By Muhammed El-Hasan Staff Writer
Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA), May 19, 2013
... The implications of government raising wages for the lowest-paid workers - at least those who are legally employed - is at the center of political and ideological battles from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento and Southern California. ...
Last month, Assembly Bill 10, which would raise the minimum wage for the first time since 2008, passed the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on a party-line vote of 5-2. ... If passed, the bill would increase the minimum wage 25 cents next year, another 50 cents in 2015 and then to $9.25 in 2016. Thereafter, it would be adjusted annually to the rate of inflation. ...
On the other side of the debate is economist Sylvia Allegretto, who supports an increase in the minimum wage. Raising workers' skills isn't a panacea because most new jobs being created are low-skilled positions that require little training, said Allegretto, a research economist with the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley. ... Allegretto, who testified in favor of AB 10 at an Assembly committee hearing, said the bill would help workers catch up with inflation since the last increase in 2008. She added that the bill would fall short of making up for the falling value of the minimum wage over the past few decades. ...
Allegretto challenged assertions that a higher minimum wage leads to fewer jobs, saying her institute's research found no correlation. Other studies that did find a correlation did not adequately consider unrelated factors such as shifts in population, she said.
As for automation, businesses will automate to save money regardless of whether the minimum wage rises, Allegretto said. And opponents of a minimum-wage increase ignore the benefits, such as improving employee retention, thereby reducing the cost of recruiting and training new workers, she added. ...
Some business owners do support minimum-wage increases. Rob Seltzer, who runs a small Los Angeles certified public accountant firm, is one of 3,000 business owners nationwide who are members of Business for Shared Prosperity, a group that supports a federal minimum wage increase. Seltzer sees such an increase as a potential boost for businesses. Many of Seltzer's clients are in the entertainment industry and would benefit from a higher minimum wage because more low-paid workers would have money to watch movies and attend concerts, he said.
"I think that for a lot of businesses, the minimum wage really isn't something that is a negative," Seltzer said. "I think it's a plus because, unlike upper-income people who might not be spending that money, the people at the lower end of the spectrum would be spending any more that comes in. It's sort of like unemployment payments. Those are not going to be squirreled away."
According to a survey by [Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research], two out of three small business owners nationwide support an increase in the federal minimum wage and annual adjustments to keep up with the cost of living. ...
muhammed.el-hasan@dailybreeze.com
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