Wherever cities implemented big minimum-wage hikes to $10 an hour or more last year, the latest data through December show that job creation downshifted to the slowest pace in at least five years.
According to Adibi, worker training, education and opportunity for advancement is the “fundamental issue,” so that the minimum wage is more “transitory.” . . . “The public policy should address the core policy here rather than put a band-aid on by increasing the minimum wage,” Adibi said.
In isolated pockets around the state, government salaries, with their accompanying benefits, continue to go up.
Businesses and nonprofit groups have been adjusting to the state’s new $10 minimum wage since it superseded the old minimum wage of $9 an hour on Jan. 1. Some have raised prices or fees. Others have cut back hours. And many are thinking about the increases still to come.
Sacramento’s economy will continue growing this year but will continue to suffer from a shortage of high-paying jobs, according to a closely-watched forecast released Tuesday. . . “The bad news is that the job recovery has occurred in sectors that are traditionally filled by unskilled and lower-wage labor,” the report said.
Economic activity in the [12th] District grew at a moderate pace during the reporting period of late November through early January. Overall price inflation was minimal, and upward wage pressures increased further. Retail sales expanded moderately, as did demand for business and consumer services. Manufacturing output declined somewhat. On balance, activity in the agriculture sector was flat. Activity in residential and commercial real estate markets expanded further. Lending activity grew at a modest pace.
Today is a more extreme test of that divergence from the 1990s. Inflation is even lower, most visibly due to the surprising persistence of low oil prices, but also due to the strong dollar, which is helping make import prices cheaper. Yes, people’s paychecks are growing slowly, but their inflation-adjusted paychecks have been growing at a clip that may even be considered healthy.
Casa de Tamales in the Tower District is among several valley restaurants which say they have no choice but to raise menu prices. . . Attendance at Fresno’s Chaffee Zoo is on pace for another record-breaking year, but half the staff will be impacted by the minimum wage pay hike. . . CEO Scott Barton said. “For the first time in 12 years in 2016, we are raising the entrance fee to get into the zoo.”
The answer varies by company and industry. For example, Apple is the most profitable company on the Fortune 500. With $39.5 billion in annual profit and about 97,000 employees, Apple’s annual profit per employee is $407,000. . . Apple could absorb a minimum-wage increase easily. . . The situation is far different for America’s retail businesses, where a minimum-wage increase would be most deleterious. Combine every retailer, restaurant, supermarket and retail pharmacy company in the Fortune 500 as a proxy for the retail industry. . . and annual profit per employee of $6,300 (1.5% of Apple’s profit per employee). . . an increase to $9 an hour would result in an annual wage increase of $2,730. . . At $15 an hour, the employee would make $12,090 more a year, resulting in a loss per employee of $5,790.
Setting a higher minimum wage seems like a natural way to help lift families out of poverty. However, minimum wages target individual workers with low wages, rather than families with low incomes. As a result, a large share of the higher income from minimum wages flows to higher-income families. Other policies that directly address low family income, such as the earned income tax credit, are more effective at reducing poverty.
Even as the recovery from the Great Recession brought booming corporate profits, most workers’ salaries have barely kept up with inflation. But now, as the nation edges ever closer to full employment and with layoffs near historical lows, there are growing indications that ordinary workers are finally starting to reap some of the gains of the 6 1/2 year-old recovery.
The latest result from the bureau’s annual survey of state and local government employees confirms a long-standing trend – that California has a below-average number of people on its public payrolls but above-average costs.
It is easy to be confused about what effects minimum wages have on jobs for low-skilled workers. Researchers offer conflicting evidence on whether or not raising the minimum wage means fewer jobs for these workers. Some recent studies even suggest overall employment could be harmed. This Letter sheds light on the range of estimates and the different approaches in the research that might explain some of the conflicting results. It also presents some midrange estimates of the aggregate employment effects from recent minimum wage increases based on the research literature.
Economists point to a crucial question: Will a higher minimum wage reduce the number of jobs for the country’s least skilled workers? President Obama says “there is no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs jobs.” On the contrary, a full and fair reading of the evidence shows the opposite. Raising the minimum wage will cost jobs, particularly those held by the least-skilled.
The pension reform measure that San Francisco voters passed in 2011 isn’t yielding the savings that city leaders expected, and for several reasons — one of which should worry all pension-paying institutions. That reason: Retirees are living significantly longer than old assumptions.