Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: Minimum Wage Edition


Before the next few weeks get very, very busy, I was able to spend most of the week in the office to catch up.  I read several articles that dealt with minimum wage issues from around the country.  Perhaps the most interesting article dealt with the impact that Seattle is experiencing after raising the minimum wage rate in the city to $15/hour.  Although this is just one study, it serves as a warning that a $15/hour minimum wage rate might not be the economic boon that some have suggested.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.



A Closer Look at the Impact of Seattle's $15/Hour Minimum Wage Hike

The New York Post has taken a look at the impact that Seattle's implementation of a $15/hour minimum wage rate has had on employment in the city.  As the article notes, unemployment rates have gone up in the city with a loss of 10,000 jobs in just three months, over the past September, October, and November.  However, employment rates have gone up outside the city limits with an increase of 57,000 jobs.  Perhaps it is still too early to determine the impact that a $15/hour minimum wage rate will have on a broader scale...but this study lends itself to the argument that this type of minimum wage increase is in fact a job killer.


A $15/Hour Minimum Wage Rate in New York Could Be Catastrophic for Jobs

Tim Worstall over at Forbes has a well thought out take on the impact that a $15/hour minimum wage rate could have on jobs in the state.  According to a report cited by Worstall, while a $15/hour minimum wage rate would increase pay for nearly 3.2 million workers in the state by 2021, it would result in a decrease in nearly 65,000 jobs.  For minimum wage "wonks" who enjoy pouring through reports and crunching the numbers, this article is right up your ally.


Massive Amounts Have Been Spent to Advocate for $15/Hour Wage Rate in New York

As Jimmy Vielkind writes, a labor backed coalition that is working to help New York Governor Andrew Cuomo raise the minimum wage rate in the state to $15/hour has spent $1.72 million this year alone on the effort.  The article notes that much of this money has gone towards advertisements, town halls, rallies, and the infamous RV tour that the Governor went on earlier this year.  With the issue starting to become a focal point of the legislature in Albany, look for these types of groups to increase funding to raise support for the issue.  The only question is whether it will actually make a difference...and whether any groups that oppose an increase in the minimum wage fund an effort to stop it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more