Posted on 03/26/2002 10:18:47 AM PST by geaux
New Orleans was within its rights last month to change its charter to require employers in the city to pay their workers $1 an hour more than the federal minimum wage, a Civil District Court judge ruled Monday.
The New Orleans Campaign for a Living Wage, which sued to have the courts uphold the charter change approved by 73,500 New Orleans voters in February, hailed Judge Rosemary Ledet's decision as a historic move that puts the city's low-income workers a step closer to getting a pay raise.
"This will give working poor people the relief they have needed and create hope for our impoverished community," said Beulah Labostrie, state president of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
A spokesman for the Small Business Coalition to Save Jobs, which had joined other opponents of the charter change in a lawsuit to have the measure thrown out, will immediately ask the state Supreme Court to reverse Ledet's decision.
Unless higher courts reject the change or put it on hold, the minimum wage increase will go into effect May 2. The measure includes automatic $1 increases to follow any boosts in the federal level. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.
Although other cities have passed similar measures, most apply only to government contractors or city employees. The New Orleans measure, which business interests said will hurt the economy, applies to all workers except city and state employees covered by civil service rules.
Ledet rejected both of the business community's main arguments.
The claim that increasing New Orleans' minimum wage violates the part of the Louisiana Constitution that bars cities from passing laws that govern private or civil relationships has no merit, she said. The increased minimum wage ordinance, Ledet said, is "not consistent with or in conflict with" any state laws that govern employment relationships.
Ledet also disagreed with the coalition's claim that the New Orleans charter measure runs afoul of a 1997 state law that prohibits cities from enacting a minimum wage. She declared that law unconstitutional, saying opponents of the New Orleans charter change didn't prove that stopping a local government from setting a minimum wage is necessary to protect the state's overall vital interest.
The business coalition disagreed.
"We believe the (1997) law is clearly constitutional, and the Supreme Court will ultimately decide that issue," coalition attorney Horace "Topper" Thompson III said. When a trial judge declares a state law unconstitutional, it means an automatic appeal to the state's highest court.
In her decision, Ledet also dismissed the testimony of the business coalition's expert at the trial, University of New Orleans economics professor Dr. Timothy Ryan, a critic of minimum wages generally who helped push the law through the Legislature. She concluded he was biased.
"Dr. Ryan's opinion to the Legislature that localized minimum wage ordinances would have a negative impact on business development is based on economic theory premised on his belief that there should be no mandatory minimum wage, whether prescribed by federal state or local law," Ledet said.
She said that while testifying during hearings last week, Ryan admitted he had done no specific study of the impact of the $1-an-hour minimum wage increase and said it would be impossible to predict how the business community would react to it.
"His bias is highlighted by the fact that the effect of a municipally enacted increased minimum wage is based on perception and speculation, since no specific study was conducted," Ledet said.
The only empirical data about the effects of a $1 an hour increase in New Orleans' minimum wage came from the proponents' expert, University of Massachusetts economics professor Dr. Robert Pollin, Ledet said.
Using his data from a 1999 survey of New Orleans businesses that showed a $1 minimum wage increase would increase the operating cost of an average firm less than 1 percent, Ledet described the impact as "negligible."
"Dr. Pollin opined that there would be no significant impact on the business economy of the state because of an increased minimum wage in New Orleans," Ledet said. "These findings are uncontroverted by any contrary evidence directly relating to the impact of a dollar minimum wage increase in New Orleans."
Why just ONE dollar? If this is such a great solution towards ending poverty in New Orleans wouldn't raising the minimum wage to $20.00 per hour be a better approach? How about $50.00. Now that would have people really flocking to New Orleans for jobs. Too bad, the jobs will have left town by then. This is mass ignorance run amok.
Bingo! That's the 64 dollar question. And one that I've never heard the socialist answer to. Once you recognize that you can't make everyone independently wealthy by just mandating a $250/hour minimum wage, you've then got to explain how/why changing the amount to something lower will improve the plight of the recipients. At what point do the laws of economics cease to function and the bonus dollars just magically flow straight to the bottom line?
Once again the democratic socialists enact legislation designed to redistribute wealth from those that produce it and give it to those that do not deserve it. I'm sure that most in the buisness community would be willing to pay employees a living wage if they received comparable physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something for that wage. Maybe I'm a bit naive but I always thought that was how Capitalism worked.
I think I'll quit my job and start flipping burgers.
How will this work?
Start with a person receiving $5.15 per hour because the federal government dictates to the employer what must be paid. Compare that person to a person earning $6.18 per hour or 20% more than minimum wage. The person who has been receiving $5.15/hour will receive an increase of approximately 20% to $6.15/hour after the government increase is implemented? Will the person who was worth 20% more than minimum wage still be worth 20% more?
What becomes of the pecking order if you will?
Should the person earning $6.18/hour now receive $7.42/hour?
Should the person earning $7.42/hour now receive $8.90/hour?
Should the person earning $8.90/hour now receive $10.68/hour?
Should the person earning $10.68/hour now receive $12.82/hour?
Should the person earning $12.82/hour now receive $15.38/hour?
Should the person earning $15.38/hour now receive $18.46/hour
Should the person earning $18.46/hour now receive $22.15/hour
And so on and so on…..
What options are open to the employer? What options are open to the consumer?
My suggestion. While visiting New Orleans, DO NOT TIP. They make enough money on this new "minimum" wage.
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