Minimum wage update

Last updated on: May 19, 2015 at 6:17 pm by Jane the Actuary

Minimum wage update 2015-05-19T18:17:35-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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Well, Los Angeles has done it: $15/yr, phased in by 2020, as reported, for instance, at the New York Times, and passed by a 14 – 1 margin, too. That article also links to an editorial claiming that, by means of a “Wage Board,” the state of New York can raise wages for any particular occupation without needing legislation, so long as the board determines that “pay is judged to be too low to support the health or ‘adequate maintenance’ of its workers.”

Here’s an article I wrote a year ago, in which I pulled out typical pay rates for various occupations in Seattle, when they passed their $15/hr phase-in wage, and here’s a link for the L.A. wage data from the bls site.

Here are some median hourly wages:

Manicurist and pedicurist: $8.99

Fast food workers: $9.08

Motion picture projectionists: $10.11

Restaurant cooks: $11.10

Clerical library assistants: $11.82

Physical therapist aides: $12.92

Nursing assistants: $13.31

Carpet installers: $13.51

Pest control workers: $14.08

Preschool teacher: $14.34

First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers: $15.15

Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters: $16.55

Dental Assistants: $17.03

All Occupations: $18.41

You get the picture.

Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour is no trivial action. It will impact not just fast food restaurants but large numbers of occupations — and each worker in each occupation that pays above minimum, will certainly not be content with a new pay level of $15, when that represents exactly the same wage that their neighbor with no skills or experience or special training, is also earning. A preschool teacher, or carpet installer, or cabinetmaker, earning the same as a McDonald’s employee? Or a McDonald’s supervisor earning no more than the employees he supervises?

Second thought:

Everyone’s talked about how there’ll be declines in employment, as some jobs are automated out of existence and others, where prices go up, lose their customers. But I suspect that there’ll be another impact, too: an increase in workers working under the table in various ways: an under-the-table lawn guy being cheaper than the lawn service, or a similar story for housecleaning, for example — or small business employers who are accustomed to being on the up-and-up but now simply say, “I can afford to pay you 20 hours ‘on the clock,’ but I’ll give you another 20 under the table, since that’s the only way I can make payroll.” Which of course is one of the ways that employers in countries and locales with onerous labor regulations cope.

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