Should California's expensive regions consider increasing the minimum wage to $15.00/hour? (Los Angeles: credit, school)

[mysticaltyger]

Business impact of San Jose raising minimum wage from $8 to $10 per hour:

http://www.sjcity.net/Blog.aspx?IID=175#item

--Overall, there was a reduction in employee hours.

--Small businesses were impacted the most.

One thing not mentioned was the increase in prices. The restaurants I patronize raised their prices. A yogurt shop I used to patronize on occasion went out of business. Maybe they would have gone out of business anyway, but the minimum wage increase certainly didn't help. A friend of mine is a manager at a hotel downtown and they raised their parking rates, along with all the other downtown hotels.

For the record, I'm not completely averse to a minimum wage, but all it can really do is help at the margins. Raise it too high and it raises prices, puts some people out of business (or prevents businesses from starting in the first place), and permanently locks people out of the workforce.

If we want to help people out at the low end of the wage spectrum we would be better off targeting the following social ills:

--Improving the schools (and demanding accountability from all parties--kids, parents, teachers, and the teachers' unions)
--Reducing the out of wedlock birth rate
--Helping people retrain rapidly for new jobs when their skills become obsolete (instead of just handing them a check for 6 months or 99 weeks or whatever). I think the way we do unemployment is outdated.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

California's population has increased mostly because of births. Our overall population growth rate has been at or below the national average for over 20 years now. The U.S. population growth rate as a whole has also been slowing down.

California's birthrate has dropped to 2.1. The increase now is driven primarily by legal immigration.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

California's birthrate has dropped to 2.1. The increase now is driven primarily by legal immigration.

The population can still increase for quite a while even when the fertility rate reaches replacement level.

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

California seriously needs to lose population for real. I don't get why you act as if that would be a bad thing. Especially when you are always complaining about the state's deterioration.

I agree. However....said it before and I will say it again. We are losing the wrong type of people. We are losing the middle class. We are losing big business with thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to pump into an economy. We need to be losing all the pieces of garbage living off Welfare who do ZERO to contribute to society and all the illegals. CA has become the Welfare/illegal state. Drive around in SoCal on any weekday afternoon and just look at all the people out and about. No one has jobs, its not like that in other states at all. These are the people living off your tax money as they collect Welfare and hang out.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by mbell75

I agree. However....said it before and I will say it again. We are losing the wrong type of people. We are losing the middle class. We are losing big business with thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to pump into an economy. We need to be losing all the pieces of garbage living off Welfare who do ZERO to contribute to society and all the illegals. CA has become the Welfare/illegal state. Drive around in SoCal on any weekday afternoon and just look at all the people out and about. No one has jobs, its not like that in other states at all. These are the people living off your tax money as they collect Welfare and hang out.

Your obsession with the illegals is hilarious, mbell.

Those illegals that aren't working are living - off of less than 1.7% of the state budget -
along with millions of non-working legal citizens -
and millions more working citizens employed by Wal-Mart and McDonalds and dozens and dozens of other corporations that don't pay living wages and have to rely on welfare to get by.

And you are apoplectic about it. You will give yourself a stroke focusing on less than 1.7% of the budget - while endorsing the wholesale rape and pillage of society by men in offices you will never have access to.

Corporate welfare outstrips poverty welfare exponentially. And your tax dollars support it.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Your obsession with the illegals is hilarious, mbell.

Those illegals that aren't working are living - off of less than 1.7% of the state budget -
.

Sources please?

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

millions more working citizens employed by Wal-Mart and McDonalds and dozens and dozens of other corporations that don't pay living wages and have to rely on welfare to get by.

And you are apoplectic about it. You will give yourself a stroke focusing on less than 1.7% of the budget - while endorsing the wholesale rape and pillage of society by men in offices you will never have access to.

Corporate welfare outstrips poverty welfare exponentially. And your tax dollars support it.

Again with the victim mentality, its pathetic. McDonalds and Wal-Mart jobs were meant for KIDS in school, not grown a** adults with families! Why don't the people who work there better themselves so they can get a real job that pays? Because its a choice and they chose to live that way because its easy. Most of the adults who work at McDonalds and Wal-Mart either dropped out of school or got hooked on drugs and/or alcohol rather than getting their sh*t together and making something of their lives. I have zero respect for people like that. This generation wants everything handed to them, no one wants to work for jack sh*t these days. They would rather sit around on their a** collecting free handouts and all the low income housing and Welfare payments just encourage it.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by mbell75

Again with the victim mentality, its pathetic. McDonalds and Wal-Mart jobs were meant for KIDS in school, not grown a** adults with families! Why don't the people who work there better themselves so they can get a real job that pays? Because its a choice and they chose to live that way because its easy. Most of the adults who work at McDonalds and Wal-Mart either dropped out of school or got hooked on drugs and/or alcohol rather than getting their sh*t together and making something of their lives. I have zero respect for people like that. This generation wants everything handed to them, no one wants to work for jack sh*t these days. They would rather sit around on their a** collecting free handouts and all the low income housing and Welfare payments just encourage it.

Do you EVER check your declarations before you post? EVER?
Twice as Many College Grads in Minimum Wage Jobs as 5 Years Ago - US News

The number of college graduates working minimum wage jobs is nearly 71 percent higher than it was a decade ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest figures. As of 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage, up from 167,000 in 2002 and more than two times the pre-recession low of 127,000 in 2006. The cohort includes an estimated 30,000 people with masters' degrees, a figure that is more than twice as high as it was in 2002 and three times as high as in 2006.

[dexter14]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Do you EVER check your declarations before you post? EVER?
Twice as Many College Grads in Minimum Wage Jobs as 5 Years Ago - US News

200k people out of many millions, big deal. That's a drop in the bucket. Besides, I specifically mentioned McDonalds and Walmart, jobs for kids. There are plenty of minimum wage jobs for adults. My point still stands.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Do you EVER check your declarations before you post? EVER?
Twice as Many College Grads in Minimum Wage Jobs as 5 Years Ago - US News

The thing is, we've been over that. Both you and I have already said that the majority of people working minimum wage are not high-schoolers. As far as that other outlandish claim, I'll let you handle that one too.