-
Los Angeles’ minimum-wage study should involve business owners
April 2015 · Michael Saltsman · Los Angeles Daily News
Last month, three studies of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposed $13.25 Los Angeles minimum wage were presented to City Council members. Labor union-aligned researchers at the Economic Roundtable and UC Berkeley painted a rosy picture of the mayor’s minimum wage plan; by contrast, the report from consultancy Beacon Economics was more nuanced, acknowledging benefits as well as significant employment costs. The report from Beacon Economics most closely matches… -
$10.10 minimum wage a scary idea
March 2015 · Michael Saltsman · Lima News
Spring is here, which means cold winds and icy sidewalks are replaced by budding flowers and warmer breezes. Unfortunately, it also means the Ohio legislature will again consider the perennial bad idea of raising the minimum wage. State Senator Kenny Yuko has introduced this year’s effort, which would raise the state’s minimum wage by 24 percent to $10.10 an hour. Proponents argue, as they usually do, that… -
Here’s a tip: Leave the R.I. tipped wage alone
March 2015 · Michael Saltsman · The Providence Journal
Employees at Rhode Island’s world-famous restaurants may have been too busy gearing up for the start of tourist season to notice legislation heard this month by the House Committee on Labor that could put their tip income — and their job — at risk. State Rep. Aaron Regunberg, D-Providence, and his allies in the state’s powerful labor unions have proposed the drastic and dangerous step of increasing… -
The Unappetizing Effect of Minimum-Wage Hikes
March 2015 · Michael Saltsman · Wall Street Journal
Last fall, voters in the Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Oakland followed Seattle’s lead and approved costly new minimum-wage mandates ($15 an hour and $12.25 an hour, respectively) for most businesses in the city boundaries. Now the bills have begun arriving, and some businesses can’t pay them. The consequences of minimum-wage increases, at the historical levels studied in the U.S., are well known to labor… -
The Fiction of a Harmless Los Angeles Wage Hike
March 2015 · Michael Saltsman · Los Angeles Business Journal
In the months since Seattle passed a once-unthinkable $15-an-hour minimum wage, other proudly liberal cities – including Oakland, San Francisco and Chicago – have embraced similar wage mandates. Now, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has entered the fray with a $13.25minimum–wage proposal of his own. These legislative efforts have been supported by researchers on opposite sides of the country – at UC Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts,… -
Ad campaign to boost minimum wage relies on some fuzzy math
February 2015 · Mark Perry and Michael Saltsman · The Sacramento Bee
In a new multimedia advertising campaign, the California Endowment is calling on Sacramento residents to “do the math” in favor of raising the minimum wage. We took up this challenge, and our conclusions show that the endowment hasn’t done the math itself. The endowment is referring to the oft-cited executive pay gap – the difference between CEO pay and that of the company’s lowest-paid employees. The endowment…