$15 minimum wage amendment makes 2020 Florida ballot

The Orlando Sentinel ^ | December 19, 2019 | Steven Lemongello

[Yosemitest]

Minimum-wage increase proposals are NOT about minimum wages.
It's about UNION wages (read government employees mostly) and UNION DUES.
Like "Artie" on another thread wrote.

"but my theory is that
this is one of the foundations of single payer.
Down the road, as single payer replaces ObamaCare,
all healthcare workers will become in essence government employees.
Think about how many thousands of new, dues paying union members will magically become part of the SEIU.

Barry had sealed this deal with Andy Stern years ago.
Barry promised Andy and the SEIU thousands of new members,
Andy says
great,
this is the wage structure we need
so we can pay the slush fund.
Gotta pay a living wage to all of the new union members
so dues can be extracted
and kickbacks to the dems can be made.
It’s convoluted
but what dem scheme isn’t,
especially when large sums of cash are involved?"

So read the following:

Union Support Of Minimum Wage Hike Is Self-Interested by RICHARD BERMAN on Aug 26, 2013

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, ... was quick to emphasize that her organization's support of a more-than-twofold increase in the minimum wage was "not about growing unions."

This may be true — but it's also undeniable that such a move would have a profound impact on growing union paychecks, even if those unions don't count a single minimum-wage employee in their ranks.

The fine print can be found in union contracts. Each year, the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) releases a number of union collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).

Unsurprisingly, many CBAs available in the OLMS database LINK union salaries and wage rates to the federal minimum wage. There are a number of methods that unions use to accomplish this end. The two most popular appear to be setting baseline union wages as a percentage above the minimum wage, and mandating a flat wage at a set level above the minimum wage.

One example is a series of CBAs signed with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). Their contracts mandated that
"(w)henever the federal legal minimum wage is increased, minimum wage (in the agreement) shall be increased so that each will be at least fifteen (15%) percent higher than such legal minimum wage."

There's also an SEIU local's contract, which ordered that
"(t)he minimum hourly wage rates shall exceed any statutory applicable minimum wage rate by 50 cents."

Some unions have also arranged contracts where the employer MUST renegotiate their contracts in case of a minimum-wage hike, NO MATTER HOW LONG is left on the pact's life span.

The possibility for abuse here is staggering:
Unions with average wages WELL ABOVE the minimum wage CAN INSERT such clauses into their contracts, FORCING negotiations in industries not otherwise affected by a wage hike.

Given the limited number of CBAs available in the OLMS database, it's impossible to determine just how widespread this practice is.

But at least one union has trumpeted this arrangement as "one of the many advantages of being a union member."

Earlier this year on its blog, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union proudly boasted that "oftentimes, union contracts ARE TRIGGERED TO IMPLEMENT WAGE HIKES IN CASE OF MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES."

This is a stunning admission of SELF-INTERESTt for an organization that's actively PUSHING minimum-wage hikes at both the state and federal levels of government.

It also raises questions about unions' growing use of nonunion "worker centers" like the Restaurant Opportunities Center, OUR Walmart, Fast Food Forward and other organizations that have made headlines in recent months.

These groups advocate many policies that would affect those businesses that pay a minimum wage — restaurants, retailers, etc. — and a minimum-wage hike is often the FIRST demand that these union front groups make. This only casts further suspicion on the motives of the labor unions funding these groups.

No matter how you look at it, the benefits that these unions stand to reap from a minimum-wage hike should raise questions about their real motives — and whether they're only manipulating the debate over fast-food wages for their own benefit.



Berman is the executive director at the Center for Union Facts.

Young Student Gets Limbaugh Lesson on the Minimum Wage
Oct 27, 2017


RUSH: This is Caden in Reno.
Great to have you.

CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh. RUSH: Hi.

CALLER: This is just an honor.
I just want to say how much of an honor this is to be speaking with you on your show.
I am just… I’m doing a speech on Monday in my speech and debate class on why the minimum wage should NOT be increased.

RUSH: Mmm-hmm.

CALLER: And I would like to…
I was wondering if you could give me a couple of talking points on why
raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would affect the economy
or just business in general.

RUSH: Okay.
Caden, but first, before I answer this,
do you have a computer ?
Are you able Google things and search them ?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Okay.
Because you’re gonna need to do this because you’re gonna find the evidence I’m gonna give you.

CALLER: Okay. RUSH: Seattle.
You need to search “Seattle and restaurants” and find out what happened to them after the minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour.
A bunch of restaurants closed, Caden.
Raising the minimum wage
— choosing an arbitrary number that has nothing to do with the market and demanding that the least qualified earn that money —
means that people get fired.
Businesses do not have a pile of money they’re not using
that they can go raise wages from.
They have to earn it via sales or whatever.

So what happens when the minimum wage is raised arbitrarily on the command of government
is that people lose their jobs.
More people end up out of work,
and the resulting increase in the minimum wage is not enough to counterbalance that at all.
But you Google “Seattle and restaurants,” and you’ll find out
the number of restaurants that have had to close since they raised the minimum wage to $15.
It will be your argument right there.
You can do your entire report on that story.



---



Related Links



• Washington Post: A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals

[Dahoser]

Just go ahead and let voters vote for a wage of $100,000 per year. Guaranteed to pass.

I'm glald you wrote $100,000 because we should be dealing in annual salary not hourly when we respond. $15 an hour sounds so reasonable, but when you instead annualize it to $30,000, it smacks people in the face and makes them wonder, "How would it make any sense for that kid down the street who can't even drive yet to be making 30 grand a year at McDonald's if this passes?"

[kearnyirish2]

I don’t support a $15/hour minimum wage right now, but I’d hope it might naturally rise to $15/hour by 2026. I see too many young people (students) earning a very similar wage to what I earned doing the same work 30 years ago (as a student). There is something very wrong with that; prices have changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

I suspect that without open borders our minimum wage would have already risen to $15/hour.

[mewzilla]

Considering so many Floridians hail from the economic wasteland of Upstate NY, hopefully FL won’t fall for this.

[mewzilla]

. I see too many young people (students) earning a very similar wage to what I earned doing the same work 30 years ago (as a student). There is something very wrong with that; prices have changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

But productivity hasn't. And the minimum wage screws more productive workers.

[kearnyirish2]

I worked for the minimum wage of the day when I was an early teen (relatively unskilled), and the wage rose naturally (my wage, not the minimum wage). Nowadays I see my children’s friends doing a lot more work - including driving deliveries - for the minimum wage; not as deliverymen making tips, just occasionally sent out to do so. The idea that someone old enough to drive is making the minimum wage tells me employers have changed it from a wage you pay a young highschooler to a wage you pay anyone - as long as you can get away with it.

[napscoordinator]

It will be voted yes. We had 17 amendments in 2018 and all but one was approved. The marajana amendment is close to being on the ballot. I hate them. It’s a weak way for the legislature to not do their job.

[mewzilla]

I take it you’re cool then with government telling employers what employers can pay their workers?

[Sooth2222]

"How would it make any sense for that kid down the street who can't even drive yet to be making 30 grand a year at McDonald's if this passes?"

The McDonald's orders will be taken by an electronic kiosk. The cooks will be making at least $15, if they aren't now. The shift manager, who earns more than $15, will be at the counter dealing with any customer problems that the kiosk's computer didn't fix. And the kid will be smoking weed in mom's basement earning $0, not having learned the very basic job skills of showing up for work on time, doing what told and being nice to customers.

After making the investment in the kiosks, the McDonald's franchise owner will make more money.

[Sooth2222]

There are few jobs today that cannot be replaced by a machine.

That is true. Not yet. Some low-skill jobs, like personal care, can't yet be replaced.

But the Japanese, who have a very low birthrate and strict immigration policies, recognize this problem and are developing elder-care robots.

[kearnyirish2]

No, but we arrived there anyway with a minimum wage law. I do have a problem with the government giving employers access to millions of foreign workers to suppress wages, though. My point was that supply and demand would have raised the wages if government and business hadn’t worked together to do an end-run around that dynamic.

You can be as pro-business as you’d like; just don’t separate this issue from the fact that we’re being inundated with young foreigners as our replacements. Most Americans won’t have families or buy homes while this situation persists, and we’re living through the result. The government just imports someone else to do both of those things.

[BobL]

Looks like Florida is about to crash their great economy...just glad Texas doesn’t also have mob rule.

[central_va]

I’m for this the minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 2009! Republicans need to come up with a counter offer of say $12.50/hr and get this derisive issue OFF THE TABLE.

[central_va]

Raising the minimum wage for WORKING people is NOT socialism. If anything many will be off public assistance after this raise.

[central_va]

The real value of the minimum wage peaked in 1968, when it was $1.60. Over the past 50 years, the minimum wage has seen little to no growth as worker productivity has surged. In fact, if the minimum wage kept pace with increases in worker productivity, it would now stand at $21.72 per hour

[central_va]

The push for automation in fast food would still be happening even if the minimum wage was REDUCED. The technology is pushing the automation and not the minumum wage.

[central_va]

Hope all Floridians are ready for the $15.00, plus tax, Big Mac.

LOL you fail economics 101. A big mac costs $4.00. If you increase minimum wage by say $5.00/hr then the labor costs per big mac goes up 33%. But how much labor is in a big mac? Well on average labor is 25% of fast food costs so if 25% cost goes up 33% the the cost per big mac goes up $0.33. So the new retail price is $4.33.

[central_va]

Small business owners of a franchise may have to put off buying that second vacation home.

[central_va]

There is no historical data to support the supposition that raising the minimum wage causes and increase in unemployment or inflation. NONE.

[central_va]

In 1968 the minimum wage was $1.60. Adjusted for inflation the min. wage would be just shy of $13.00/hr. If you want to know why the Republican Party will never be a majority working class party then just read the idiotic responses on this thread to find out.

THERE ARE ONLY 8 MILLION SMALL BUSINESS IN THE USA AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CANNOT APPEAL TO JUST THIS TINY GROUP OF VOTERS.