Living Wages
Living wage policies have been established in cities, counties, school districts, states and other public agencies throughout the country to lift workers out of poverty. Most living wage laws set minimum wage and benefit standards for public contracts, subsidies and leaseholders on public land. Several are based upon a geographic zone. Today there are over 150 such laws in place.
Commentary
Cry Wolf Quotes
The ordinance would cost the city [Chicago] nearly $20 million per year. The city would spend more than 20% of this amount ($4.2 million) on the administrative costs of certification, monitoring, and enforcement of the ordinance. This $20 million cost would require a permanent tax increase on citizens of Chicago.
Nonetheless, if the goal of the Coastal Zone Minimum Wage is to help low-income workers in Santa Monica, the Ordinance is worse than useless. The direct benefits of the Ordinance are more poorly targeted than in any social welfare legislation we have ever studied.
By mandating an even higher minimum, the living wage prices even more people out of work. The people who push these cockamamie ideas never seem to ask why any employer would hire someone at $8.23 if that person's services are only valued in the marketplace at, say, $5.00.
The loony-tuners are at it again. The cost of doing business in Oakland is already about the highest in the state. Compared with other cities, adoption of the proposed [living wage] ordinance will drive the cost off the charts.
Related Laws and Rules
Evidence
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The Economic Impact of Local Living Wages
The Economic Policy Institute finds that the costs of living wage ordinances are often overestimated.
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Examining the Evidence: The Impact of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance on Workers and Employers
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy: The LA living wage ordinance brought a pay raise to 10,000 workers, most of whom were poor.
Backgrounders & Briefs
Living Wage Policy Brief: Stephanie Luce
Living wage ordinances have helped thousands of workers and tiresome cry wolf claims are wrong.
Resources
Political Economy Research Institute is a think tank focused on a variety of subjects such as diverse financial regulation, living wages and environmental protection.
University of California-Berkeley Labor Center carries out research on labor and workplace-related issues.
The National Employment Law Project is an organization that promotes economically just public policy in the face of the prevailing trends of the law several decades.
