Posted on 05/21/2015 7:09:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
"L.A.'s Big Raise For Working Poor," read the Los Angeles Times' front-page headline a day after the City Council passed a $15-an-hour minimum wage. It should have read, "L.A.'s Big Disaster For Working Poor."
The moral preening of the City of Angels' leftist political elites after the 14-1 vote comes with a hefty price tag. Forcing employers to pay what politicians believe is fair rather than what the market says is fair will cost many workers their jobs and force them onto welfare.
"Today the city of Los Angeles, the second-biggest city in the nation, is leading the nation," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times. He's right, but it's a dubious distinction. Yes, the idea that mandating higher wages will lift people out of poverty and boost the economy remains broadly popular. But it will do neither.
Instead of paying higher wages for unskilled labor, businesses will hire more highly skilled people whose productivity can justify the $15 an hour and fire those who don't. Some businesses will automate. Others will "outsource" work to young illegal aliens, who even now work for a pittance, tax-free, on the local black market.
The point is, any worker who is unfortunate enough not to be worth $15 an hour in Los Angeles will now be shown the door and unable to find a job. So, those with the least education and training — mainly young minorities — will be victimized by the hike, not helped.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
The bed is made - lie in it!
Let them eat cake. They can always go on welfare when the jobs disappear.
When government makes such egregious mistakes, ignoring reams and decades of data to impose lunacy in the name of “fairness”, the governmental overseers (politicians) who supported the idea should be held liable for the economic woes they spawn.
I would recommend that property owners in the greater LA area purchase riot insurance for when all the entry-level jobs are gone.
Going to be a hot time in the LA area.
Obviously LA didn’t study the consequences of the disaster up in Seattle that resulted from the same increase. Oh, well... not my problem.
Now you have a minimum wage of $7, and you have many union industrial, blue collar jobs..often government unions, where they're making, say $20/hr.
That's a big spread in the hourly wage differential. But if the minimum wage goes to $15.hour, you're immediately going to hear demands for BIG increases in the union contracts...you can easily write the script .
Watch the mass closing of businesses over the next couple yeas.
Notice the article mentions the moral preening of those that passed the law.
They really don’t care what the fallout is going to be,
and will ignore and deny all the consequences,
because as far as they’re concerned, once they feel good about themselves,
that’s the end of the issue.
It sounds like it will be coming to NYC next. I have to get out of this place. I just hope, whether my destination is Florida or Texas, not too many follow me (except family). My family ties is all that keeps me here now.
I believe I’ve read somewhere that at least some union contracts are written to peg them on the minimum wage.
If the minimum wage is increased, they automatically get an adjustment.
I lived in Seattle for 45 years. I bought a small farm in KY two weeks before the 2008 election specifically to move there, which I did in 2011.
As I watch this stuff unfold all over the left coast, the 8 year old in my laughs hysterically. Not that it won’t affect me eventually (see tag line), but it definitely mitigated the impact.
I bet that every one of these numbskulls who voted for this pays their own personal gardener/maid/driver almost nothing, contributes nothing to their social security, and has them on state insurance for their medical needs.
The USA is going to look more and more like Mexico or Argentina.
Lots of government rules, which kill the formal economy, but spur the underground economy. Illegals don’t need or care about minimum wages, OSHA, hiring guidelines, EPA regulations. So you will have a thin elite who can game the system, play in politics and crony games, and a large underclass who can’t
Of course, people started having their hours cut when ObamaCare came out - fewer full time employees means less costs. And when the minimum wage hiked again, the hours started being cut. And now hours will be cut even more, but business owners will expect the same amount of work done during those shorter hours.
Of course, Los Angeles being pretty much the denim capitol of the world, the expensive designer pants will get even more expensive.. but not from higher minimum wages. Many of the denim factories in Los Angeles already paid well in excess of minimum wage ($14-17 an hour.)
Only with this move, Los Angeles just shot all those hard working employees in the back - Their hard work to maintain those higher wages now means nothing. Anyone can walk in and get those high wages. Many of the factories have politely refrained from poaching employees from each other - that will be out the window now. A few will likely see their wage offers climb to $20+ an hour. And without those lead employees, quite a few of the factories will likely crash in the ensuing battle for the best employees.
Right now would be a great time for someone in another state, perhaps with an aging industrial area and some surplus housing, to start wandering the streets of Los Angeles’ garment district and sing the praises of no silly job destroying laws. It would not take a whole lot to move the garment industry out of Los Angeles.
But hey, the piece shops will have new life! Since those will be staffed by independent contractors paid by the piece and not by the hour. their prices just became incredibly attractive to designers.
There should be no legally forced minimum wages. The market - absent the interference of government or unions - should determine who makes how much. Some people are not worth more than $3 or $4 per hour. So paying them $15 per hour is just idiotic.
There are plenty of countries where people survive on $1 or $2 per DAY. That’s because they are set up to do that. They don’t have the regulations we have and so the very poor are able to get by without government handouts.
Their housing is awful, but they are able to get housing. They don’t eat much, but for the most part they don’t starve. But them again, there’s usually no government busybody telling them what they can and can’t eat, or ordinances telling them they can’t plant gardens, raise livestock, etc.
It always stinks to be poor. But when forced to be, people are resourceful and survive. We have taken that away from the “poor” in the US.
I understand it is already written into some contracts.
But the real reason for this is that it will result in price inflation, which the government desperately needs to continue monetizing the debt.
Every business should hand a statement to their currently under $15 an hour employees: “Your rate of pay will increase to $15.00 per hour. You will have one month to prove that your efforts are worth that rate of pay. If you do not prove your worth to our satisfaction, you will be let go.”
The cream will rise to the top, the dregs will be drained. The unemployment lines will be longer.
So long as it's made by a pro-gay bakery.
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