10/3/19

Who Is Accountable For Bad Policy?

Comes now the issue of the $15 minimum wage, one of those issues championed by the left that was predicted to have catastrophic results if enacted.

Sticking their heads firmly in the sand, the liberal left in places like New York State refused to study, investigate, or reason with the voices who protested, recommended caution, or who suggested another way. Instead the hands on the whip enacted legislation to achieve their political ends back in 2016.

Now, those chickens have come home to roost.

In New York State, a law was enacted that increased the minimum wage as subdivided by the following entities:

New York City — big employers defined as 11 or more employees

New York City — small employers defined as 10 or fewer employees

Long Island, Westchester

The balance of New York State

For New York City, the minimum wage was raised to $15/hour on 31 December 2018.

Opponents of this new law had pleaded before its inception during the debate that they could not sustain that level of compensation and would ultimately go out of business.

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08/8/19

Minimum Wage $15

Allow me to admit up front that I am a closet supporter of a $15 minimum wage. I don’t think it is a smart policy, but I like the idea. Unfortunately, it has been tried in several locations, the report card is in, and the results are not good.

A good number of reliable sources prophesied that a $15 minimum wage would devastate the restaurant business whereat that wage is applicable to kitchen workers, bus boys, servers, and even some cooks.

Turns out those prophesies were correct. Let’s take a look at New York City restaurants. This chart comes from an American Enterprise Institute publication by Mark J Perry that was sent to me by my pal Jeff Carter.

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04/7/16

The Curious Reality of the Minimum Wage

Big Red Car here on a glorious ATX day. On Earth as it is in Texas, y’all. Today, we turn our focus on the minimum wage.

The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour.

Individual states may have legislation setting another standard within their states. As an example, California has a $10.00/hour minimum wage which will increase to $15.00/hour by 1 January 2022 (1 Jan 2023 for businesses with 25 or fewer employees). Thereafter, it increases annually with inflation and the Governor of California may suspend increases if economic conditions suggest such a course of action is prudent.

Note that for all of California’s goofiness, it takes six years to get to $15.00/hour.

You may be tempted to suggest that the new California law feels like a head fake. Maybe so?

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