Americans should be able to drive without being fleeced by oil companies and foreign governments.
The impulse was understandable. Gasoline is an essential commodity for most people. When the cost rises, it imposes a heavy burden on consumers, most of whom have few transportation options.
In 1971, in an attempt to tame inflation, Republican President Richard Nixon imposed controls on almost all prices. By 1974, he had lifted most of them. But those on gas remained. Under Democratic President Jimmy Carter, they led to widespread shortages and long lines at service stations -- and didn't keep prices from rising. But the controls lasted until his successor, Ronald Reagan, lifted them in 1981.
Liberals learned an unforgettable lesson: Price controls on gasoline don't work. In recent decades, when gas prices have soared, Democrats have shown no desire to repeat the lesson.
But they embrace a similar approach for another problem: low pay for many workers. Chicago decided last year to boost the minimum wage to $13 an hour by the middle of 2019. Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles have gone even higher, raising the floor to $15 an hour in the next few years, and other cities may follow suit. It's a price control on labor.
Their intentions are good. Full-time employment at the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour provides an income of just $14,500 a year. For an adult supporting one child, that's well below the poverty line of $15,930.
The problem is that a higher legal minimum wage is at odds with the prevailing supply of and demand for labor. If you set the minimum too high, you will get a shortage of jobs. Forbidding employers from paying $9 or $12 an hour means that many of their workers won't get $13 or $15 an hour. They will get zero per hour, because those jobs will disappear.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

[VIDEO] Minimum Wage Increase Trickle Down Effect: Michigan's Big Show

Epic mock-alanche in progress as labor unions who pushed for $15 minimum wage in Los Angeles now want an exemption

For the can’t-make-this-up-if-we-tried-file, the $15-per-hour minimum wage mandate that was just passed by the Los Angeles City Council has a new opponent now that it’s time to draft the specifics of the law — labor unions!
These same labor unions, of course, who pushed for this law in the first place. From the Los Angeles Times:
Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.

The push to include an exception to the mandated wage increase for companies that let their employees collectively bargain was the latest unexpected detour as the city nears approval of its landmark legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.

For much of the past eight months, labor activists have argued against special considerations for business owners, such as restaurateurs, who said they would have trouble complying with the mandated pay increase.
But Rusty Hicks, who heads the county Federation of Labor and helps lead the Raise the Wage coalition, said Tuesday night that companies with workers represented by unions should have leeway to negotiate a wage below that mandated by the law.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

And let the well-deserved mocking begin:

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