Deal reached to take California minimum wage to $15 an hour

[coinzat]

California legislators and labor unions have reached a tentative agreement that will take the state's minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour, a state senator said, a move that would make for the largest statewide minimum in the nation by far.

"This is not a done deal," Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Everyone's been operating in good faith and we hope to get it through the Legislature."

Leno said if an agreement is finalized, it would go before the Legislature as part of his minimum-wage bill that stalled last year.

If the Legislature approves a minimum-wage package, it would avoid taking the issue to the ballot. One union-backed initiative has already qualified for the ballot, and a second, competing measure is also trying to qualify.

"This is an issue I've been working on for many years," Leno said. "The governor and stakeholders have all been negotiating earnestly and in good faith for some time."

Leno did not confirm specifics of the agreement, but most proposals have the wage increasing about a dollar per year until it reaches $15 per hour.

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[The Sceptical Chymist]

Ever been to San Diego?  Things are like 3x more expensive there, and it's near impossible to live on minimum wage.   Especially if you have a family.   Good, hope it goes through.

[TECSHARE]

All minimum wage laws do is create MORE unemployment. They have to fire more people to pay a smaller handful more money. You want to fix the problem? Go after the ridiculous tax system we have here. Creating more burdens for small to medium sized business owners only does one thing... drives them away, then there is no one to pay people but enormous corporations that provide nothing but dead end jobs. I wish people could get paid a living wage too, but this is not a solution.

[JavaLove]

Just one more thing to kill business, specifically small businesses, the ones that are supposed to be the back bone of the entire market.

I understand that workers should be paid fairly but this is ridiculous, a higher minimum wage means higher unemployment. Businesses won't be able to afford paying larger sums of money to their workers, especially when they need to pay for infrastructure, utilities and lets not forget TAXES.

Taxes are at an all time high, especially in California. We're just sucking money away from everyone!

The minimum wage does have to increase or decrease depending on the buying power of the currency and, usually, the rate of inflation and other factors. But we can't increase it if we're going to tax the living hell out of those businesses!

[Lethn]

I will find it pretty hilarious to watch these people dig their own graves, economists have warned against this kind of thing for years, arbitrarily raising the minimum wage is going to do fuck all.

[raymond541]

I live in California but if the minimum wage goes to 10 bucks or above, you can forget about any waitress getting a tip from me. That was the whole idea of tips.If they are making that much, the restaurant will have to charge more.Its a lose lose situation. It's just a generation that was raised with no punishment and all reward expecting high pay and no work.

[Slowturtleinc]

The problem I have with min wage is as people push it up the jobs that where paying just a bit more say warehouse worker will want more.
Which is only fair and every one as you go up will want more,this is how it should work but from what I see the min wage goes up and the middle of the pack stays stagnant. Curious to see how this works out long term as min wage gets pushed in so many areas.

I live here in Canada and the min wage is the lowest in all the Provinces. Combine that with one of the worlds highest real estate markets,low rental availability and you wonder how long the system stays above water. We have a lot of empty houses from Chinese investors and they let the houses rot because the land is more valuable.

People will bash unions all day long but forget that weekends and a 8 hour shift are in place because people fought for those rights!
You can load up and bash unions all day long but remember you could be sitting at work 14-18 hour days living on a company site if it was not for them. I mention this because its usually a aspect people attack when mentioning min wage.

[jillpampena75]

An employee that makes $14 (and takes home somewhere around $12 after payroll deductions) cost the employer around $19 an hour...thanks to your government almost 40% (Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment, state, federal and local taxes, employee training)of what you make goes to the Government. It's a great scam. The Government makes you poor and blames your employer. Oh and by the way...don't forget to pay that 7%+ sales tax and that property tax and all the fees associated with your vehicle license with what you have left.

[mrhelpful]

If I was a business owner, I would def prob take my business to somewhere else.

If the taxes are high as it is, why bother get killed with new hourly wages.

Wasnt it $10 recently? now soon to be $15.. some companies cant afford like that unless youre a giant like walmart etc.

[mrhelpful]

I live in California but if the minimum wage goes to 10 bucks or above, you can forget about any waitress getting a tip from me. That was the whole idea of tips.If they are making that much, the restaurant will have to charge more.Its a lose lose situation. It's just a generation that was raised with no punishment and all reward expecting high pay and no work.

Even if you did get tips, usually those tips are divided and evenly given out for that entire day lol.

Being a waiter or any restaurant business is probably the worst role, since people look down on you and have high demands etc.

Instead of dealing with it, I`d probably just go to a temp agency and get a non-food business role.

[countryfree]

I can't understand how they dare go from $10 to $15. What about $11? A 50% raise is unheard of. Nobody gets that, but I agree that CA is a very expensive place to live. Decent housing costs thousands anywhere in the L.A. area.

[Mike Christ]

If those making less than 15/hr were deserving of 15/hr, they'd already be paid this much.  As others have said, all this will do is cut off anyone whose labor is not worth 15/hr, as opposed to the naive expected result of "everyone gets a pay raise."  If you can't afford to live there with these wages, then you go somewhere else; I'm making less than that in Texas and I still get by just fine, with plenty of free time to spare.  I imagine it's so expensive to live in California because the higher cost of taxes on everyone, and since businesses will just pass the cost of these taxes onto the consumers, the end result is higher priced everything, on top of taxes which translates to lower wages; it's no wonder you can't get by with less than 15/hr.  Now that more people will have to get on the government support program (since they can't find work now), the cost of these taxes will rise even higher, pushing more people into 'poverty'.  The end result is, everyone's a pawn of the state, state takes control over everything to compensate, bada bing, hello state socialism--precisely what the central controllers want: all the control they can get, for this control equates to power.  Further: why the arbitrary increase?  Why not make it 100/hr, and have everyone live like kings, if raising the minimum wage raised wages all together?  Because they know it doesn't work like that, they'd kill their economy instantly when the only people who were allowed to work were the very wealthy.  There would be no labor left to tax, so Cali would have to resort to forcing people into labor, and that'd be a neon red flag lighting up the entire planet as to how these policies were turning the state into a Soviet shithole.  No, gotta ease into the shithole, gotta do it stealthily, so people don't notice what they're getting into.  All for what, so the 0.001% can live like gods from their central planner's palace while everyone else suffers?  Fuck that shit.

[Spendulus]

I can't understand how they dare go from $10 to $15. What about $11? A 50% raise is unheard of. Nobody gets that, but I agree that CA is a very expensive place to live. Decent housing costs thousands anywhere in the L.A. area.

Logical error.  CA is much more diverse than just the LA area.  Many areas are reasonably priced.  This is one of the more glaring flaws in the "minimum wage" arguments.  They do not adapt well to specific economic micro environments.

[Your Point Is Invalid]

Its as if you guys didn't read the entire article, you guys do realise that the $15 minimum wage will be reached in 2022 right? The wage will go up by $1 every year until it summits at $15, this slow change shouldn't have as heavy of an effect on the local economy as you guys are predicting

[Spendulus]

Its as if you guys didn't read the entire article, you guys do realise that the $15 minimum wage will be reached in 2022 right? The wage will go up by $1 every year until it summits at $15, this slow change shouldn't have as heavy of an effect on the local economy as you guys are predicting

This is ridiculous.  Somehow a bad idea is less bad because it's gradual?

Tell you what.  We'll see to it that your leg is amputated slowly. 

<<satire>>

[criptix]

Its as if you guys didn't read the entire article, you guys do realise that the $15 minimum wage will be reached in 2022 right? The wage will go up by $1 every year until it summits at $15, this slow change shouldn't have as heavy of an effect on the local economy as you guys are predicting

This is ridiculous.  Somehow a bad idea is less bad because it's gradual?

Tell you what.  We'll see to it that your leg is amputated slowly. 

<<satire>>

He is not that wrong though.
The first year is a wage increase of 10% (it is big but not unusual) and the following years it will go down to ~7%.
Minus inflation and all bad things it is not that big of an (real) wage increase.

If i remember correctly it is pretty common that worker unions try to get atleast 5+%.

[CryptoDatabase]

Now maybe the owners will have to skip a couple vacations each year to support the starving people at the bottom.

[onlinedragon]

Good to hear that the bottom line will get some extra money. When more people got enough to life there will be less criminality and more happiness. Who earn more can buy more and so earn the companies als more.

[Slowturtleinc]

Its amazing to see such polar opposite thinking on this idea that people make more the whole economy benefits.

The one problem I see is the ultra rich just sit on their money and can not spend it fast enough to help the economy. If that group was dinged to help the lower 40% we would start seeing some serious changes. Why live the way we do,just so the rich can sit on a mountain of money and bleed the people at the bottom?
We can do better and should start looking at some of these rich folks as having mental health issues,the hoarding is costing lives.

[CryptoDatabase]

Its amazing to see such polar opposite thinking on this idea that people make more the whole economy benefits.

The one problem I see is the ultra rich just sit on their money and can not spend it fast enough to help the economy. If that group was dinged to help the lower 40% we would start seeing some serious changes. Why live the way we do,just so the rich can sit on a mountain of money and bleed the people at the bottom?
We can do better and should start looking at some of these rich folks as having mental health issues,the hoarding is costing lives.

People still believe in trickle down economics, but the only thing trickling down are peoples lives.