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Los Angeles Raises Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour

Seattle just started on the MW hikes

most havent taken yet

Seattle has a much higher average wage in the area

Seattle has a much more educated population

Can Seattle handle the $ 15 hr MW.....maybe

Comparing Seattle to Los Angeles makes no sense though.....the cities are in no ways alike

Los Angeles will have a much rougher time acclimating to the new wage than Seattle....and it is still questionable if Seattle can deal with it

You'd be surprised in how the two cities are alike. Both are major ports. Both are politically rather progressive. Both have very ethnically-diverse populations. And Los Angeles is not that bad when it comes to level of educational attainment.
 
Speaking of facts not fitting someone's narrative, are you aware that the States that have the weakest unionization tend to have the strongest employment and least inequality?

Are you aware that the states that have the weakest unionization also have the lowest average income, the lowest educational attainment rates, the highest teenage pregnancy rates, the highest divorce rates, and the highest violent crime rates? Google them - it's true. Red states are generally worse than blue states in all those categories.

And when it comes to your attempt to correlate unionization with inequality in cities, I was not aware that cities in Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas were so strongly unionized:

141121182905-metro-income-inequality-greatest-1024x576.jpg
 
that person that supposedly knew the business is not the owner. therefore it is simply their opinion not proof that the owner is lying you need to learn the difference.
no your fact don't fit anyone's narrative. seeing how the majority of people there work above minimum wage then it isn't that big of a deal. however they will be wanting raises to offset the cost increases from minimum wage people making 15 an hour. their is a huge possibility that they won't get it.

We'll see in the years to come, won't we?

how about this you open a business and pay no skill low skill labor 15 an hour.

I am a small business owner. We've got a small store where we do airline ticketing (at rates that are almost always lower than anything you find online), package shipping, and money remittance. We also have another small business where we provide home care to an elderly lady with dementia, and another one where we provide home care to a young man (who was our Foster child since he was four) who has fetal drug syndrome - he has a trach, a g-tube, rods in his back, seizure disorders, cleft palate, and is also developmentally-disabled.

So yes, we DO own three small businesses and we DO have employees. Are you doing as much? Perhaps you are - I don't want to make the same mistake you just made by assuming that I don't know anything about running a business.
 
Has anybody seen any data on the effects on unemployment rates of teenagers in cities where the MW has been raised a significant amount?
 
David Neumark, in his book Minimum Wages, summarizes the important studies on minimum wage effects. Here are the effects according to the preponderance of evidence:

Minimum wages reduce the employment of low-skilled workers, especially for those directly affected.

There is no compelling evidence that it helps low income families; there is some evidence that it actually harms them and increases their poverty.

The clear conclusion is that there is no beneficial distributional effects.

Minimum wages create either no effect or a negative effect on employee skills and training. There is no positive effect.

Schooling - there is an unambiguous negative effect on future schooling (as measured in case studies).

There is a long-term negative effect on the young, lowering their wages and earnings in their late twenties.

Increase prices in those industries directly affected, but not in general economy.


It's just that simple, folks. The only question needing discussed is why each of these effects occur - which, for those familiar with economics, should be somewhat obvious.
 
Are you aware that the states that have the weakest unionization also have the lowest average income, the lowest educational attainment rates, the highest teenage pregnancy rates, the highest divorce rates, and the highest violent crime rates? Google them - it's true. Red states are generally worse than blue states in all those categories.

And when it comes to your attempt to correlate unionization with inequality in cities, I was not aware that cities in Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas [URL="http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/14/news/economy/america-inequality-10-worst-cities/" were so strongly unionized[/URL]:

One thing is for sure, you seem oblivious to the thread of prior claims. I questioned your laudatory claims about strong unions being correlated with robust economies in other countries; so I asked you if you were aware that in this country, State employment rates and inequality is correlated to strong unionization.

Bizarrely, you take off carping over scatter-shot irrelevancies about how bad their non-economic demographics were - aka, dodging. Then you offered a red herring list of ten Cities (not States), some cities in red states, who have the worst inequality and poverty (ignoring that most or all of those cities, even in red states, are blue).

The correct answer was "Max, I confess that I was unaware that States with stronger unions correlate with higher unemployment and greater inequality".
 
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They come be a use they can find the jobs. Start jailing employers and that all goes away.

then why is your plan then...... jail employers.

instead of granting work visas.

the only reason the u.s. ever created them in the first place was for skills which could not be found in the u.s. not to just give them to people who wanted to work in america
 
We'll see in the years to come, won't we?



I am a small business owner. We've got a small store where we do airline ticketing (at rates that are almost always lower than anything you find online), package shipping, and money remittance. We also have another small business where we provide home care to an elderly lady with dementia, and another one where we provide home care to a young man (who was our Foster child since he was four) who has fetal drug syndrome - he has a trach, a g-tube, rods in his back, seizure disorders, cleft palate, and is also developmentally-disabled.

So yes, we DO own three small businesses and we DO have employees. Are you doing as much? Perhaps you are - I don't want to make the same mistake you just made by assuming that I don't know anything about running a business.

LOL of course you do everyone is everything on the internet.
you don't pay 15 bucks an hour either on every position you have.

you pay the market rate for the job the person is doing.
 
A pay raise for minimum wage losers is a pay cut for everyone else.
 
How about the business owners successfully operated a couple of stores, and now remaining in business is questionable? Obviously, never thought about that.

It happens every day. You're paying way too much for lease rates.
 
why do you think companies are abandoning CA in general? their are simply better places out there to do business in.
no restaurant prices have gone up more so your local places more than your chains. however I have noticed that even chain prices have gone up as well.

businesses pay what the position is worth and being a bus boy or a dishwasher or a cashier doesn't entitle you to 15 bucks an hour

Trust me, California doesn't care. For every one that leaves, 10 more start up.
 
I just showed that it did and you were proven wrong and I am sure that there were more that were not reported.

businesses cannot justify paying low skill no skill workers 15 dollars

Look, your little article has zero effect, that's what I've been telling you. Your opinion is useless against the markets and public demand. If you can't sell your cup cakes here - then leave.
 
As is the case with Seattle, San Francisco has a highly-educated workforce (52.4% with bachelor's degrees or above vs. the national average of 28.8%). The end result is very low unemployment (4.2% rate vs. 5.6% national rate in March), high productivity (per capita income of $48,486 vs. the national average of $28,155) and high incomes (median household income of $75,604 vs. the national average of $53,046). Of course, even there, there will be some economic dislocation.

Los Angeles is in a worse position. A large share of Los Angeles' population is under-educated (25.5% have no high school diploma vs. the national average of 14.0%). As the unemployment rate is directly correlated with educational attainment and job security is also greater with higher educational attainment, it isn't surprising that Los Angeles currently has a 6.6% unemployment rate (vs. 5.6% in the U.S. in March), along with lower productivity ($27,829 per capita income) and lower median household income ($49,497) than San Francisco (or Seattle) and a poverty rate more than 50% above the national average. Lower-skilled jobs often come with a lack of benefits and 28.3% of Los Angeles residents under the age of 65 lacked health coverage (vs. 15.3% nationwide). Los Angeles' economy is in a much weaker position than San Francisco's or Seattle's to cope with a $15 per hour minimum wage.

All that sounds fine however L.A. is L.A. and just like up here, businesses will come and go a dime a dozen. The ones that make it will be able to afford $15 an hour. If the others can;t hack, then asta la byebye.
 
Look, your little article has zero effect, that's what I've been telling you. Your opinion is useless against the markets and public demand. If you can't sell your cup cakes here - then leave.

businesses are leaving or closing down. that is why CA has some of the highest poverty rates in the country and more people on government assistance.
it has been going on for years.

yep if I owned a cupcake shop in CA I would shut it down and move to NV where I can operate efficiently.
it isn't a matter of selling cupcakes.

it is the matter of making enough money off of them to continue operating.
I mean if you will buy 10 dollar cupcakes then please do I will stay in business.
 
All that sounds fine however L.A. is L.A. and just like up here, businesses will come and go a dime a dozen. The ones that make it will be able to afford $15 an hour. If the others can;t hack, then asta la byebye.

and the ones that make it won't be hiring no skill low skill workers either.
 
and the ones that make it won't be hiring no skill low skill workers either.

Then, what happens to the more than 25% of Los Angeles residents who lack high school diplomas? The disappearance of job opportunities for them almost certainly would lock them in poverty, especially as no large-scale education initiatives are on the horizon for the City.
 
Then, what happens to the more than 25% of Los Angeles residents who lack high school diplomas? The disappearance of job opportunities for them almost certainly would lock them in poverty, especially as no large-scale education initiatives are on the horizon for the City.

it is a liberal dream land isn't? tons of people dependent on the government for survival?
beholden to their government overlords to provide for them while the rest of the people move to avoid the increased taxes.

CA is going the way of Detroit but as the entire state as a whole.
 
Wow, LA by proclamation has suspended a law of economics! Amazing. I can't wait till they issue another proclamation that sellers must sell below cost because they can always make it up in volume. Venezuelan economic decrees in America, can't wait!
The minimum wage is 80 years old and yet America continues to have a resilient and robust economy.

The problem is that the myths that conservatives convince themselves are real, like increasing the minimum wage will cause people to lose their jobs and it will drive out small businesses, are not real.
Minimum Wage Mythbusters - U.S. Department of Labor
 
businesses are leaving or closing down. that is why CA has some of the highest poverty rates in the country and more people on government assistance.
it has been going on for years.

yep if I owned a cupcake shop in CA I would shut it down and move to NV where I can operate efficiently.
it isn't a matter of selling cupcakes.

it is the matter of making enough money off of them to continue operating.
I mean if you will buy 10 dollar cupcakes then please do I will stay in business.

what if there is no demand for cupcakes in NV ?
 
Wow, LA by proclamation has suspended a law of economics! Amazing. I can't wait till they issue another proclamation that sellers must sell below cost because they can always make it up in volume. Venezuelan economic decrees in America, can't wait!

Economics has laws? I've always thought of them as opinions.
 
A pay raise for minimum wage losers is a pay cut for everyone else.
Thank you for reading your bumper sticker. That doesn't make it so and insulting hard-working Americans by calling them "losers" doesn't help your case. The reality is low earning workers are constrained at what they can purchase. If they earned more, they could consume more. Remember, their earnings are your income. If they have more income, you get more sales, which means you earn more.

Moreover, when minimum wage workers get raises, their pay bumps up against supervisory workers, who then demand higher wages.

Contrarily, a pay raise for minimum wage Americans is a pay raise for everyone else.
 
ludin said:
businesses are leaving or closing down. that is why CA has some of the highest poverty rates in the country and more people on government assistance.
it has been going on for years.

yep if I owned a cupcake shop in CA I would shut it down and move to NV where I can operate efficiently.
it isn't a matter of selling cupcakes.

it is the matter of making enough money off of them to continue operating.
I mean if you will buy 10 dollar cupcakes then please do I will stay in business.
What you believe is (once again) wrong. There are studies that conclude otherwise: Studies look at what happened when cities raised minimum wage | The Seattle Times

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The study was done by Nicholas Potter, now a researcher at Washington State University. He said some businesses in Santa Fe did close and some said it hurt their competitiveness. But workers were overwhelmingly positive about the pay hike. And the fear of massive restaurant closures didn’t happen, he said, though the cost of eating out did go up some.

“It seemed to have helped workers and not hurt business too much,” he said.

Cost of eating out

Potential price increases at restaurants was the biggest negative impact identified by the Berkeley researchers. The cost of eating out went up 2 to 3 percent when the minimum wage rose 25 percent. That means dining out in Seattle could go up as much as 7 percent if the city goes to $15 an hour.

But another Berkeley researcher said there isn’t an overwhelmingly negative impact on any type of business where the minimum wage has been raised.

There is considerable churn among small businesses. Firms are going out of business and new businesses are rising all of the time. What is important from the research is that you do not see a net decline in employment as a result of the minimum-wage ordinances,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.
 
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