Median household income for LA County per the US Census - $55,909. California as a whole - $61,094.
And that is the case in absolute dollar terms only too - I read some stats somewhere that in terms earning potential/income opportunites vs. living costs, it’s more “expensive” to live in LA than NYC or SF. I think it’s believable…
There are plenty of stories of non-chain fast-food restaurants cutting workers because of increased minimum wage requirements or going out of business. These idiots are protesting themselves out of a job.
Maybe compared to Japan? LA and Tokyo are about the same according to this.
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/los-angeles/tokyo?
Ok, I can believe that low wages in LA make living there even less affordable than NY or SF. But the minimum wage is an absolute number and should still be compared to costs like housing, food, or transportation, which also have a dollar amount.
Good thing you guys are not economists. Before you do the knee-jerk “socialist plot to put small businesses out of business” routine, consider the stats.
First off, the increase is over several years (2015-2020 IIRC), wage goes up roughly $1/year. Small businesses have one additional year to comply.
More importantly, what percentage of expenses do salaries for minimum wage workers constitute? A company with 20,000 full-time minimum wage workers can raise their wage by $1/hour by taking a hit to the bottom line of $40M/year. This is a hit of $2000 per employee per year. Even McDonald’s makes $18,000 per employee per year. And I am sure they will raise prices to compensate. (WalMart makes only $13K profit per employee per year but they are not in LA anyway.) Almost any other business will make more money per employee per year.
Also, there are positive externalities. If minimum wage rises, some welfare queens and kings might feel like working - that’s the carrot. The stick would be to end welfare or stop extending unemployment benefits but no politician in a democracy can propose that and be safe in his seat.
Some time back, a guy actually calculated the rise in price of a head of lettuce if farmers paid minimum wage to farm workers instead of the exploitative practices they engage in now. His answer: 5 cents.
A $15 minimum wage would kill ambition for a lot of people. With a $15 minimum wage I think many people would no longer feel a need to improve their skills and earnings potential – thus the increase to $15 would actually hurt the minimum wage earners in the long run.
Minimum wage positions aren’t meant to be long-term comfortable careers – instead they should just be a way-station before going on to improve your skills and earnings potential.
Besides the proverbial insult of a ‘minumum’ for earnings, do we really care? Minimum wage creates business distrubtion which… frankly leds to a higher need for business professionals to outsource these jobs that really provide no incremental value anyways.
They’re shooting themselves foot, we should encourage it.
My only question is, do they deserve it? As a retail executive I have to run a business. I would argue that during the times when I was a manager working near 80 hour weeks for my store I wasn’t making $13 an hour. You have to earn your stripes in any business no matter what. I don’t intend to abide by $15/hour in any of my stores, and if that means I must leave Los Angeles than so be it. My customers will travel further to gain my services and I am confident in that.
McDonald’s is at it again. I think wage increase is expected. Just a matter of time.
one of the biggest complainers said “he wasn’t making a living wage”. it was revealed the dude had pumped out 3 kids.
Really idiot? maybe you should have considered that before having the 2nd or 3rd kid. You’re already milking the govt for support as it is, now you want to milk more from the companies.
This is why this country is going to heck. These people are going to vote for politicians that give handouts until we become Greece and implode. All while the rich flee to lower tax regions
in line with your line of reasoning, it will bring many black market workers back to the “white” (?) market. no need to run drugs for $12-$15/hr when you can be safe and better support your family by working at McD’s for $15 an hour.
not speaking from experience. but ive done models and survey with a bunch of people on this. these businesses are really all about revenue traffic. a majority of these businesses costs is also tied to revenue. royalties, advertising fees, and cogs, prolly ~40%. margins expand when revenues are high cuz a majority of it is kinda fixed, labor, operating, lease costs, etc.also the margin beepage impact from wages is much less when revenues are higher. los angeles has high traffic, so if you have a good business, like an mcd with 3mil revs, you should be fine. the crappy ones like togos with less than 600k are prolly dead. but they prolly woulda died anyways, you juss accelerated it by icnreasing labor costs.
and is this really so bad? you accelerate the process of capital investment by raising labour costs which boost economic and business efficiency and you raise discretionary income going to labour likely boosting growth in the process. some of the efficiency gain goes to labour through a higher minimum wage and some of the efficiency gain goes to corporate profits to make up for the additional per capital labour costs. it is not good for economic growth for corporations, and UHNW individuals, to have record cash hoardes and this accelerates the spending of those hordes or at least slows its accumulation. we shouldn’t condone the payment of slave wages by companies. if they want to be in business in an economy that includes both capital and labour, pay a wage to labour that is fair. fair means, can you survive without government assistance with an average number of kids. whether having kids is prudent or not, the right to have kids is just that, a right. we should encourage that right. the fair wage may or may not be $15, but it is certainly not $7.25 in major cities.
The politicians look good on the short term, but how silly will they look when long term unemployment increases and if revenues actually decrease overall after this switch.
All I know is that I won’t be as lenient with fast food workers messing up my order if they are making $15/hour.
Minimum wage laws are bad for everyone ALL THE TIME
^ too linear. if 40% of minimum wage or close to minimum wage workers are underpaid relative to their marginal productivity (which sits at a hypothetical $12/hr) and say 2% of workers will lose their jobs with a $12/hr minimum wage, 38% of workers would benefit immediately and the other 60% would also likely benefit from bringing corporate savings forward into consumer spending increasing economic output and likely pushing up employment levels beyond what they would’ve been at the below “fair minimum wage” minimum wage.
i don’t see how anyone on the planet can have an argument against a higher minimum wage when corporate cash levels are at extreme all time highs and governments are in deep deficits (due to welfare spending like the EITC and food stamps). higher minimum wage just makes the corporations pay what they historically have paid and reestablish a period of time that was much better than today, in terms of income equality and general well-being. because the allocation of capital on corporate balance sheets is abnormal is the result of a major misallocation of capital, fixing that misallocation CAN improve the well-being of all parties: labour, government and corporations (in general as capital is at least allocated efficiently). we’re slowing economic progress and the process of creative destruction by helping companies and industries that should be defunct by now (i.e. storefront retail, restaurants, inefficient operations in general) stay alive well past their due date. blame a low minimum wage and corporate subsidies for slow growth. growth only comes with destruction.
the extreme right wing Cato Institute may agree with you but every centrist and even some less right wing organizations who have performed studies on income inequality beg to differ.
They won’t look silly at all. They’ll just blame the rich for the ever-increasing wage gap, and put in more ways to punish the (few) rich and aid the (many) poor, erego buying votes.
And the cycle continues.
This is far too easy to deconstruct. I have to believe you would word that differently if you noodled on it for a while.
Also, the Cato Institute is a libertarian think-tank, not far right.