'Conservative Leads Effort to Raise Minimum Wage in California'
Hmm:
Conservative Leads Effort to Raise Minimum Wage in California, by Jennifer Medina, NY Times: Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire, rose to fame by promoting a ballot initiative that essentially eliminated bilingual education in California. He went on to become publisher of The American Conservative, a libertarian-leaning magazine.
But after decades in the conservative movement, Mr. Unz is pursuing a goal that has stymied liberals: raising the minimum wage. He plans to pour his own money into a ballot measure to increase the minimum wage in California to $10 an hour in 2015 and $12 in 2016, which would make it by far the highest in the nation. Currently, it is $8 — 75 cents higher than the federal minimum.
Using what he sees as conservative principles to advocate a policy long championed by the left, Mr. Unz argues that significantly raising the minimum wage would help curb government spending on social services, strengthen the economy and make more jobs attractive to American-born workers.
“There are so many very low-wage workers, and we pay for huge social welfare programs for them,” he said in an interview. “This would save something on the order of tens of billions of dollars. Doesn’t it make more sense for employers to pay their workers than the government?”
“There are so many very low-wage workers, and we pay for huge social welfare programs for them,” he said in an interview. “This would save something on the order of tens of billions of dollars. Doesn’t it make more sense for employers to pay their workers than the government?”
Just saying does not make it a fact. Does he present any figures for those who are in these jobs.
I'm not saying that raising the min wage will or won't get people off the public dole, just show the figures.
And rather than just raising the minimum wage (or pooring his own money into the ballot), how about funding job training so these people are not stuck in these low paying jobs forever.
No cogent businessperson or even public official has any illusion that raising the minimum wage will create any PUBLIC benefit. Some few people will profit by getting a raise, many will lose their jobs or have their hours cut, tens of thousands of business owners will have their own incomes reduced (but who cares about them?), and tens of millions of consumers will pay a little bit more when they go to McDonald's.
All in all, it's a wash.
Only a complete economic fool would think of it as a significant positive development.
As I said a couple of months ago in another thread:
I support the existence of a minimum wage for a variety of reasons, and I think rube has on occasion actually presented a valid argument about how low cost labor is subsidized by the state in a variety of ways...(the trick is how to balance the subsidy off against the wage in a way that doesn't cause businesses to go under and leave the state footing the entire bill for support)
If your ability to offer "X" wage is only possible because the state is providing food stamps and subsidized housing, then the state has a legitimate interest in determining what "X" wage should be...
