-
$15 minimum wage reduces opportunity
May 2017 · Michael Saltsman · New Haven Register
It’s a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.” New legislation cosponsored by Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal and 22 others would raise the federal minimum wage by 107 percent to $15 an hour. Yet none of the cosponsoring senators pay their interns this hourly wage; in fact, most don’t pay them at all. Hypocrisy aside, these senators surely understand that a $15 hourly pay requirement… -
Not so fast on minimum wage
April 2017 · Jordan Bruneau · The Herald News
In arguing for a $15 minimum wage, Illinois Rep. Will Guzzardi suggests you’re either on the side of working-class residents or “big corporations.” It’s not that simple. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most minimum wage employees work for restaurants and retailers with low single-digit profit margins. By raising starter wage labor costs by 82 percent as Rep. Guzzardi desires, restaurants and retailers will be forced to lay… -
Op-ed on business mandates was misleading
March 2017 · Michael Saltsman · Crain's New York Business
Two separate empirical reports, as well as independent reporting from the Washington Post, have confirmed that San Francisco’s restrictive scheduling law has been anything but a “resounding success.” Unable to support this claim with their own data, Paul Sonn of the National Employment Law Project and Carrie Gleason of the Center for Popular Democracy make a clumsy attempt to criticize the work of my organization. We worked with a third-party… -
Minimum wage hike hurts job seekers
March 2017 · Michael Saltsman · Des Moines Register
Gov. Terry Branstad has suggested the Iowa Legislature consider “a modest increase” in the state’s minimum wage. A review of the best research, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, confirms that even a modest increase can have a major impact on job opportunities for less-skilled job seekers. Iowans could look at Johnson County, which raised its minimum wage to $10.10 on Jan. 1, for proof. The Orange… -
Workers often get raises without minimum wage increases
December 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Knoxville News Sentinel
The recent column “Working poor desperate for increase in minimum wage” overlooks the fact that the vast majority of minimum wage employees earn a raise on their own without a government mandate. Economists William Even and David Macpherson find that two-thirds of minimum wage employees earn a raise within their first 12 months on the job. That’s because they learn basic skills like time management and customer… -
$15 wage would cost jobs
October 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Philadelphia Inquirer
Former NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous builds his case for a $15 minimum wage on talking points that work better in a campaign speech than in the real world (“Demand $15-an-hour minimum wage in Pa.,” Monday). Jealous argues that a $15 minimum wage would “instantly lift millions of Americans out of poverty.” Using that flawed logic, a $30 minimum wage should instantly lift millions more. Economists…