Minimum Wage

The want of a higher minimum wage has always been popular and many people want to rise it
every couple of years. Getting state approval has raised minimum wage in several states, even
though these wages are higher than the federal minimum. When states use the federal
minimum citizens often complain that it is not enough even though their income is above the
poverty line. Federal increase was sparked by these states accepting a higher minimum wage.
Obama states most of the accepting states have Democratic governors, and legislators.
Democrats also choose to have the ballot on non presidential election years. They do this to
keep the issue alive when the new governors, legislators, and House take their seats.
Los Angeles has been raising their minimum wage since 1938. The problem of rising the
minimum wage is the hiring of prices, so in the end it does little help. Restaurant workers who
get tipped have to be paid the minimum wage which can lead to restaurants raising their price or
add a service charge. Once California finds out how many of these workers are on medicare,
medical, and food stamps that will be a motive to raise the minimum wage. States who have
not raised their minimum wage have to accept the fact that if they want to have a competitive
business, they will have to pay their workers properly. Many businesses, however, would rather
have their company set in an area where customers have more money, meaning they get paid
higher. Once again the major problem is getting the Republicans to agree with this raise, but
citizens who want the higher wage are moving them in the right direction. Politicians who are
helping these workers are the real leaders of America today.

State's right to me
I believe the states rights are to make sure the government does not get total control and if they
do it is there job and right to secede and form a new government. It is also their right to ensure
law enforcement and make sure everybody is educated. The main right they have is to enforce
civil rights and take immediate action if someones has been taken away.

Article # 1
Abstract
Since the year began, these states have approved minimum wages that are higher than the federal
level: Minimum-wage hikes have been popular with voters: Since 1996, proposed increases have
been on statewide ballots 15 times in 11 states - and all but two of them were successful, according
to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a Washington, D.C., group that supports a higher minimum
wage.

Full Text
A wave of efforts to raise the minimum wage at the state and local level will run through November,
when voters in several states could consider ballot measures to raise hourly rates higher than the
$7.25 federal rate.
This is the second year in a row that states have picked up the pace of increasing the minimum
wage, after President Barack Obama's proposal to increase the federal rate to $10.10 an hour
stalled in Congress.
Since the year began, these states have approved minimum wages that are higher than the federal
level: Connecticut ($10.10), Delaware ($8.25), Maryland ($10.10), Minnesota ($9.25) and West
Virginia ($8.75). The District of Columbia raised its rate to $11.50.
When these measures go into effect next year, half the states will have minimum-wage rates higher
than the federal level.
The last time this many states had rates higher than the federal level was in 2007, when 23 states
and the District of Columbia were higher. That year, Congress raised the minimum wage from $5.15
to $7.25 an hour, in three stages over two years.

A full-time $7.25-per-hour minimum-wage employee earns $15,080 annually. A person earning

$10.10 (Obama's proposal) would earn $19,777. For comparison, the poverty line in 2013 was
$11,490 for a single person and $23,550 for a family of four.
"This has not happened often, primarily because prior to the 1990s, most states just used the federal
minimum," said David Cooper, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-backed
organization that supports a higher minimum wage. Some of the increases at the state level in 2007
spurred momentum for the federal increase, he said.
So far this year, 34 states have or are considering increases to their minimum wage, according to
the National Conference of State Legislatures' database. Measures are still advancing in Hawaii,
Illinois, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Tennessee and Idaho had the highest percentages of hourly paid workers earning at or below the
federal minimum wage in 2013, according to federal figures. Washington, California and Oregon
have the lowest percentages of workers paid at the federal rate, largely because these three states
have the country's highest rates.
Of all states, Washington state has the highest state minimum wage at $9.32, followed by Oregon at
$9.10. California's rate of $8 an hour will increase to $9 on July 1 and then jump again to $10 an
hour on Jan. 1, 2016, under legislation enacted last year.
Obama has moved his campaign for a higher minimum wage beyond the halls of Congress, where
he first made the pitch in his 2013 State of the Union address. "States, counties, cities across the
country are working to raise their minimum wage as we speak," the president said in March at an
event with four Democratic New England governors, a sentiment he repeated in remarks in Michigan
this month.
The states that have passed minimum-wage increases this year are dominated by Democratic
governors and legislatures. The same was true last year, when California, New York and Rhode
Island increased their minimums.
In November, voters in New Jersey approved a ballot measure raising the minimum wage after
Republican Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a legislative effort.
States controlled by Republicans could see action, too. Organizers are trying to get measures on the
November' ballot to raise the minimum wage in the GOP-dominated states of Alaska, Idaho,

Michigan and South Dakota. Supporters in Nebraska are weighing a ballot measure after the
minimum-wage effort died in the legislature, which is officially nonpartisan.
States with split political control where minimum-wage ballot proposals are circulating include
Arkansas and Missouri, where the governors are Democrats and the legislatures are GOP-led.
Efforts also are underway in the blue state of Massachusetts to put a measure to voters if the
legislature fails to raise the minimum wage.
Minimum-wage hikes have been popular with voters: Since 1996, proposed increases have been on
statewide ballots 15 times in 11 states - and all but two of them were successful, according to the
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a Washington, D.C., group that supports a higher minimum wage.
In the past, minimum-wage measures on the ballot during a nonpresidential election year have
increased turnout among Democrats and swing voters, said Josh Levin, the center's vice president.
That's one reason Democrats are expected to keep the issue alive for the November midterm
elections, when 36 governorships and legislative seats in 46 statehouses will be contested, along
with all 435 U.S. House seats.
Mike Saltsman, a research director at the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative nonprofit
think tank that opposes a minimum-wage increase, said Democrats want voters to think about the
minimum wage and not the Affordable Care Act. "They are trying to change the conversation away
from Obamacare," he said.
In some states where minimum-wage measures faltered, cities are responding. Portland, Maine, and
Las Cruces, N.M., are considering higher hourly wages, in part because Republican governors in
those states last year vetoed measures to increase the state minimum wage.
Even if a state has recently raised its minimum wage, the cost of living is so high in some cities that
the new minimum wage isn't enough to live on, resulting in city campaigns, said Paul Sonn, general
counsel at the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group that supports higher wages.
Some 120 cities have enacted "living wages" that set a minimum standard for businesses that
receive city contracts. City minimums range from $9 to $16 an hour.
The high cost of living in and around the nation's capital, for example, prompted a coordinated effort
for higher rates by the District of Columbia ($11.50 by 2016); Montgomery County, Md. ($11.50 by
2017); and Prince George's County, Md. ($11.50 by 2017).
- Stateline.org

Credit: Pamela M. Prah

(Copyright The Washington Post Company, Apr 21, 2014)

Citation: Prah, Pamela M. 2014. "As Federal Government Wrestles with Minimum Wage, States, Cities
Press Ahead." The Washington Post, Apr 21. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1517867442?
accountid=28371.

Article #2
Abstract
The city's minimum wage increase challenges Congress and other states, especially New York.

Full Text
There are many ways to look at the minimum wage increase in Los Angeles from the current $9 an
hour to $15 by 2020 -- some hopeful, some cautionary, all good.
For starters, uncharted territory is rapidly being charted. Los Angeles is the fourth city, and by far the
largest, to enact a $15 minimum in the past year. The others are Seattle, San Francisco and
Emeryville, Calif. (near San Francisco). A $15 minimum has been proposed in New York City,
Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, Mo.
Opponents of higher wages -- generally, business groups and their political allies -- have raised the
same objections in Los Angeles that have been raised since the dawn of the federal minimum wage
in 1938: that higher pay will lead to layoffs and business closings or business migration. But
experience and research involving actual minimum wage increases indicate otherwise: The added
cost of higher wages is offset by savings from lower labor turnover and higher labor productivity.
Higher wages can also be offset by modestly higher prices, which haven't proved measurably
disruptive, in part because minimum wage increases make somewhat higher prices manageable.
Wages can also be raised by paying executives and shareholders less. Whatever changes
employers may have to make in Los Angeles, the long phase-in of the increase gives them time to
adjust.
A challenge will be to ensure that all employers are held to the new higher wage.California is already
one of eight states that prohibit the deplorable practice of subminimum wages for tipped workers. So
waitresses and waiters in Los Angeles will be eligible for the higher $15 minimum wage along with
everyone else. Policy makers at all levels of government should follow California's lead in outlawing
subminimum tipped wages.
The restaurant industry, however, will not go down without a fight. The Los Angeles City Council has
pledged to study the potential effect of allowing restaurants to add a service charge to bills to meet
the increased costs. It is past time, however, to stop coddling an industry that has come to regard
itself as entitled to special dispensation. If restaurants can't pay their servers the minimum wage,
they need to pay higher earners less or raise prices. If restaurants are franchises that can't afford to
pay adequate wages, their corporate parents should share the burden.
California does not index its state minimum wage, currently $9, to keep pace with price inflation. But
in Los Angeles, the new minimum will be indexed to inflation starting in 2022, when the increase will
have been fully phased in for large and small employers alike. An inflation adjustment is better than

no adjustment, but it would be better to adjust the minimum wage to wage growth, since wages
generally rise somewhat faster than prices.
Perhaps most far-reaching, California is prepared to expose the extent to which low-wage employers
get a free ride on taxpayers. When employers pay poorly, workers must rely on public assistance, in
the form of Medicaid, food stamps and other programs. Starting in 2016, California will publish the
names of employers with more than 100 workers on Medicaid, and how much these companies cost
the state in public aid. This could help build and sustain public support for higher wages.
The pay raise in Los Angeles challenges Congress and other states, particularly New York. In
Congress, the latest Democratic proposal calls for a federal minimum wage of $12 an hour by 2020.
That would be adequate, if a bit on the low side, and a huge improvement from the current $7.25 an
hour, the level since 2009. The big problem is Republican opposition to even considering an
increase.
On the state level, 21 states that have not raised their minimums in recent years will be forced to
face the fact that being a competitive place to do business means ensuring fair pay. Opponents of
wage increases often raise the specter of scary "wage islands" caused by businesses decamping to
lower-wage areas. The outcome is likely to be just the opposite. Businesses, especially in service
industries, would prefer to be where customers have money, and that's likely to be where wages are
rising.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has recently earned well-deserved praise for creating a
wage board to help raise the pay of fast-food workers, needs to realize, and quickly, that cities in
California have stolen his thunder. Establishing a wage board to look into fast-food pay is a big step
in the right direction. But it is no substitute for establishing a separate higher minimum wage of $15
an hour for New York City, and no substitute for going to the mat for a state minimum wage that is
higher than the proposal for $10.50 an hour currently on the table.
Workers' share of the economic pie has been shrinking for decades, as the gains from labor
productivity have flowed increasingly to profits rather than pay. A result has been an economy that is
less resilient and more unequal. Low-wage workers who have been demonstrating for higher pay are
leading politicians where they need to go, and the real leaders among those politicians are following
the workers.
Source URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/opinion/a-15-minimum-wage-bombshell-in-losangeles.html?partner=bloomberg

Credit: THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Word count: 869
Copyright 2015 The New York Times Company

Citation:
"A $15 Minimum Wage Bombshell in Los Angeles." New York Times Company, last modified May 20.