Minimum wage causing major loss
California recently became the first state to enact a $15 minimum wage, and the business community is stunned. Not by unions pursuing such an increase. They had a $15 initiative on the ballot this November in any event. Rather, the surprise was that California’s lawmakers were so anxious to avoid a popular vote on a measure that significantly reduces opportunities for working class Californians, the very individuals it was supposed to benefit.
In January of this year, Gov. Jerry Brown agreed, stating that raising “the minimum wage too much” would put “a lot of poor people out of work.” His conclusion: “There won’t be a lot of jobs.”
Passing the bill without a popular vote avoided the risk of a loss in left-leaning California that would have had national implications for the initiative’s main sponsor, the Service Employees International Union, a major source of campaign financing for Democrats.
Brown did get one notable concession. For the last two years of his term, California’s minimum wage will increase just 50 cents a year. For the next governor, it will increase $1 per year for each of the next four years. So, it will fall on Gov. Brown’s successor to deal with the fact that, to quote Gov. Brown, “there will be a lot of poor people out of work.”
California recently became the first state to enact a $15 minimum wage, and the business community is stunned. Not by unions pursuing such an increase. They had a $15 initiative on the ballot this November in any event. Rather, the surprise was that California’s lawmakers were so anxious to avoid a popular vote on a measure that significantly reduces opportunities for working class Californians, the very individuals it was supposed to benefit.
In January of this year, Gov. Jerry Brown agreed, stating that raising “the minimum wage too much” would put “a lot of poor people out of work.” His conclusion: “There won’t be a lot of jobs.”
Passing the bill without a popular vote avoided the risk of a loss in left-leaning California that would have had national implications for the initiative’s main sponsor, the Service Employees International Union, a major source of campaign financing for Democrats.
Brown did get one notable concession. For the last two years of his term, California’s minimum wage will increase just 50 cents a year. For the next governor, it will increase $1 per year for each of the next four years. So, it will fall on Gov. Brown’s successor to deal with the fact that, to quote Gov. Brown, “there will be a lot of poor people out of work.”