The California Chamber of Commerce calls it a “job killer” that will hurt economic growth in areas of the state still recovering from the Great Recession. Businesses with 25 employees or fewer will have an additional year to hit each minimum wage level; all businesses will be paying $15 an hour by January 1, 2023.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, signs a law that will gradually raise New York’s minimum wage to $15, at the Javits Convention Center, in New York, Monday, April 4, 2016.
“California Governor Jerry Brown also signed a $15/hour minimum wage for the Golden State today”.
Prior to holding a rally at the Cohoes high school, Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held an event in New York City with Governor Cuomo and top state Democratic lawmakers to celebrate the state’s passage of an increase to the state’s minimum wage. The new law will increase the minimum wage for large and small businesses according to two schedules. Brown gave some credit for the law to the Service Employees International Union, which had qualified a tougher minimum-wage initiative for the November ballot.
Most GOP policymakers won’t simply acknowledge their philosophical objection, but rather, they’ll say Republicans are honoring the wishes of “job creators” in the private sector – to raise the minimum wage, the argument goes, will hurt employers in businesses nationwide who don’t want, and can’t afford, a higher federal minimum. SB3 passed with no Republican support.
The California Restaurant Association in a statement last week called the bill a “hastily crafted” effort that was “pushed through with no regard for the many negative consequences this measure will create”.
After the wage reaches $15 an hour, there will be annual hikes pegged to the Cost of Living Index, with a cap of 3.5 percent for any single increase. “Workers’ wages have only gone up 9%”, said Cuomo. Eva Bruce of Tulare said, “We’ve all been fighting so hard for the ‘Fight for 15.’ I cried, a lot of people cried”.
Democrats who control the Legislature approved the increase Thursday, days after the agreement was announced.
The New York Giants have holes all over the defensive line that need to be fixed in the 2016 NFL Draft later this month.
The minimum wage will be increased gradually to 15 dollars in both states over the coming years.
The legislation earned praise from U.S. President Barack Obama, who hailed the state for bolstering wages and ensuring paid sick leave for workers. The 77-year-old United Domestic Workers union member lives in Garden Grove and now makes $10.20 an hour as a health care worker. And when you consider that more than 30% of minimum wage workers are parents, it’s even clearer that living on the minimum wage anywhere in California is not feasible.
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Some business owners and corporate executives, though, fear that pushing the minimum so far might backfire – as businesses may simply downsize staff to help offset the burdens from the hiked wage.
