This living wage requirement is coming to your city and state. The rats will pass a federal law increasing the minimum wage to $9.10 with an inflation index. They will also had other costly mandates especially a health care payroll tax.
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You’re right. Up in Santa Fe the living wage was put into effect about 2 years ago. It started at $9.50 per hour for employers with more than 20 employees. It is due to go up again soon to $10.50.
The legislators that fought for it said the minimum wage was supposed to be able to support a family of 4 when it was put into law & that it no longer did.
I never thought minimum wage was expected to support a family of 4. I felt the reason for it was to encourage employers to hire teenagers or inexperienced people, moving them up to a better wage after they gain skills.
I work in the hotel industry and see many owners in Santa Fe that struggle as some of the more average size hotels employ less than 20. Of course they can’t find employees that want to work for under $9.50 now when they can go flip burgers for that. So they are forced to pay the $9.50 anyway. It’s a mess!
The so-called “New Party” is up to its neck in this program. Their talking points for supporters includes the family of four argument.
In my former city, we had a rat majority, but a couple of conservatives on the City Council. The ordinance got passed, by we managed to trim down the scope so severely that it basically applied to no one. Nevertheless, the rats were happy because they could say they’d passed one and the city went on the proponent’s list of ‘successes’. It’s interesting that very few of the cities on that list actually passed an ordinance that mirrors the one the supporters are pushing. They’re well organized and well funded, though, with nice little union printed signs, and now coming to a city near you.