Increasing minimum wage, a moral imperative

What's fair for the CEO is somewhat fair for
the low wage worker, relatively speaking.

Sacramento Bee/Capital Alert/David Siders, 4/4/16. "Jerry Brown signs $15 minimum wage in California."

The cost of your hamburger just went up 5 cents,
but 1/1/17 minimum wage will increase to $10.50.

"Gov. Jerry Brown, casting a living wage as a moral imperative while questioning its economic rationale, signed legislation Monday raising California’s mandatory minimum to $15 an hour by 2022, acting within hours of a similar bill signing in New York. 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.  .... ... Public opinion polls showed strong support for increasing the state’s mandatory minimum beyond its current $10.

The compromise Brown offered lawmakers – then celebrated with a bill-signing in Los Angeles – includes a provision allowing the governor to postpone a wage increase in the event of an economic downturn. It replaces a ballot measure that, if passed, would have raised the minimum wage to $15 by 2021, a year faster.  ....  The California legislation will raise the statewide minimum to $10.50 on Jan. 1 (2017) for businesses with 26 or more workers, the first of several incremental increases to $15, with future raises tied to inflation. Smaller businesses will have an additional year to phase in each increase. The law follows measures in Los Angeles and San Francisco, among other cities, to gradually raise their own minimum wages to $15. ... 

By 2022, a full-time minimum-wage worker would see annual earnings increase to $30,000 from $20,000 today.  ....  Research on the economic effect of a minimum wage increase is mixed, with findings ranging from little or no impact on employment rates, on one hand, to rising unemployment, on the other. The measure will not come without a cost. According to the state Department of Finance, a $15 minimum would cost California about $4 billion a year."  Read article.

Note photograph and graphic. Hamburger by Cate Gillon/Getty images, Hamilton/The Spector/Metroland (Camada), 4/4/16, "Canada's minimum-wage worker must work longer to afford Big Mac."  Cartoon image by R. Flores, Labor cartoonist from Lars P. Syll. 4/25/14, "Krugman's gadget interpretation of economics."

Posted by Kathy Meeh

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article69842317.html#storylink=cpy