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Initiative 77 was wrong in June, and it’s wrong now
September 2018 · Michael Saltsman · Washington Post
Call it the wage increase that wasn’t. In June, 10 percent of registered D.C. voters supported Initiative 77, a ballot measure to raise the base wage for tipped employees by 200 percent. Proponents of the measure portrayed this low-turnout win as a meaningful one. Yet a survey of voters who supported the idea shows that a majority wrongly thought they were supporting a minimum-wage increase to $15 — a… -
Minimum wage increases keep teenagers from summer jobs
August 2018 · Michael Saltsman and Samantha Summers · The News Press
This summer’s 9.2 percent youth unemployment rate is deceptively low–and disguises a disturbing trend. Nearly 11 million teenagers aged 16-19 have dropped out of the labor force entirely, which means they don’t have a job and aren’t looking for one. This represents a nearly 20-percentage point decline from two decades ago, when more than half of all teens were in the labor force. Some of the reasons… -
Florida should heed California’s problems in raising the minimum wage
August 2018 · Michael Saltsman · Tallahassee Democrat
Should Florida join California in its embrace of a $15 minimum wage? Orlando attorney John Morgan wants to put the question to Florida voters on the 2020 ballot, and he’s made a $1 million funding commitment to the make it happen. (Recent campaign finance filings show that half this money has already been donated.) Before voters embrace the “Fight for $15” — indeed, before they even sign… -
Minimum wage hikes a poor way of lifting people out of poverty
July 2018 · Michael Saltsman · The OC Register
When is a mandated pay raise not a real raise? Employees in 18 states and localities (including ten in California) are about to find out as local minimum wages increased on July 1st. The purpose of this policy is to raise wages for less-advantaged employees at the bottom of the pay scale. But new research suggests an opposite effect; a higher minimum wage has done little to… -
Beware fallout from mandated paid sick leave
July 2018 · Michael Saltsman · San Antonio Express News
Are labor unions trying to turn San Antonio into San Francisco? A coalition calling itself Working Texans for Paid Sick Time has collected signatures for a ballot measure that would require all San Antonio businesses to offer paid sick leave — a workplace mandate that first took root in California’s famously liberal “City by the Bay.” The coalition’s folksy name belies big-dollar backers like the Texas Organizing Project, which… -
Here’s a Tip: Waiters and Bartenders Like How They’re Paid
June 2018 · Michael Saltsman · Wall Street Journal
The District of Columbia is one of the most liberal places in the country. But its elected officials—all Democrats or left-of-center independents—have lined up against a ballot measure that would raise the base wage for workers who rely on tips by 200%. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and most members of the council are opposed to the measure, known as Initiative 77. Even Attorney…