TOMapleLaughs Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Here's the US cities adopting a $15 minimum wage When dozens of New York fast food workers walked off the job in 2013 demanding minimum pay of $15 per hour, their campaign seemed like a longshot. But two years, several nationwide strikes and new rules laws later, a $15 minimum wage is becoming a reality for millions of workers across the United States. The workers campaign, known as Fast Food Forward and backed by the Service Employees International Union, has slowly gained momentum through a series of increasingly large one-day strikes targeting fast food chains like McDonalds, Wendys and Burger King. At first, the effects of the strikes seemed small, with individual restaurant owners conceding to minuscule wage increases for some of their workers. But even as businesspeople were doing their best to ignore the movement, politicians were paying close attention. Over the last two years, several cities and now the entire state of New York either have or are in the process of enacting a $15 minimum wage for various workers. Heres a look at the cities that have enacted huge pay increases, and the ones that could still be to come. New York How it Happened: A wage board appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo presented a recommendation Wednesday to increase the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 per hour across the state, up from the current $8.75. Cuomo has enthusiastically backed the initiative. The Plan: In New York City, the minimum wage will increase to $10.50 by the end of this year, then increase incrementally each year to reach $15 by 2018. In the rest of the state, the increments will be smaller and $15 will be reached by 2021. The wage increases apply only to fast food chains with at least 30 locations in the U.S. The Effect: None yet, since the measure still must be approved by the states labor commissioner. Experts predict other types of businesses that employ low-wage workers, like retailers or landscapers, will have to increase wages to compete with fast food restaurants. Seattle How it Happened: Mayor Ed Murray made increasing the minimum wage one of his first priorities when taking office at the start of 2014. In May of that year, he put forth a proposal to increase the citys minimum wage from Washington states rate of $9.32 to to $15 over several years. The city council approved the measure a month later. The Plan: Workers at large businesses with 500 or more U.S. employees will see their wages hit $15 per her hour by 2017. Workers at businesses with fewer than 500 U.S. employees will reach that rate by 2021. After the hikes, large businesses will have to keep increasing wages to keep pace with inflation. The Effects So Far: The first stage of Seattles plan went into effect in April 2015, with large businesses raising their minimum wage to $11 per hour and small businesses wages rising to $10. So far, the effects are largely anecdotal. Some local restaurants have raised prices from 4 to 21%. In nearby SeaTac, where the minimum wage for some workers jumped to $15 per hour last year, there hasnt been any measurable economic fallout. San Francisco How it Happened: City residents voted by a large majority to raise the citys minimum wage from $10.74 to $15 last November. The Plan: Wages have already jumped to $12.25, and will increase to $15 by 2018. After that, the minimum wage will increase every year at a rate tied to the consumer price index. The Effects So Far: This years wage increase boosted the pay for as many as 86,000 workers, most of whom were women and minorities, according to one estimate. However, at least one local bookstore said it would close due to the increased costs. Los Angeles How it Happened: The Los Angeles city council voted in May to increase the local minimum wage to $15 by 2020, up from the current $9. This week the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 for people working in unincorporated parts of the county. The Plan: Workers will earn $10.50 per hour starting next year, with incremental increases until they make $15 in 2020. The hikes are delayed by a year for workers at businesses with 25 or fewer employees. After reaching $15, annual minimum wage increases will be tied to the consumer price index. The Effects So Far: Because many cities in L.A. County, like Pasadena and Long Beach, havent yet committed to matching the countys wage increase, prices for goods and services at stores very close to one another could become highly skewed. Washington, D.C. How it Might Happen: Residents of the nations capital will vote next year on whether to increase the minimum wage to $15 from the current $10.50. The Plan: The minimum wage would increase to $15 per hour by 2020 and would afterward be tied to increases in the consumer price index. http://time.com/3969977/minimum-wage/ Since April, the wage for small restaurants in Seattle was raised from $9.47 to $10, which seems fairly minor, but there have been all sorts of reports from Forbes and other business sources that say restaurants are closing, etc. True? Not really. You'll find the restaurant business to be thriving in Seattle. Here's a ton of new Seattle restaurants opening this summer and fall:http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/05/19/22244074/a-ton-of-new-restaurants-are-opening-in-seattle-this-year You'd hear that restaurants should be suffering because of the wage increase, which they knew about since 2014, but if that's the case, why all the openings? Probably because the increase in wage is just another cost increase, like it is for food, electricity, etc. And these costs are passed on or eaten, as usual.But how about Canada? Canada's average minimum wage is $10.30. In BC the current minimum wage is $10.25, soon to be $10.45. Is that a livable wage? No. Here's the living wage for cities across the province:CRANBROOK Living wage amount: $14.16 ESQUIMALT Living wage amount: $17.31 Link: Township of Esquimalt FRASER VALLEY Living wage amount: $17.02 Report: Living Wage Fraser Valley: 2014 update Link: Vibrant Abbotsford HUU-AY-AHT FIRST NATIONS Living wage amount: $17.22 Link: Huu-ay-aht First Nations KAMLOOPS Living wage amount: $17.95 Report: Kamloops Living Wage KELOWNA Living wage amount: $16.98 NEW WESTMINSTER Living wage amount: $19.14 Report: Living Wage Policy Link: City of New Westminster PRINCE GEORGE Living wage amount: $16.90 QUALICUM/PARKSVILLE Living wage amount: $17.30 REVELSTOKE Living wage amount: $17.75 Report: Revelstoke Community Poverty Reduction Strategy SUNSHINE COAST Living wage amount: $18.80 Report: Central Okanagan Living Wage Report Link: Regional District of Central Okanagan TERRACE Living wage amount: $17.65 VANCOUVER Living wage amount: $20.68 Report: Working for a Living Wage Link: A Living Wage for Families VICTORIA Living wage amount: $18.93 Report: Living Wage: Dialogue on the Real Costs of Living Link: Community Social Planning Council WILLIAMS LAKE Living wage amount: $15.77 Link: Social Planning Council http://livingwagecanada.ca/index.php/living-wage-communities/british-columbia/ As you can see, it's well above the minimum wage. This goes for other provinces as well, according to the same source. Canada is starting to notice what's happening in the US though, and are taking some steps.Alberta is increasing minimum wage to $11.20 October, up from $10.20, as part of the plan to raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018.http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Impact+unprecedented+Alberta+minimum+wage+increase+disputed/11074707/story.html And of course, there are many business studies that project job losses in the tens of thousands due to the wage increase, but historically that's remained untrue:Economists have conducted hundreds of studies of the employment impact of the minimum wage. Summarizing those studies is a daunting task, but two recent meta-studies analyzing the research conducted since the early 1990s concludes that the minimum wage has little or no discernible effect on the employment prospects of low-wage workers. The most likely reason for this outcome is that the cost shock of the minimum wage is small relative to most firms' overall costs and only modest relative to the wages paid to low-wage workers. In the traditional discussion of the minimum wage, economists have focused on how these costs affect employment outcomes, but employers have many other channels of adjustment. Employers can reduce hours, non-wage benefits, or training. Employers can also shift the composition toward higher skilled workers, cut pay to more highly paid workers, take action to increase worker productivity (from reorganizing production to increasing training), increase prices to consumers, or simply accept a smaller profit margin. Workers may also respond to the higher wage by working harder on the job. But, probably the most important channel of adjustment is through reductions in labor turnover, which yield significant cost savings to employers. http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02.pdf It's all about productivity. If the higher paid worker brings higher productivity, and this demand for higher productivity is met, then there's no loss in employment opportunities for these workers. This is why people continue to be employed despite their wages always increasing. The push for a nation-wide $15 wage is growing in the US. It seems inevitable. For too long has productivity increases not been matched by incomes, and people noticed.Workers pay has fallen below appropriate levels for all workers, not only because of policy failures, such as not raising the minimum wage, but more generally because workers compensation has not kept up with productivity growth from 1973 to the present, as it had from 1948 to 1973, the golden age of American capitalism. At the time of the shift, the U.S. economy was beginning to feel pressures from its increasing integration into a global economy that was less controlled by leading governments. Corporations were complaining of a squeeze on their profits. And big businesses were organizing themselves more as a unified force, not just as specific industries, to increase their political influence and to fight unions, consumer advocates (like Ralph Nader), proponents of full employment economic policies, and the emerging environmentalists. According to a new paper by Josh Bivens and Lawrence Mishel from the Economic Policy Institute, wages did not stagnate because productivity growth slowed (although business-backed policies often did slow productivity growth). Rather, more of wages and salaries went to the corporate elite, and more of income went to owners of capital rather than to workers (and, of course, CEOs benefitted from both trends). More precisely, from 1973 to 2014 net productivity grew by 72.2 percent, but inflation-adjusted hourly compensation of the median worker rose just 8.7 percent. Rising inequality accounts for more than two-thirds of the gap between pay and productivity. And, Bivens notes, just since 2000, the decline in labors wage share of corporate income has cost workers $535 billion. (If this money were shared among all workers evenly, every working American would get a raise of $3,770.) http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18401/your_pay_is_too_damn_lowhttp://www.epi.org/publication/understanding-the-historic-divergence-between-productivity-and-a-typical-workers-pay-why-it-matters-and-why-its-real/ Time will tell whether Canada will follow the same path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 And it will solve... NOTHING! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRussianRocket. Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanev Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 No thanks. Raise the wage of middle class and entry level professional careers instead. Low skill, low wage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 I feel like that would hurt things in the long run though. I'm not trying to knock fast food and retail jobs, I've only ever worked retail, but paying $15 an hour for that easy of work seems kinda weird. Wouldn't people who have an education need raises too after that? Why go to school to make $20ish an hour (If you can even find anything) when you can skip all that and make $15 at a entry level job in retail? Then if company have to pay that much, wouldn't they want to hire less people / have to charge more money for their stuff? I could be totally wrong though since I honestly don't know anything about how the economy really works >.> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 No thanks. Raise the wage of middle class and entry level professional careers instead. Low skill, low wage. And we still have people like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForsbergTheGreat Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Great move, its not like companies wont find a way around this that will result in less jobs. Right? McDonalds has unveiled its plan to use touch-screen technology in self-service kiosks where customers can order and pay for their food. This employee wont slack off, wont show up late. Doesnt need vacation days or sick days, doesnt complain, doesnt need training, or have to go through HR and doesnt cost $32,000 + benefits a year to employ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRussianRocket. Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 ^has nothing to do really. That will happen regardless, just the nature of how swiftly technology is moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ambien Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 What kind of genius would pretend, never mind seriously think a minimum wage is worth living on? Oh, hi CDC.Great move, its not like companies wont find a way around this that will result in less jobs. Right?McDonalds has unveiled its plan to use touch-screen technology in self-service kiosks where customers can order and pay for their food.This employee wont slack off, wont show up late. Doesnt need vacation days or sick days, doesnt complain, doesnt need training, or have to go through HR and doesnt cost $32,000 + benefits a year to employDamn straight. Even funnier when McDonalds kills more of it's unskilled labour (which was it's primary hiring target) and demands workers with higher credentials to justify the pay. What are they gonna do then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JC2 Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 First off, I have been working in "low skill" jobs for the past 5 years now and let me tell you the jobs concept may not be hard to grasp but that doesn't mean the people working them don't work hard and/or don't deserve a liveable wage. That being said I don't think simply raising the minimum wage to said amount would really change anything. Whenever wages go up jobs become more scarce, hours get cut and the price of everything goes up so it ends up being no different then it was before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edlerberry Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 No thanks. Raise the wage of middle class and entry level professional careers instead. Low skill, low wage. lemme guess, you're under 30 and educated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ambien Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 First off, I have been working in "low skill" jobs for the past 5 years now and let me tell you the jobs concept may not be hard to grasp but that doesn't mean the people working them don't work hard and/or don't deserve a liveable wage. That being said I don't think simply raising the minimum wage to said amount would really change anything. Whenever wages go up jobs become more scarce, hours get cut and the price of everything goes up so it ends up being no different then it was before.That's exactly what happens.. except to liberals living in utopialand, where, when everyone can afford cars, houses, and goods, prices don't go up to reflect the demand.In the real world, that's exactly what happens. So slapping a higher minimum wage solves absolutely nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edlerberry Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 the average freelancer values their time at 100/hour. Now freelancers rarely have 100pc steady jobs, but assuming 40h/w and 30y working, the average person values their life's work revenue at $35,000,000.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
literaphile Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 How about: "can we stop pretending to believe silly images we find on the internet?" There is absolutely no way that $20 bought that much food in 1998. If it did, my university years would have been a lot tastier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 Great move, its not like companies wont find a way around this that will result in less jobs. Right? McDonalds has unveiled its plan to use touch-screen technology in self-service kiosks where customers can order and pay for their food. This employee wont slack off, wont show up late. Doesnt need vacation days or sick days, doesnt complain, doesnt need training, or have to go through HR and doesnt cost $32,000 + benefits a year to employQuestion: Where's the food coming from? Is there a port on the backs of those things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ambien Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 the average freelancer values their time at 100/hour. Now freelancers rarely have 100pc steady jobs, but assuming 40h/w and 30y working, the average person values their life's work revenue at $35,000,000.00What's the point here, that McJob workers should value their work at 100 dollars an hour? Question: Where's the food coming from? Is there a port on the backs of those things?The food will come from the fewer employees working (as you can see, the value of a cashier's job is so low they can replace it with machines). The rest of the employees that were working.. well, time to hit the old EI/welfare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inane Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 That's exactly what happens.. except to liberals living in utopialand, where, when everyone can afford cars, houses, and goods, prices don't go up to reflect the demand. In the real world, that's exactly what happens. So slapping a higher minimum wage solves absolutely nothing. Those damn liberals ruin everything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRussianRocket. Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 How about: "can we stop pretending to believe silly images we find on the internet?" There is absolutely no way that $20 bought that much food in 1998. If it did, my university years would have been a lot tastier. You get the point it makes.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 What's the point here, that McJob workers should value their work at 100 dollars an hour? The food will come from the fewer employees working (as you can see, the value of a cashier's job is so low they can replace it with machines). The rest of the employees that were working.. well, time to hit the old EI/welfare.I think I already addressed this flawed theory in the OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Ambien Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 You get the point it makes..A rational person would see that as an indicator of inflation.But I presume a liberal sees that as "minimum wage jobs need to be living wage jobs". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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