Front Page  »  

California Senate endorses minimum wage hike

June 2, 2015

moneybagsThe California Senate voted Monday in favor of a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage each of the next two years. [Sacramento Bee]

Senate Bill 3 would bump the minimum wage to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017. The bill also calls for the state’s minimum wage to start increasing annually in 2019 based on inflation.

Minimum wage is currently $9 per hour in California. Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, says that is too low.

“The president of the United States has defined income inequality as the defining challenge of our time,” said Leno, the author of the bill. “Wages are growing at the slowest rate relative to corporate profits in the history of the United States of America.”

Leno proposed a similar minimum wage increase last year. The bill passed the Senate but failed in an Assembly committee.

On Monday, the Senate voted 23-15 in support of Leno’s bill. No Republicans voted for the bill, and one Democrat opposed it.

“It’s a capitalistic society,” said Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa. “We need to honor the work of those that are creating jobs, that are paying the taxes.”

The proposed minimum wage hike also faces opposition from the California Chamber of Commerce, which placed SB 3 on its annual list of bills that are “jobs killers.”

Recently, several California cities have adopted their own minimum wage increases. In the next few years, minimum wage will reach $15 an hour in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.


Loading...
Subjects:             
Related:


80 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

“The president of the United States has defined income inequality as the defining challenge of our time,” . Wait, I thought it was “climate change”


0

The next time the person behind the counter at McDonalds ask you for the 4th time how many creams do you want in your coffee and still gets it wrong and then slides your take out order over to you on a tray….remember he/she is earning $11 an hour.


0

Liberals have us burning our food supply to produce ethanol (corn) causing beef prices to skyrocket. Now they want business to pay unskilled labor a “liveable wage” rather than encourage them to learn skills to become more valuable and earn more. The restaurant business is rapidly moving to automation. Has anyone been to Chilli’s lately? Orders will soon be made using touch pads (Ipads) everywhere and for fast food restaurants the kitchen will be done using robotics. Unemployment will skyrocket as business will find ways to eliminate overpaying for unskilled labor.


0

Why not make minimum wage $100/hr. That way it will help everyone.


0

It’ll sure make things easy for the small business owner who may only have a couple thousand dollars in sales each day…shut the doors!


0

the Swiss have minimum income level that the government provides and then you go from there I think it’s equivalent to $18,000


0

Exactly, except (as I think you imply) the cost of a big mac will increase to $90.


0

achillesheal says:”except (as I think you imply) the cost of a big mac will increase to $90.”


Except I have been to places with a living minimum wage and big mac’s are normally priced and the lines are long at lunch time.

So no, not true.


0

So how does the employer absorb the additional cost of wages?

There are 2 typical paths employers take when costs increase, either raise prices or cut the workforce.


0

Or they can cut corporate profits in one area and make them up elsewhere. (The big corporations won’t be hurt much by this — it is the small employer with small profit margins that will have troubles.)


0

The problem with America is that it IS a ‘capitalist’ society. This is fine in theory, IF there were fair competition for goods, services, and labor. Except it is not fair. When 99% of all new wealth only goes to the top 1% that game the system and operate as monopolies and cartels , then it is a ‘winner takes all’ system of a rigged casino making a pretense and a sham of ‘the American dream’.


0

You mean like when the savior was going to clean up Wall Street then didn’t prosecute a single person for the financial crisis?


You mean like when the govt printed 85 ba ba ba billon dollars a month artificially inflating the stock market, also known as QE?


You mean how the 1% got richer under Obama than any other president?


0

You think President Obama ( or anyone else ) controls the money masters …the banks ‘too big to fail’ ?

When anyone tries to rein these economic pirates in , they are marginalized, neutered, or assassinated .


Look what happened when the Senate was proposing more rigid restrictions on banking: the ‘Flash Crash’, where the stock market was driven down 10% in about 1/2 hour. That was the warning shot by the crooks at the top to say, ” See ? We can bring ALL of this down in minutes, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Do things OUR way, or we’ll blow everything up “.


Of course, they’ll do it anyway. The ‘capitalists’ always do when there’s no more left to steal.


0

I think that you are confusing capitalism with corporate socialism. While capitalism can (and has) turned into corporate socialism when there are insufficient restraints on it, it can be a good system with those restraints in place. Perfect? No. But as good or better than any other.


0

Yes, that’s precisely part of the problem. I swear, once you get past all of the bs rhetoric from both the right and the left, it looks more and more like a one party system with each passing year. The media is used to divide the people while bought-and-paid-for politicians promote an agenda that is far from being in our national interest.


0

That’s such a copout. Tell your argument to all of the people working at Apple who are now millionaires – from secretaries to programmers to the top 1% of executives. How about Mind Body employees (in our own backyard) who are about to become wealthy due to an IPO, or the UPS drivers and foreman who made millions.


Tell your argument to the 8th grade girl from Los Osos that was on shark tank a few months ago and her product sold out all inventory.


Jealousy is an ugly emotion. It often is used to mask ones own self loathing.


0

The instances you describe are capitalism at its best. Unfortunately, that is becoming much less frequent for reasons that Slowerfaster gives. And it seems to be limited largely to the computer tech fields these days. Not everyone has the aptitude or skills to make it in those fields.


0

The reason it is less frequent is people want instant success and aren’t willing to embody the idea the Greeks call pathos (virtuous struggle and suffering leading to success).


Every person that lives in my development in slo is living the American dream. That’s hundreds of families. I am 3rd generation American and my dream and that of my families has been reached and is constantly improving through hard work and good decision making.


Those who proudly proclaim themselves 99% ers are justifying thei failures and shortcomings to themselves and circle of friends.


0

When I see a 99%-er bumper sticker…I know instant loser…


0

Maybe others don’t place as high an emphasis on material wealth in their lives as you do. That doesn’t mean they are “losers” unless your criteria for being a “winner” is that “he who dies with the most toys is the winner.”


While their are some who are justifiably criticized for not doing enough to provide for themselves or for wanting instant success, there are also many others who tried but didn’t have the right circumstances to make themselves wealthy. You seem to be out of touch with them — as are many in Congress and most contributing to the conservative media.


And it is getting worse by the year. I will bet that many of those you laud as “living the American dream” either got there more than 10 years ago, inherited a good start, or had a valuable skill based on something more than simply hard work and good decision making.


This would not be a problem if the division of wealth in this country was more in proportion to the effort spent. I don’t expect to have the wealth of a George Soros or of the Koch Brothers, Warren Buffet or Bill Gates. They worked harder and smarter than me and deserve more. However, they didn’t work 200,000 times harder or smarter as their wealth would indicate. The difference is in a system rigged to favor greater accumulation of wealth by those who already have it — earned or inherited.


0

Didn’t Unions want to exempt their members from increases to the minimum wage?


0

I bet the politicians that are using this to pander are so ignorant they think this will mean more taxes. It’s an easy decision when one is incredibly ignorant of how a market (of any kind) works: it’s not THEIR money, they are not the creators of jobs or wealth. Hell, it’s pretty easy to say, “yeah, all those ‘rich guys’ need to pay the workers more!”


How about saying that when YOU have been an employer.


Why do we let the most ignorant among us 1) define anything and 2) try to fix it… ?


California is well on its way to being Michigan.


0

This obsession with minimum wage is ridiculous. It’s OK to work for minimum wage when you are 16, but then you need to start raising yourself and your skill level.


0

I LOVE IT!!! That is it, right there in a nutshell. What sane person at 16 says, duh gee whiz I thunk I will live off dis till the day I die.


I looked at min. when I was young and thought, means to an end. Get foot in door and start climbing that ladder. Not grab a chair, sit besides the ladder on my lazy ass, watch others climb it and then ask all the others climbing by you, to drop a rope to your sorry ass and lift you and your chair up, so they don’t have to climb!!!! Worse is the bigger MORONS that support this and feel sorry for them!!!


0

In a service economy such as we have here on the Central Coast, too many of the available jobs are “minimum wage” for many adults to be able to find those better paying ones. And the trend is getting worse with few exceptions. Make sure that good paying jobs are there and the old concept of minimum wage work you are describing would be fine.


0

Then you bite the bullet and move to where you can support yourself and your family. I moved cross country for a job when I was 21 because I couldn’t find a job at home. That’s what people do.


0

I did the same at 26. It helped but then life found another way to bite me in the ass many years later. I am not doing poorly but I am not doing well either and I don’t see even the opportunity that existed 20 years ago for advancement. I will get by but I see many others around me that have greater obligations (such as a young family) which limits them further. I take it that you don’t associate with (or perhaps listen to) many such people.


0

Correct. There is nothing wrong with struggling however. That’s life.


0

i don’t know if upward mobility really exists anymore for younger generations entering the workforce. Many of the kids who are graduating today are having serious trouble landing jobs, and even a lot of those who do find work still end up moving back home with the folks because they don’t make enough to live off of. Blue collar or white collar. To say that all of these people are lazy or lack talent is not accurate, and the problem is only getting worse.


That said, i’m not a big fan of increasing the min wage. Increased costs would likely be absorbed into product prices and for that reason you run the risk of creating further econ decline. We do need to find a solution though.


0

Sure, increase the Cost of Hiring people in the State.


Folks….don’t fall for this SCAM….what’s behind this is the INCREASE in STATE and FEDERAL Income/Payroll Taxes! Remember the Fed gets 15.3% of your pay in payroll taxes for SS etc…so by forcing a higher minimum wage THE Government gets more Taxes in the door! Once again the poor are just a Tool to keep Government in Power!


0

What is wrong with creating more productive taxpayers …vs, the welfare kings and queens at the top that pay NO more SS or FICA taxes after $118,000 earned income …no matter how high the amount ?

The rich also pay NO SS or FICA taxes on capital gains, which are taxed at 15%, far lower than what a real working person pays.


0

The rationale for paying no more SS or FICA taxes after $118K is that SS benefits are capped and the system is supposed to be a type of insurance for keeping old people out of poverty. Why should people pay in more when they can’t get more out?


I do agree with you about the capital gains needing to be taxed heavier. If you want to be sure that doesn’t hurt the economy by squeezing “job providers”, simply require proof that the gains are going to creating jobs IN THE USA for them to get the existing lower rate.


0

Like that’ll happen ! The STEALERS will only steal more.

It’s what they do.


0

Only the Rich pay taxes income taxes in this Country…. The rest are slacker looking for handouts.


0

Do you honestly think EVERY small business is wildly wealthy and the owners are all 1%ers that you loathe so openly?

Your idea of how most businesses operate is so far off base it’s not even funny.


0

Small business ? HAHAHA….you’re an idiot. You think that you’re part of the exclusive club, but you’re just as much a disposable peon as the rest of us.


Oh yeah …you’ll find out, too late.


0

I’m an idiot?

Tell me just how many weekly paychecks you provide to local families, then we’ll talk.


0

Listen ….It’s not about me, or you. It’s about Them: the top 1%, .01%, , and .001%.

Sure, there are some in the 1% that are not ‘wildly wealthy’ greedheads. But the top .01% of $12 mil +and the 1,400 .001% that rake in $62 mil+ ARE ( with few exceptions ).


The US ranks 93rd in the world for income equality. 93rd !

…And those top .01 – .001 % and most of the 1% don’t give a damn about it, because their mantra is, “We got ours, screw you !”


0

There’s a lot of truth to that adage about taxes being for the middle class (cause those at the top or the bottom don’t pay). People who bring in more do like to complain, but most of this is just intellectual warfare. If you know what you are doing you can get your rate pretty low.


0

You do realize that a capital gain occurs when you sell something for more than you spent to acquire it right?


0

Figured I would pass along accurate information regarding capital gains since you like broad brush strokes so much


Not all of your long-term capital gains are taxed at 15%. So in addition to the 15% rate, there is a 20% rate for upper-income investors and there are several additional long-term capital-gains rates, which can range from 0% to 28%. Last but not least, there’s potentially a 3.8% Medicare surtax on capital gains reaped by upper-income investors. Which category your profit will fall into depends on your income-tax bracket, the type of asset you sold, how long you held it and when you sold it. Keep in mind, short-term gains (on assets held for one year or less) are taxed at your ordinary income rate, which can range from 10% to 39.6%.


0

I assume that SlowerFaster was referring to capital gains on investment income — not on real property — since that is where the richest people are making most of their income. (He could have been more precise in his verbiage.)


With all the money manipulation games being played in the financial industry (yep, they are still going on and starting to grow again), I have a hard time considering that as a socially-beneficial activity comparable to actually making something or providing a service. As such, I see no reason why the profits for those activities can’t be taxed at maximum rates since we can’t seem to get rid of them or bring them to a state of reasonable regulation. (Too big to fail is too big, period.)


0

Still not true. You might want to familiarize yourself with schedule D on a tax return. Investments are also taxes based off of how long they have been held (less than a year or longer than a year).


Did you even read what I posted? Profit depends on tax bracket and short term investments are taxed at the ordinary income rate.


But I’m sure the token thumbs down collector just misspoke…


0
1 2 3