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Sen. Leno’s “Income Inequality” Lost Cause
February 2015 · Michael Saltsman · California Political Review
California’s minimum wage is set to rise to $10 an hour on January 1st of next year. But for Senator Mark Leno (D-San Citing an “income inequality crisis,” Sen. Leno has called for a minimum wage increase to $11 an hour in 2016, followed by another jump to $13 an hour in 2017. Unfortunately for the senator, the evidence suggests a hike in the base wage will do very… -
How to kill jobs & close doors — a minimum-wage warning to New York
February 2015 · Michael Saltsman · New York Post
Couples across the country spent Valentine’s Day watching the rom-com “You’ve Got Mail,” where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan fight over customers as his bookstore behemoth threatens to gobble up her neighborhood Shop Around The Corner. That storyline resonated with viewers in 1998, and today the threat to locally owned bookstores in the big city remains real. But it’s no longer the Borders and Barnes & Nobles… -
Obama gives false hope to employees
January 2015 · Michael Saltsman · The Detroit News
Obama gives false home to workers President Obama made two lofty promises to the country’s entry-level workforce in his State of the Union. For their own sake, the employees should hope he’s not able to keep them. The commander-in-chief has asked Congress to command employers to do the following: Pay at least $10.10 an hour to all employees, regardless of age or experience; and provide up to… -
Groundhog Day on L.A.’s minimum wage proposals: Guest commentary
January 2015 · Michael Saltsman · Los Angeles Daily News
In the movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors wakes up every morning in the same guest house in Pennsylvania with the same song playing on the radio. This year, Los Angeles is having its own case of Groundhog Day déjà vu: A team of researchers affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, who last year drafted an approving report of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposed $13.25… -
Berkeley Minimum Wage Hike Study Ignores Key Factor
January 2015 · Michael Saltsman · California Political Review
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s proposal for a $13.25 citywide minimum wage hit a speed bump last week when two city councilmen — Mitch O’Farrell and Felipe Fuentes — insisted on an independent analysis of his plan. They specifically objected to the group of researchers originally chosen to conduct that analysis, from a labor union-aligned research outfit at the University of California-Berkeley, due to concerns that their… -
AFL-CIO wage conference cheat sheet
January 2015 · Michael Saltsman · The Hill
The AFL-CIO’s National Summit on Raising Wages takes place in Washington D.C. today, but you don’t have to attend to know what’s going to be on the agenda. In lieu of a much needed debate on how best to spur wage growth for millions of Americans passed over by the economic recovery, the AFL-CIO will fall back on its old hobby-horse of calling for a minimum wage…