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Op-ed: Gov. Wolf’s minimum wage plans run into economic reality
April 2017 · Jordan Bruneau · Newsworks
Gov. Tom Wolf’s rose-colored minimum wage plans have run into green-eyeshade economic reality. A new report by Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office finds Gov. Wolf’s proposed 66 percent minimum wage increase to $12 would cost the state nearly 54,000 jobs. The report concludes these lost jobs would be concentrated in food service and retail sectors that often operate on razor-thin profit margins and have less ability to absorb dramatic increases in… -
Michael Saltsman and Jordan Bruneau: The ‘Fight for $15’ is flagging
April 2017 · Michael Saltsman and Jordan Bruneau · Tulsa World
A few days ago, Fight for $15 protesters engaged in another round of coordinated, nationwide fast food protests to agitate for dramatic minimum wage increases. This tired strategy was greeted with a collective yawn by the public. These protests were a microcosm for the Fight for $15 movement as a whole, which has recently suffered a series of high-profile setbacks. Recently, New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez… -
How states are crushing the $15 minimum wage movement
March 2017 · · CNBC
The Fight for $15, a campaign to organize the fast food industry, has encouraged a number of states and cities to raise their starter wage requirement as high as $15 an hour. But now, a backlash is building that could derail its momentum. Last week, Baltimore’s Democratic Mayor vetoed $15 wage legislation passed by the city council. Shortly before that the City Council in Flagstaff, Arizona voted to reduce… -
The Real Calexit: Californians leaving for lower-cost locales
March 2017 · Michael Saltsman · Orange County Register
Activists agitating for California to separate from the United States better start considering the border wall they’ll need to build if successful — to keep their residents in. An analysis of Census Bureau data by the Sacramento Bee shows that between 2005 and 2015 800,000 working-class Californians on net left for other states. Twenty percent of this net working-class outflow — 156,000 — went to one state… -
Commentary: Pa. youth can’t afford Wolf’s minimum-wage hike
March 2017 · Michael Saltsman · Philadelphia Inquirer
Gov. Wolf seems to believe the third time will be the charm. After failing to convince the Pennsylvania legislature of the wisdom of a $10 minimum wage in 2015 and 2016, the governor decided the key to success was to demand more, and he is now calling for a minimum-wage increase to $12. A $10 wage floor was already a troublesome bet for Pennsylvania. A 2014 study… -
The region’s most divisive union
March 2017 · Michael Saltsman · Orange County Register
Two years of morning protests and bullhorns. Welcome to Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, where labor organizers from UNITE HERE Local 11 — Los Angeles’ most aggressive union — have set up shop in hope of unionizing two local hotels. On many mornings, local residents are woken at 7 a.m. by protesters shouting into bullhorns, the loud noises echoing between hotels and high-rises. The police department receives…