Posted on 04/20/2016 7:57:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The ripples from California’s recent passage of a $15 per hour minimum wage continue to spread across the employment pond. We’ve already seen how it will hit the food service and hotel industries, but one of the most ironic examples of the law of unintended but perfectly predictable consequences may wind up coming from the University of California at Berkeley. With a hat tip to Legal Insurrection, we find that the traditional hotbed for Social Justice Warrior protests – including the Fight for 15 crowd – is going to be feeling the pinch in short order. And it won’t be the well heeled, tenured professors and administrators who will be paying the price. (San Francisco Gate)
Financially troubled UC Berkeley will eliminate 500 staff jobs over two years to help balance its budget by 2019-20, The Chronicle has learned.
Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees Monday informing them of the job reductions and said they will amount to “a modest reduction of 6 percent of our staff workforce.”…
An estimated $50 million will be saved by eliminating the jobs, Dirks said in the memo, which offered few details.
The news was greeted with anger by some labor union leaders, who criticized Berkeley and the entire UC for what they say is excessive spending on executive salaries at the expense of lower-paid workers.
Oh, yes.. the labor union leaders are upset. Really? Berkeley isn’t even mentioning the real reason for cutting back on the folks who clean the floors, tend the lawns, empty the trash and serve the food, but those on staff are already well aware of what’s driving the decision. As Justin Holcomb reports at Town Hall, the university was already running on a thin margin and they can’t absorb the increased labor costs associated with the new minimum wage law.
The $15 minimum wage hike in California has sent financially troubled UC Berkeley into decision making mode, and “the people who clean buildings, who work in food services or health clinics,” says Todd Stenhouse, will be the ones without a job.
Stenhouse, a spokesman for the American Federation of StateChancellor, also said “There’s a very clear need for those front-line services. But the question is whether there really is a need to hemorrhage resources on executives.”
For those still undecided in this debate among liberals and moderates, Berkeley will likely stand out as the perfect microcosm which demonstrates the “liberal values” driving many of these SJW movements. The loudest proponents for such changes are the intellectual leaders on the left who claim to be fighting for the people. That group certainly includes the professors and chief administrators in academia. But when it comes time to tighten the purse and cut costs you won’t be seeing any of those professors packing their desks up in cardboard boxes and heading for the parking lot. They have tenure and the power of the institution keeping them on the gravy train. Instead it will be the working men and women who take care of all the dirty work (and were supposed to be the beneficiaries of these theories) who will wind up on the unemployment line.
Best of luck to all the hourly workers at Berkeley. I’m sure the climate there is lovely but you might want to consider relocating to a right to work state. Your odds of remaining employed will certainly improve.
They reap what they sow.......
“The news was greeted with anger by some labor union leaders, who criticized Berkeley and the entire UC for what they say is excessive spending on executive salaries at the expense of lower-paid workers.”
That’s actually true too!
Liberals are hypocrites.
Let the professors who were out supporting this give up 20% of their salaries to pay for it. Gotta spread that wealth around a bit.
It’s obscene that college administrators these days are paid $200,000 and up. Some college presidents make $500,000 a year.
College should be getting CHEAPER. Put classes online. Ax 50% of the faculty (start with the leftist nutcases) and cut the administration fees in half as well.
College should be getting online and cheaper. It’s a complete scam.
“UC Berkeley greets $15 minimum wage with job cuts”
That is BS! What are you going to believe, you’re lying eyes or the liberals that swore this wouldn’t happen...C’mon man, $15 minimum wage is good for everybody, no one lost their job...and everyone knows when you make a good or service MORE expensive there will be higher demand for it...simple economics as taught in common core math.
I'm guessing that UC Berkeley doesn't have a History Dept.
Or if they do, there are no History books in it, since they know nothing at all about the History of Socialism.
I wonder if any of the professors have even heard of such Socialists like Stalin, Hitler, PolPot?
They probably have posters of them in their offices and revere them as Progressive “heroes” but no absolutely zero about what they did to their own people.
Sort of like when a black person wears a Che T-shirt...
All part of the plan by the treasonists: Raise the minimum wage so unemployment increases leading to more people dependent on the government while the demand for the cheap labor of criminal foreign invaders increases leading to a larger invasion of the country changing demographics. If Hitlery becomes next POTUS you can expect this to go on for the next 8 years but on steroids.
Yes, Automation is coming.
The old Paradigm, more expensive employees = Outsourcing.
New Paradigm, hike minimum wage = More Automation; Less Jobs!
Thank a Democrat at the Voting Booth. Vote the Rascals OUT!
And the other shoe hasn't dropped yet. You will not believe the amount of wailing and moaning that will erupt when those executives find out they will be expected to do "menial" tasks that those lower-paid workers that got the axe used to do for them. A few years ago, our academic departments were asked to cut their budgets, which lowered the number of teaching assistant positions. You should have heard the outcry from professors who lost their TAs and were expected to teach classes again, instead of pushing that off on some graduate student like they'd done for years and years.
EVERY SINGLE TIME they change the minimum wage they say it is to improve the lives of working families AND IT NEVER HAS WORKED
So, in libtard brains, the answer is always LET’S DO IT AGAIN
Those who get to keep their $15 per hour jobs may have another surprise come tax time and when they now make just enough to lose benefits like free lunches and medical care for their kids. I vividly remember getting my first raise and finding a smaller paycheck because I made just enough more to go to another tax bracket.
If $15 an hour is good why not $100?(sar.)
UC Berkeley has professors who are making $500k. I know all about UCB. I am a graduate of that Marxist $hithole. My education was provided mostly by Teaching Assistants from India, and that was back in 1965. The “professors” were too busy “doing research” and didn’t want to be “burdened” with having to teach. The notable exception at the time was Dr. Edward Teller (father of the H-Bomb) who taught basic Physics to non-physical science majors. Even with his Hungarian accent, he was spellbinding!
So, in libtard brains, the answer is always LET’S DO IT AGAIN"
Einstein's classic definition of insanity on display for all (sane) people to see...
Graduate students are usually hired as adjunct faculty.
(adjunct professor is a misnomer. Obama was never an accredited professor for example)
The universities lure them into hourly teaching contacts which often are way below the new $15 minimum with no benefits.
The adjuncts may be continuing their education for a higher degree and use the teaching experience more for the contacts and experience than a living wage. Many teach as adjuncts for many years, hoping they are on the track to actually become a tenured professor, but most never make it, as there are many more graduate students with degrees than there are permanent faculty posts.
Been there, done that. I bet a lot of schools are going to be letting go some of their adjuncts or reducing hours in order to not bust the budget.
To quote Catch-22, Eat your livers,You Bastards!”
$50Mil/500 is what, $100,000 a year? that's some damn expensive staff they got there, and a hell of a lot more than $15hr
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