Wages are based upon the importance of each job to the business, the experience and skill of individual workers, the number of people available for each job, and the overall cost of labor and other expenses, balanced by business income. In New York city, all minimum-wage earners will be paid US$15 by the end of 2019. Those states are already two of the highest paying states in the country, and contrast greatly to the minimum wage offered in many southern states, including Texas’ $7.25 per hour.
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The bill’s enactment comes one week after Brown, Democratic lawmakers and labor leaders announced an agreement on the wage increase, averting a brawl on the November ballot.
California Gov. Jerry Brown also signed legislation Monday to boost his state’s minimum wage to similar levels in the coming decade. As the Empire State’s minimum wage increases to $15 by 2020, tipped workers will only be guaranteed $10 per hour by that time, before gratuities. “These initiatives will better the lives of Yonkers residents and raise the bar on our economic and social opportunities…” If gentrification wrought by the projected Metro extensions prices out locals of working-class neighborhoods like the San Fernando Valley’s Van Nuys and Sylmar, soon there won’t be affordable housing for minimum wage earners and their families, and bustling areas like Los Angeles will face a deficit of workers that once ran their economies.
The minimum wage should go up, but sustainably. “Economically, a minimum wage may not make sense”, Brown said. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed his state’s legislation and was cheered by labor unions at a rally moments before Brown spoke in California. Given that if California could stand alone, it would be the world’s eighth largest economy, it is a mystery as to why it took this long to secure the remuneration and stability of its workforce. California just passed a compromise raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022.
“There are a lot of elements to this discussion, and certainly the minimum wage is one”, Baker said.
“Now Congress needs to act to raise the federal minimum wage and expand access to paid leave for all Americans”, he added in a statement. “The bill takes a thoughtful approach to raising the minimum wage by giving small businesses more time to adjust to higher wages and policy makers the flexibility to respond to economic uncertainties in our future”.
In a bi-coastal bonanza for low-wage workers, the governors of California and NY signed legislation April 4 to raise the minimum wage in their states to $15 per hour.
Under the new minimum wage law, the lowest wage workers can earn will increase 50 cents an hour to $10.50 in 2017 and $11 in 2018. Clinton praised Cuomo, for his progressive agenda, and contrasted him with her potential rival in the general election for President, Donald Trump, whom she mentioned by name.
Now California has gone where NY feared to go – at least in most of the state – and the agriculture industry is bracing for the fallout.
CFBF Director of Employment Policy Bryan Little noted that the increase to $15 amounts to a 50 percent rise in the minimum wage during the next six years.
Wenger said the minimum wage was never established to be a living wage, and said the scheduled wage increases come as farmers and ranchers try to recover from several years of drought. Some jobs could be lost, but others might grow with increased economic activity from the higher wages.
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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.
