Voters raise minimum wages
In other election news, low-paid workers will get raises due to ballot initiatives in three cities.
Voters raise minimum wages
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
In other election news, low-paid workers will get raises due to ballot initiatives in three cities.
In Albuquerque, the minimum wage will rise from $7.50 to $8.50 an hour, starting in January, with automatic cost-of-living increases, a move that may affect 40,000 or one-seventh of the city's workers, said the National Employment Law Project, citing a New Mexican study.
San Jose workers will receive $10 an hour, up from California's $8 an hour minimum wage, again with an automatic cost of living increase built in. NELP cites a University of California study that says that 69,000 workers, or 18 percent of the workforce, will benefit.
In Long Beach, the raise applies only to hotel workers, moving them to $13 an hour and guaranteeing them five days of sick pay a year.
In each case, NELP estimates an economic boost leading to more hiring, as the minimum wage workers now have more spending power.
“With growing numbers of working families relying on low-wage jobs to make ends meet, the voters recognize that raising the minimum wage fulfills our basic obligation to ensure that work provides a path out of poverty. Higher wages for the lowest-paid workers in our economy will promote upward economic mobility and help accelerate the post-recession recovery,” executive director Christine Owens said in a statement.
There are many other groups, obviously, that argue the opposite -- saying that raises will discourage employers from adding staff.
this is great news for not only the workers in those cities, but for those cities entire economies. more purchasing power means a thriving economy. enough with this supply side voodoo nonsense. it has been a proven historical failure. time to rethink our economic policies and focus on the demand side— Ryan- ^lol— Handsome B. Wonderful
- Voters in Philadelphia have elected to drop DROP and save the city millions.— TEMPLE55
- Since approximately 3% of all workers nationwide make minimum wage, all this succeeds in doing is making it harder for entry level workers to get jobs. Young people and those with no experience will not be hired because businesses will not pay them this rate when someone older and with more experience will work for the same amount.— MBFlyerfan
- Minimum wages kill jobs. Most bread winners do not take minimum wage jobs. This just keeps college kids from finding employment. When will the people realize that government intervention distorts the free market from working properly. Ask the people on the island of Samoa how they feel about it. The government raised the minimum wage, and chicken of the sea closed and moved. Now they have no jobs and everything costs 5x as much because the ships for the company used to bring in commercial goods. Great Job Government!— superbig1
- The youth unemployment rate in Europe is 20% because of the same policies. But I guess because they're not voting age, we say F you and destroy their work ethic and make mom and dad shoulder more and more of their expenses.— Phillies2008WSChamps
- understand - many of these workers are in fast food - poor people spend far more on fast food than wealthy - they will pay the costs of these wage hikes - let's make it $15 an hour— PhillyDaniel
- RYAN and PHILLYDANIEL- I think you both need to take an ECON course or simply read about what can happen when you attempt to create a false price floor in a market. What will happen is that companies will not give jobs to entry level workers-that is what minimum wage earners are by over 95%-if they have to pay an amount that is over what the market will bear. 8-10-12-15 an hr makes zero sense-as it will be circumvented by under the table hiring or no hiring. Please believe me as these false statistics made by politicians keep everyone in the dark. In the end, everyone loses because in 2 years people will be wondering where jobs are. Never underestimate the ignorance of voters.— shirleyf
- Ryan, if what you say is correct, why not raise the minimum wage to 30 dollars an hour? That would be even better for the economy!— Rantanplan
