Midknight Review -- new and revised: L.A. unions push for the minimum wage . . . . . . . . . . except when union workers are being hired.

LA Times:

Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.

The push to include an exception to the mandated wage increase for companies that let their employees collectively bargain was the latest unexpected detour as the city nears approval of its landmark legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.

But Rusty Hicks, who heads the county Federation of Labor and helps lead the Raise the Wage coalition, said Tuesday night that companies with workers represented by unions should have leeway to negotiate a wage below that mandated by the law.

Editor's notes: So there you have it, unions collaborating with politicians to punish non-union shops. Incredibly, the self-serving policies of our nation socialist centers for political reform, aka "the unions," are given a pass when it comes to the minimum wage.

Understand that only 3.5 million folks out of a total and active workforce of 148 million, work for a minimum wage.

Will this cost jobs? Well, today, the number of folks on minimum wage is around 3.5 million folks out of a workforce of 148 million. In 1979 per our chart in this post, something close to 13 million wage earners were on minimum wage. While increased technical requirements exist for wage earners, still, it is obvious that increases in the minimum wage have cost the American worker, some entry level positions. But it is not as simple as subtracting 3.5 million from 13 million. Why? Because upward movement, in terms of wages, is almost impossible to tract. The fact that fewer people are on minimum may be attributed, in part, to the notion that business does a better job of training at the "entry level," and moving workers off the lower wage.
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Related articles:

History of the minimum wage, here.

The Stated Nonsense from the Left now includes these Progressive goals:

July 2, 2008, Obama had this to say: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

MICHELLE OBAMA: "Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."

“ . . . . . . they have become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas – that people who love their country can change it.” -- Obama the Radical

On September 30, Van Jones told MSNBC "I think everybody should hold onto your seats. October is going to be the turning point when it comes to the progressive fight back."

2 comments:

AnonymousMay 28, 2015 at 7:37 PM
Why not wait to see how this all plays out? I mean, if the new wage only effects 3.5 million of 148 million. how bad could it be. Going Right Wing hysterical does not solve anything.
AnonymousMay 28, 2015 at 7:46 PM
If similar exemptions are put in place at the federal level, we could get an increased minimum wage that almost no one would actually receive. Low wage employers would be forced to snuggle up with unions to keep wages below the new minimums and the unions would see millions of new dues paying members.

The real losers in this case would be those newly unionized workers who would continue to see $7/hr wages with the added expense of monthly dues.