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发帖数: 29846 | 1 by Jeff Dunetz | Apr 26, 2016 | Economy
It’s been less than a month since California passed legislation to hike the
minimum wage to $15 and disastrous impacts are already being felt. Between
companies leaving the state, employees being laid off and workers getting
replaced by robotic automation, it’s clear that the economic consequences
of this move will only serve to hurt workers and the private sector.” -
Jeremy Adler, Communications Director, America Rising Squared
Ever since California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation designed to
increase the state’s minimum wage, businesses and employers have had to
take drastic measures, including cutting staff and making plans to exit the
state.
KPCC in Sacramento reported that California Composites, based out of Santa
Fe Springs, has decided to leave this state and move the company to Texas
solely because of the minimum wage issue.
“This is the last thing I want to do, but I don’t see that I have a choice
,” said Fred Donnelly, president of California Composites, which makes
parts for commercial airplanes.
Donnelly, who has lived in California for almost seven decades, said he is
moving is company out of California because of its “dysfunctional” worker
’s compensation system, excessive state and local regulations and the
forthcoming $15 minimum wage.
He says his employees make on average a little less than $15 an hour now –
so he would have to give them all a big raise. He said he can’t afford to
do that because his company is locked into long-term contracts with
customers where the price is already set.
Unfortunately, the jobs lost from California Composites leaving the state is
just one of the negative effects that has come to light since Governor
Brown hiked the minimum wage. In San Diego, the owner of Five Loaves Two
Fish Clothing appeared on KOGO to highlight how the higher minimum wage will
crush her business.
Heather Haas, the owner of Five Loaves Two Fish Clothing, reported that she
and her co-owner sister have had to stop paying themselves because of
minimum wage hike that went into effect January 1. The layoffs and
outsourcing may occur as the minimum wage is hiked in San Diego this year
and the state-wide $15 rate is phased in.
On top of that, an Inland Empire economist said in the San Gabriel Valley
Tribune that many California-based logistics firms will be forced to invest
in robotic technology as opposed to hiring and paying workers.
[John] Husing said most of Southern California’s warehouse employees who
earn minimum wage are working part time. But the newly approved pay hikes
that will boost the state’s current minimum wage of $10 per hour to $15 per
hour by 2022 will still place financial pressures on logistics companies.
And they’ll be looking for ways to increase efficiency while reducing costs.
“It will increase the introduction of robotic technology with these
companies,” he said. “That’s the conveyor belts and things that pack
boxes and move them down the belt. That sort of thing is going to increase,
and it’s already been increasing.”
This minimum wage increase is less than a month old and the fact that
businesses are already planning to leave the state and cuts jobs shows just
how disastrous it will be for workers. If states want to create jobs, boost
the economy and allow the private sector to expand, what’s happening in
California shows that raising the minimum wage is not the way to do it. |
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