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??? California passes ‘job killer’ increase in minimum wage to $10

By C. J. Refsland on September 17, 2013 • ( 0 )

My comment: I’m not an economist, but it seems as though the cost of living has been rising something fierce for several years, but the wages have remained virtually the same. In fact the last time the federal minimum wage was raised was 2009. It was raised from $6.55/hr. to $7.25 per hour. So, I have a question for the economists out there, why is the cost of living increasing so much if this is the minimum wage? I understand that cost’s for a company paying $8 per hour will increase over 2 years, but is it really the end of the world if the minimum wage brings us into the 21st century?

The California legislature approved an increase in the minimum wage from $8 to $10 an hour late last week. The hike will be phased in over the next three years adding $1 in 2014 and another in 2016, according to Raw Story.

While the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the wage increase will affect more than 2.3 million California workers, groups like the California Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill, calling it a “job killer” that will drive up business costs “worse than any predicted rate of inflation increase.”

Gov. Jerry Brown called the bill, passed largely along partisan lines, an overdue measure that would help working-class families. He is expected to sign it, according to ABC News.

“It means that single moms will have a little extra to support their families,” Steve Smith, communications director of the California Labor Federation, said on the AFL-CIO website. “It means seniors who’ve been forced to re-enter the workforce will have a little more to help pay for prescription drugs. And it means that all low-wage workers have received validation that their work is worthy of dignity and respect.”

The California Restaurant Association called the measure a “blow to small businesses” saying it was a reaction to fast-food demonstrations that occurred across the country last month.