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New year brings stifling new minimum wage hikes
December 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Orange County Register
Young job seekers in California have unwanted Christmas presents left under the tree: A series of minimum wage hikes given by state and local legislators that will reduce job opportunities in the new year. Unfortunately, these gifts don’t come with a return policy. On New Year’s Day, the minimum wage rises in 12 California cities as well as in the state as a whole. Cupertino, Los Altos… -
Maine Voices: Awareness of tipped-wage issue might have tipped balance on Question 4 vote
December 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Portland Press Herald
A majority of Maine voters approved a $12-an-hour minimum wage on Nov. 8. But many voters didn’t understand that, when they voted for $12, they were also voting for a radical (and little-advertised) provision to raise the minimum wage for tipped employees by 220 percent. Fortunately, the Legislature has a chance to fix it. After the election last month, we used Google’s Consumer Survey tool to poll 500… -
$15 Minimum Wage Bad For Connecticut
December 2016 · Michael Saltsman · The Hartford Courant
After nearly a year of study, Connecticut’s Low Wage Employer Advisory Board recommended that the Connecticut General Assembly pass a $15 minimum wage law. As the board’s biased name would suggest, this conclusion was foregone, but it doesn’t mean legislators need to act on it. Connecticut has had a front-row seat to the launch and growth of the Fight for $15 campaign. It originated in New York… -
Minimum wage’s impact on 2016 political climate
October 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Nashua Telegraph
Minimum wage proponents get no points for originality. This fall, they’re dusting off their failed 2014 strategy which claims that U.S. Senate candidates should support a starter wage increase because it could make the difference in battleground states like New Hampshire. “[U.S. senators] locked in close races could lose critical support—and even their seats—over opposition to raising [the minimum wage]…”, wrote Paul Sonn of the labor union… -
Op-ed: Berkeley’s minimum wage bungle
October 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Berkeleyside
Berkeley’s minimum wage rose to $12.53 an hour on Oct. 1, a brief stopover on its way to $15. By the fall of 2018, the city’s starter wage will have risen 67% in just five years. While the city’s council members quibbled over how quickly the wage should rise to $15, the city’s small businesses had a more pressing concern: How to keep their doors open when the… -
Maine Voices: Minimum-wage hike would have harmful consequences in Maine
September 2016 · David Clough and Michael Saltsman · Portland Press Herald
Maine voters face an Election Day decision that is perhaps as significant as Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton: whether to raise the state’s minimum wage by 60 percent to $12 an hour – a proposal that would apply to every town without regard to local economic conditions. Proponents such as the labor union-backed National Employment Law Project argue that big businesses – not mom-and-pop businesses – would…