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Legislature considering increase to California minimum wage

April 29, 2013

moneyDemocratic Assemblyman Luis Alejo is attempting to raise California’s minimum wage by $1.25 over the next three years. [LA Times]

Alejo, of Watsonville, is the sponsor of Assembly Bill 10, which could create the first raise in the state’s minimum wage since 2008. If adopted, AB 10 would raise minimum wage from $8 an hour to $8.25 next year, to $8.75 in 2015 and to $9.25 in 2016. Annual adjustments thereafter would occur based on California’s inflation rate.

Last week, the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee passed the bill on a party-line vote.

Alejo told the committee that the bill would “help ensure equity for minimum wage workers.”

Labor unions support the proposed minimum wage increase, while the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Restaurant Association and the Western Growers Association plan to fight its progress through the Legislature. The Chamber of Commerce calls the bill a “job killer.”

Similar bills sponsored by Alejo died in the Assembly in 2011 and 2012.

California currently has one of the highest minimum wages in the nation. Washington state has the highest at $9.19 an hour, followed by Oregon at $8.95 and Vermont at $8.60.

 


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Cons just don’t get it. The economy works best when people have more money to spend. The top 5 % can only spend so much money. Inceasring wages accorss the board is the key to improved GDP growth, thus more jobs. The wage ratio between the top 20% and bottom 20% is the highest it’s ever been. That’s why the ecomomy is stuck. It needs to be re-balanced.


BTW, I’m glad we have unions so we don’t have buildings collapsing like they do in Bangledesh with sweatshop owners jamming workers into unsafe working conditions.


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Wow your total misunderstanding of unions is hilarious. The unions have nothing to do with the building standards. Must codes used in the use of buildings in the U.S. came about with the insurance and fire fighting industries. Nice try at spining your pro union view thou.


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Wow. Building codes don’t come from unions? Tell that to the IBEW. OCAW. (I doubt if you ever heard of that one) And a host of other trade unions. You are so ignorant it’s not even funny. As far your next comment, you are reciting far right talking points. The middle class is disappering in this country becuse of people who think like you….wait “think” does not apply.


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Um that is one of many (codes electrical) I was refering to. First learned about it in a museum visit in Iowa in the late eighties. The CODE’S came about because a lot of farmers in the late twenties were doing their own thing and there was no one standard. It WAS THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AND FIRE INDUSTRY that brought it about. Oh and GENIUS (that is sarcasm in case you don’t get) they both STILL write your code today.


Guess those Union hacks realised they had a live one when they recruited you huh???


Oh and as your far right I’ve been told by Chris Mathews what to say talking point, again I’ll give that as mush credence as your TOTAL misrepresention of the union comments.


Your creditibility is shot!!!!


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Here’s a link that may help. Interesting I didn’t see any kind of corralation with the unions.


http://www.unionvilletimes.com/?p=4963


Notice what paragragh six CLEARLY mentions!!!!


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Oh and you can pass that on to the IBEW if you would like to correct them.


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Here is another descripition I found on the net……………..Notice the agency that maintains and updates it.


The National Electrical Code (NEC) is a book of standards regulating electrical installations in the United States. The NEC is updated and maintained by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). While the National Electrical Code is not a law, it is generally adapted by governing bodies and states as part of local laws and building codes.


Read more: The History of the National Electrical Code | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5062903_history-national-electrical-code.html#ixzz2RxwDWbRB


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Oh and so you don’t think I forgot your first comment. Yea nice try on that one to. Who provides the jobs? Those with money. The more we have taxed them and figured we would bleed them to get what we want, what did they do? They got up and marched off shore. That is why the economy is stuck. It went offshore due to your type of thinking of make them pay what we tell them they will. YEA RIGHT!!


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Back during the reign of King Richard of Nixon, his #1 flunky ( man by the name of Spiro) lambasted the vocal opposition as “ivory-towered intellectuals.” There was some truth to this accusation that the proponents of socialism were tied to a theory that had some major flaws in practical application.


Today, the “ivory -tower intellectuals” are often on the right-wing, “free enterprise” side. The idea of increased taxation or other government-induced expenses like higher minimum wages damaging economic growth has some validity but has been greatly exaggerated by people politically tied to these THEORIES. Look at the income tax rates back 50-60 years ago during one of the biggest boom times this country experienced. While a case can be made for a negative effect on growth, there are many other factors involved in a prosperous economy and some of them are much more significant.


The absence of a good market (many people spending money freely) has more to do with resistance to economic expansion among those wealthy enough to own big businesses than the pay scale of low-end laborers. The ability and willingness to outsource production and import labor from countries where people are desperate enough to put up with abusive employers and dangerous workplaces is a larger deterrent to expansion and hiring in the US as well.


The people who will be hurt the most by a minimum wage increase are the small business owners that lack the ability to outsource and the resources to survive the burst of inflation that will likely follow it. They have my sympathy. But I am not going to cry for the corporate overlords that have destroyed much of the US middle class. They are the ones who lobbied the feds into opening our market doors wide to unfair competition from “off-shored” manufacturing and tolerating waves of desperate illegal immigrants for their cheap labor. Their philosophies benefited them in the short-term but they will hurt the country as a whole in the long term.


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effete intellectual snobs


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One problem with your apples and oranges approach and quoting the good ol days of fifty-sixty years ago. What was happening at that time? Hmm lets see. The majority of the world was coming out of the war. Did we have competition from the German’s. No rebuilding. Japanese? No same. China and India? No still in dark ages then. We NOW compete with all of them and others. It was MUCH easier to compete then and hence a TOTALLY different time and EASIER to provide MANY jobs as again no competition.


Very complex today, with MANY issues.


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Employment funded by the tax paying private sector, government jobs, teachers, etc, should have their minimum wages increased while their maximum wages should be no higher than the average mean wage of the private sector.


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isoslo has nailed it!


Here is the explanation according to the Wall Street Journal back in February 2013 when President Obama first proposed this:


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324048904578318541000422454.html


It is definitely a reward for the unions as is the immigration bill. Time for the Democrats to start paying the debt off!!!


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The Democrats?


What are you advocating, secession?


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2 words…mass exodus.!


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Ruining the economy one government intervention at a time.


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doesn’t matter, they’ll get paid cash or hours cut back. problem solved.


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How many union contracts with the state of California have language that ties pay rates to a multiplier of the minimum wage? My guess is most if not all. This has been on the union radar for years, and if this bill passes it will be the nail in the coffin for many California Cities who will have no choice but to give big raises based on the existing contracts.


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*ding* *ding* *ding* *ding*


Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!


…and to prove it, watch the “dislikes” pile up 3- or 4- per day until this article fades away.


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I think this has to happen because of the sheer volume of money just created to bail out the stock market (to the tune of 85 BILLION a MONTH) and the subsequent THEFT of value from anyone who uses USD (even to their own chagrin).


With the constant devaluing of the dollar, any increase in pay rates, consumer costs, etc. will only reflect this. Milk and Gasoline are not “going up” so much as your dollar has been “going down” – if it was not for the fact that the USD is the defacto international reserve currency (and many are looking to change that) we’d be Zimbabwe.


For instance, $1.00 in 1913 is approximately equivalent to $0.04 today (well, in 2012) – just remember: the easiest way to steal your money is to cheapen it.


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Yes, and that sheer volume of money is going to flood the economy and crush with its sheer weight.


This will bring hyper-inflation as we have never seen it.


The feds/Fed have painted themselves into a corner and cannot get out. All they can do is create more money; but this will destroy our currency because there is too much of it and it is backed by NOTHING. It is worthless.


This situation makes the “minimum wage” debate look like nothing.


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You are right in your comment of us controlling the reserve. That is the difference between us and Greece. They don’t control their money, hence why austerity measures got put on them and not us.


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Here is a suggestion. Instead of complaining that people can’t live on minimum wage HOW ABOUT getting trained to do something. And PLEASE don’t tell me you can’t. I have had MANY a job over the years that I went to and sold myself and said give me a chance you won’t be dissappointed and then MEAN IT!!


It can be done and the job I am self employed in now started that way. Trained on job starting over 25 years ago. But the first step is STOP saying you can’t and TRY!!! I hate that word can’t.


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BTDT,


Yeah! Screw those that have to work at minimum wage, let them eat cake! They’re nothing but deadbeats to this society because EVERYONE should be trained in a job classification or profession to not even need minimum wage just like you! This precludes that everyone is cut from the same cloth as you are to attain a higher wage, which is not even close to being a possibility.


God forbid, you pick which God, that a minimum wage ensures low-skilled workers that they will be paid a guaranteed minimum in this type of blown out economy where the citizens far out number the available jobs, and where any type of job is hard to find. There has to be a foundation for many of our society if they don’t have the “smarts” that you allegedly have, nor can readily obtain them anytime soon.


Overall, in the real world, your “Pie in the Sky” proposition falls flat on it’s face and is very unchristian like as well!


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Teddy as usual your painting with that brush far and wide. I don’t have a problem if they don’t have the smarts BUT a lot of the people that work minimum wage that have been on for years are a lot of the time lazy and not motivated and want to sit around and get high. Now I know you will want to jump all over that but I have known people in these jobs and this is the truth. Sorry.


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The minimum wage clearly has not kept up with inflation and should be increased.  


When I graduated from high school, the minimum wage was $1.65.  Back then, for each hour worked at minimun wage, you could buy at least five gallons of gasoline.  Now, an hour at minimum wage will only pay for two gallons.  Back then, my rent for a one bedroom apartment in Pasadena was only 45 times the minimum wage.  Now, a similar unit would rent for more than 125 times the minimum wage.   


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How about instead of saying,…..hey let’s just continue mediocrity, (i.e. just giving away money) what is wrong with ENCOURGING people to EXCEED to be the BEST they can be?? How about some training of the students in high school to be able to do some blue collor jobs? How about putting money on that instead of continiuing to socialise with a given amont of money?


I want to see people succeed by being PRODUCTIVE!!! THEN and only THEN will you EVER see this country be what it use to be. Continue socialising and I will GUARANTEE it WON’T change.


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“What this country used to be” happened when people who had minimum wage jobs could afford to live AND they could improve themselves with FREE community college classes and almost free CSU classes.


When it takes two or three minimum wage jobs to pay the rent and other expenses, it is more difficult to take classes to improve yourself. Education is still the best way for most people to increae their incomes and reduce the odds of being unemployed.


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OMG! Really?? Blue collar in the late 40’s to early 60’s was king. Where is our manufacturing sector today? You can’t just have a society build on office jobs. You have to MAKE something. Simple economics.


I gave you a solution (blue collor jobs) and you come back with more plaitude’s. Yes an education is good BUT like Ted asked what about those that CAN’T do or don’t have the smarts to. BLUE COLLAR!!


When I grew up working at Micky D’s or Circle K wasn’t considered a career choice. It was considered a STARTING POINT!!


I am aruguing to help people off of minimum and you just want to subsidize them.


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Yes, but it would also be nice for the fed gov not to sabotage our economy the way it is doing.


Talk about employment opportunities!


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“How about some training of the students in high school to be able to do some blue collor jobs?” Remember way back when there were Industrial Arts in high school? I had one friend who loved drafting, which led to architecture, which led to owning a building in downtown Denver and a nice home in Boulder and an airplane. Ok, an exception, but it was industrial arts.


The French system, or at least used to, looked at kids at that intermediate level and encouraged the industrial arts for some. I should have stuck to the metal lathe. Nothing wrong with the trades.


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Thank you. Someone gets it. That is what (as you can see from my post) I have been saying again and again. Blue collar was VERY big in the 50’s. It is a shell of that now. Hmm and for all those complaining and plying over the good ol days, Blue Collar is one of the things that is missing.


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and i don’t even consider a trade as blue collar. do you know what a machinict makes? if you can find one. growing up, the guy behind us owned a gas station….and a beach house.


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Agreed. Blue Collar of course usually just means you don’t always have to have a college education to get it. You just need training.


Yea average car mechanic’s today make about 75k. Machinists make around 100k after about seven years on job. Just read that there is a shortage of machinists in this country because to many young kids don’t want to do it. There are jobs out there that pay but to many want to drink the kool-aid that we need to give everybody something, instead of have them work for it.


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