Living Wage (Page 2 )

  • A $15 Minimum Wage Goes National

    November 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Wall Street Journal

    The “Fight for $15” minimum-wage movement has fought its way to the top of Democrats’ 2019 agenda. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat expected to chair the House Education and Workforce Committee next year, promised a minimum-wage bill would “be one of the first we consider.” Nancy Pelosi boasted last year that a $15 minimum wage would pass “in the first 100 hours” of a Democrat-controlled Congress.…
  • Flagstaff considers a do-over on Fight for $15

    November 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman & Samantha Summers ·  Washington Examiner

    Following Amazon’s announcement that it was raising its starting pay rate to $15 an hour, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Congress should mandate the same for the entire country. But one of the few U.S. locales to actually embrace a $15 minimum wage — Flagstaff, Ariz. — is currently having second thoughts about the merits of the policy and might soon undo it. The story starts in 2016, when…
  • The Fight For $15 Sets Its Sights On A $20 Minimum Wage

    November 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Investor's Business Daily

    Has the Fight for $15 set its minimum wage aim even higher? In Oakland, voters will consider Measure Z, which would set a minimum wage as high as $20 an hour — that’s $40,000 a year, full-time — for the city’s hotel employees. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors recently reached a deal to fund a minimum wage of up to $18.75…
  • Why Congress Shouldn’t Emulate Amazon

    October 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Roll Call

    Does Amazon’s embrace of the Fight for $15 mean Congress should do the same? New Jersey Rep. Donald Norcross recently made that case in these pages, arguing that the retail giant’s embrace of a $15 minimum wage meant other businesses could afford it as well. But Norcross’ argument confuses a voluntary raise with an involuntary mandate: One boosts paychecks; the other could leave employees without any pay at all. Today,…
  • Who’s Actually Behind These Minimum-Wage Ballot Measures?

    October 2018 ·  Samantha Summers ·  Investor's Business Daily

    Voters in Missouri and Arkansas will head to the polls this November to vote on whether to raise the minimum wage in those states. The ballot measures are the handiwork of seemingly grassroots organizations “Arkansas for a Fair Wage” and “Raise Up Missouri.” However, a closer look reveals that each initiative’s main supporters aren’t local residents, but rather deep-pocketed national labor unions and special interest groups. Consider…
  • California’s cautionary tale for New York restaurants

    February 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Crain's New York Business

    A proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to eliminate New York’s tip credit has worried restaurateurs, who are already reeling from recent wage hikes. Cuomo counsel Alphonso David recently dismissed these concerns by pointing west. “California, as an example, does not have a tipped wage, and the sky didn’t fall,” he said at a Crain’s forum. David might want to take a closer look at the data. For many California…