Los Angeles Expected to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/us/los-angeles-expected-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour.html

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city is considering on Tuesday whether to increase its minimum wage, making it $15 an hour by 2020, in what would perhaps be the most significant victory so far in the national push to raise the minimum wage.

The increase — which the Los Angeles City Council is considered likely to pass — would come as workers across the country are rallying for higher wages, and several large companies, including Facebook and Walmart, have moved to raise their lowest wages. Several other cities, including San Francisco, Seattle and Oakland, Calif., have already approved increases, and dozens more are considering doing the same. In 2014, a number of Republican-leaning states like Alaska and South Dakota also raised their state-level minimum wage by referendum.

The impact would be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, more than 40 percent of the city’s work force earns less than $15 an hour.

“The effects here will be the biggest by far,” said Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was commissioned by city leaders here to conduct several studies on the potential effects of a minimum-wage increase. “The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s. There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing.”

[Jefferson23]

1. K&R for the new norm.

I hope it passes, they deserve it and much more.

[True Blue Door]

2. Great first step. I hope some major city gets the balls to raise it to GDP-tracked from the 1960s.

That would be somewhere in the low $20s.

Even ballsier if they tie it to GDP in perpetuity, recalculated every year.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Thank you, Kshama Sawant and Seattle.

[olddots]

4. if you crunch the numbers 15 $ an hour is almost enough

a gallon of gas used to be 1/4 of minimum wage or less .The 1% power players in California will naturally raise prices accordingly to maintain their parasitic life styles .

[libdem4life]

5. This is a good trend...optimistic for the economy.

[bigwillq]

6. Good step.

I think wages for the average worker should be higher. I hope this is a trend that catches on nationwide.

[taught_me_patience]

7. A lot of small businesses gonna go out of business

Mostly restaurants, where the profit margin is slim to none to begin with. In the food service, business, where labor often hovers at 30-40% of gross, a 50% increase in labor cost is an 15-20% loss of net margin... putting most out of business. Expect lots of business closures, and big price increases.

I own a coffee shop and we'd be out of business within three months if the minimum were increased to $15/hr.

[steve2470]

8. I think there's a 5 year phase-in, to 2020

The nation’s second-largest city voted on Tuesday to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9 an hour, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national push to raise the minimum wage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/us/los-angeles-expected-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour.html?smid=tw-share

[taught_me_patience]

9. Doesn't matter

small business all around are struggling real bad. Every year, minimum wage will go up another dollar. Most small business owners I know are teetering on death already.

[steve2470]

10. okie dokie nt

[Codeine]

14. I run a small business in California.

Such an increase would hit us, but there will be a corresponding increase in business. People will have more cash to spend, so we'll sell more beer, more groceries, more spirits. We may have to bump prices, but people will be making enough it'll be okay. I'm optimistic that we'll weather the changes and emerge stronger in the more vibrant local economy a minimum wage jump would bring.

[KamaAina]

11. More than 40 percent of L.A.'s work force earns less than $15 an hour?!

It's almost as expensive to live there as in the Bay Area or NYC!!

[KamaAina]

12. Crossposted to California group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1040

[romanic]

13. Great news.

But what about inflation? What's the point of rising wages if everything else (food, gas, rent, utilities) rise with it? We need to focus more on cost of living, especially in expensive cities like L.A. and NYC before we raise a wage that will still lead to financial struggles later on.