[kingu]

And add Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles to this list... Where public officials, to appease union voters 'raise' minimum wages to 'help the working poor' which really is all aimed at raising union wages. Because if the little guys get a 40% raise, so should the public employee unions.

And all of this wonderful goodness will be paid by increased tax revenue, or at least that is the fantasy, because with our 'progressive' tax system (IE: soak the rich), it makes OH so much good sense to take those nasty HIGH TAX BRACKET PROFITS and redistribute them to low income earners who will pay little to no tax on that additional income.

What? Make more money, get a higher tax bracket! And that's true, they would enter into a higher tax bracket, and maybe pay a collective 5% of the tax bill vs the 0% they presently are paying. But really, the cities are counting on increased sales tax income as people spend those higher salaries.

But what's going to happen? The same thing that happens every time that there's a minimum wage increase: Rents increase in direct proportion to the amount of extra income. That means $800 a month apartments will go to $1200 a month. It means that cable and cell phone bills will increase, as they aim for a certain percentage of the rate payer's income.

So no fat sales tax bonanza for any of these cities - just more public employee wages, higher health costs for current and retired employees, and of course, higher costs for already retired as they'll get a piece of the pie as well.

Betcha the shorter hours start expanding beyond minimum wage jobs and into the public sector.

[Popman]

Where public officials, to appease union voters 'raise' minimum wages to 'help the working poor' which really is all aimed at raising union wages. Because if the little guys get a 40% raise, so should the public employee unions.

Many union contracts are tied to the minimum wage, Minimum wage goes up, so does the union wage...

Employers both public and private have no choice...