Minimum Wage

Blog

Proposed Law Would Hurt, Not Help, Fast Food Workers

Legislation in Sacramento that falls neatly into the “only in California” category is a bill that would make the state the sole arbiter of “​​industry-wide standards on wages and working conditions in the fast food industry.” The private sector seems to be losing ground nearly every day in this bluest ...
Blog

A Fundamental Misunderstanding Of … Almost Everything

An end-of-the-year tradition among reporters, commentators, and more recently laptop pundits is the compilation of legislation that becomes law with the turn of the calendar. California being California, there is never a shortage of new rules to live by. And, with a few exceptions, they are further evidence that policymakers ...
Agriculture

Read About CA’s New Pork Production Law: Regulation Without Representation

On Friday, the Supreme Court will consider cases to hear in the coming term, among them National Pork Producers Council v. Ross. Arising out of the Ninth Circuit, Ross asks a question central to our constitutional system: Leveraging its immense market power, may a single state (California) usurp Congress’s authority ...
Blog

In 2022, Will Lawmakers, Courts Respect Freedom of Californians to Work as they Choose?

Just before the pandemic struck, a new law infected California. Known as AB 5, the law upended 30 years of the freedom for people to work as independent contractors and reclassified millions as employees. The worst of legislative hubris, the law was unprincipled, exempting the politically-well-connected and clearly targeting certain ...
California

Reform Misguided Laws, Don’t Raise Minimum Wage, to Address California’s High Cost of Living

California isn’t yet finished hiking the minimum wage from the last bill that increased it to $15 an hour starting in 2023 for all businesses, and now comes another proposal to move it to $18. Imagine the response from companies struggling to keep up with current payrolls when they hear ...
Blog

‘Workers’ Who Don’t Complain When They Don’t Make The Minimum Wage

With California losing a seat in the U.S. House because due to its flat population growth, maybe Sacramento should try to convince Washington to count robots as residents in the next census. Because they’re on their way. In the first nine months of 2021, North American companies “added a record ...
Blog

How California Laws are Stealing Christmas

We’ve all heard about it by now – the supply chain crisis and the bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  Last month, the “dwell time” – the time a container stays on a terminal between unloading from a ship and removal by a truck was six ...
Blog

Could Labor Day Push for Higher Minimum Wage Lead to More Work Being Done by Robots?

Who is going to be first in line to buy if Elon Musk is able to build a humanoid robot in the future? A best guess would be owners of the California companies whose businesses are threatened by the state’s steep minimum wage and other costs heaped on them by ...
Blog

Larry Elder Says the Ideal Minimum Wage Should Be $0.00 – Why Is This Controversial? It Shouldn’t Be

Judging from the reaction to Larry Elder’s comment that the appropriate minimum wage is zero, one would think he had suggested harvesting California’s iconic giant sequoias or closing the Golden Gate Bridge. But what the radio talk show host and gubernatorial recall candidate said should not have stirred controversy. The ...
Blog

When Public Policy Is Predatory

The same city that requires employers to pay workers at least $16.32 an hour, far more than twice the federal minimum wage, also limits how much some businesses can charge for their services. It’s enough to send some companies seeking relief from the court system. Two have done just that. ...
Blog

Proposed Law Would Hurt, Not Help, Fast Food Workers

Legislation in Sacramento that falls neatly into the “only in California” category is a bill that would make the state the sole arbiter of “​​industry-wide standards on wages and working conditions in the fast food industry.” The private sector seems to be losing ground nearly every day in this bluest ...
Blog

A Fundamental Misunderstanding Of … Almost Everything

An end-of-the-year tradition among reporters, commentators, and more recently laptop pundits is the compilation of legislation that becomes law with the turn of the calendar. California being California, there is never a shortage of new rules to live by. And, with a few exceptions, they are further evidence that policymakers ...
Agriculture

Read About CA’s New Pork Production Law: Regulation Without Representation

On Friday, the Supreme Court will consider cases to hear in the coming term, among them National Pork Producers Council v. Ross. Arising out of the Ninth Circuit, Ross asks a question central to our constitutional system: Leveraging its immense market power, may a single state (California) usurp Congress’s authority ...
Blog

In 2022, Will Lawmakers, Courts Respect Freedom of Californians to Work as they Choose?

Just before the pandemic struck, a new law infected California. Known as AB 5, the law upended 30 years of the freedom for people to work as independent contractors and reclassified millions as employees. The worst of legislative hubris, the law was unprincipled, exempting the politically-well-connected and clearly targeting certain ...
California

Reform Misguided Laws, Don’t Raise Minimum Wage, to Address California’s High Cost of Living

California isn’t yet finished hiking the minimum wage from the last bill that increased it to $15 an hour starting in 2023 for all businesses, and now comes another proposal to move it to $18. Imagine the response from companies struggling to keep up with current payrolls when they hear ...
Blog

‘Workers’ Who Don’t Complain When They Don’t Make The Minimum Wage

With California losing a seat in the U.S. House because due to its flat population growth, maybe Sacramento should try to convince Washington to count robots as residents in the next census. Because they’re on their way. In the first nine months of 2021, North American companies “added a record ...
Blog

How California Laws are Stealing Christmas

We’ve all heard about it by now – the supply chain crisis and the bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  Last month, the “dwell time” – the time a container stays on a terminal between unloading from a ship and removal by a truck was six ...
Blog

Could Labor Day Push for Higher Minimum Wage Lead to More Work Being Done by Robots?

Who is going to be first in line to buy if Elon Musk is able to build a humanoid robot in the future? A best guess would be owners of the California companies whose businesses are threatened by the state’s steep minimum wage and other costs heaped on them by ...
Blog

Larry Elder Says the Ideal Minimum Wage Should Be $0.00 – Why Is This Controversial? It Shouldn’t Be

Judging from the reaction to Larry Elder’s comment that the appropriate minimum wage is zero, one would think he had suggested harvesting California’s iconic giant sequoias or closing the Golden Gate Bridge. But what the radio talk show host and gubernatorial recall candidate said should not have stirred controversy. The ...
Blog

When Public Policy Is Predatory

The same city that requires employers to pay workers at least $16.32 an hour, far more than twice the federal minimum wage, also limits how much some businesses can charge for their services. It’s enough to send some companies seeking relief from the court system. Two have done just that. ...
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