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Burger-Flipper Arbitrators
March 2019 · Michael Saltsman and Michael Lotito · Wall Street Journal
Now that the Fight for $15 movement has achieved a higher minimum wage in New York City, its backers at the Service Employees International Union want to make fast-food workers hard to fire. City Councilman Brad Lander introduced legislation in February that would effectively abolish at-will employment in chain restaurants—those with 30 or more locations nationwide, whether corporate-owned or franchised. The bill is unprecedented in its scope;… -
Dems should follow Bill Clinton’s lead on minimum wage hike
January 2019 · Michael Saltsman & Samantha Summers · The Hill
One of the Democrats’ top priorities in the new Congress is a $15 minimum wage — a 107-percent increase over the current standard. Before embracing a federal wage mandate for which there’s no historical precedent, party leaders should take a lesson from former President Bill Clinton. Clinton was a champion of a higher minimum wage, and in 1996 he signed into law a 21-percent federal wage hike. (In today’s… -
As minimum wage kept growing, restaurants didn’t
January 2019 · Michael Saltsman · Crain's New York Business
Has New York’s minimum wage experiment been a success or failure? For Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the verdict is all positive. He described the state’s minimum wage—which in New York City rose to $15 an hour Dec. 31—as a “national example in the fight for economic justice.” But employment figures paint a less-rosy picture. New York has more than a dozen different minimum wage rates depending on a… -
Is Amazon’s holiday hiring foreshadowing the future?
November 2018 · Samantha Summers · Reno Gazette Journal
This holiday season, Santa’s little helpers might come with a battery. While retailers across the country are beefing up seasonal hires to prepare for the holiday shopping apocalypse, Amazon is taking a different tack: hiring 20,000 fewer seasonal hires from previous years and increasing workplace automation. It may be a frightening preview of holidays to come: As mandated minimum wages across the country continue to rise, retailers are forced… -
A $15 Minimum Wage Goes National
November 2018 · Michael Saltsman · Wall Street Journal
The “Fight for $15” minimum-wage movement has fought its way to the top of Democrats’ 2019 agenda. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat expected to chair the House Education and Workforce Committee next year, promised a minimum-wage bill would “be one of the first we consider.” Nancy Pelosi boasted last year that a $15 minimum wage would pass “in the first 100 hours” of a Democrat-controlled Congress.… -
Tip for Murphy: Leave NJ’s tipped wage alone
November 2018 · Michael Saltsman & Samantha Summers · The Burlington County Times
New Jersey Democrats have rightly proceeded with caution on a $15 minimum wage, citing concerns about negative impacts on young adults and the agricultural industry. But these consequences would pale in comparison to the negative impact on restaurants should the state Legislature embrace Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter’s proposal to upend the state’s tipping system. Sumter’s proposal, which was praised by Gov. Phil Murphy, would raise by more than…