CPR: As Governor Jerry Brown signs the new minimum wage increase law this morning, many in the business community are studying the proposed temporary pause mechanism built into the bill that is supposed to reassure businesses. It does not.
The mechanism is power in the hands of a governor to pause the minimum wage increase during economic downturns. There are two scenarios in which a governor can hit the pause button.
And people actually wonder if we have a socialistic government now. How quaint!
Kommiefofnia needs to fall into the Pacific with Jerry Brown leading the way.
Don’t blame California.
We have been taken over by a criminal syndicate and the Feds won’t help us.
We even altered out constitution specifically to prevent Jerry Brown from being the governor, and he was installed anyway.
I found the “pause button” to be curious. Liberals are adamant that a $15 per hour minimum wage is just great for everyone, but still chose to put an escape provision in the bill in case economics is really a legitimate field. Given that California is governed by Democrats, it is unlikely that any future governor will use the pause clause, but the very fact that it is there shows that even liberals are concerned about the practical effect.
Among other factors which should be considered, but are not, are productivity principles. At some point, it will be more cost effective to automate because increased wages for a particular function will not result in increased productivity – just increased costs. As an example, a restaurant I frequent now has table top computers where one can order appetizers and pay the bill. I understand that the purpose is to avoid having to increase the number of wait staff required (or even reduce the number of existing wait staff), but an unintended benefit of the system is that I actually like it. We can order the appetizers without having to wait, and at the end of a meal I really hate waiting for the tab – which is taken care of when I want. This is automation that benefits both the restaurant and the customer.
It’s a shame because I don’t like to think of people just as cogs in an economic machine. But liberals think of businesses as financial sources to fuel their utopian schemes, and in turn this forces businesses to consider whether or not some assets, their employees, are worth the cost.