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AH&LA Media Monitoring - 4/3 - 9AM PST Report
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Why Corporate America Is Finally Raising Wages
Apr 2, 2015 | Huffington Post
By Alexander Kaufman
Some of the country’s biggest employers are finally raising wages amid mounting pressure from protesters and a hardier job market. -
LA County joins City in considering minimum wage hikes
Apr 3, 2015 | Intersections - South LA
By Annenberg TV News
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and United States Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez advocated to raise the minimum wage this week, arguing that it would benefit all residents. They also lashed out against wage theft. -
Minimum wage bill would exempt certain workers
Apr 3, 2015 | Sacramento Business Journal
By Allen Young
As California lawmakers consider raising the state’s minimum wage to $13 and cities consider similar moves, a bill has emerged that could take the pressure off at least some businesses.
Public Hearing / Minimum Wage Coverage
National News
Regional News
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Why Corporate America Is Finally Raising Wages
Apr 2, 2015 | Huffington Post
By Alexander Kaufman
Some of the country’s biggest employers are finally raising wages amid mounting pressure from protesters and a hardier job market.
McDonald’s on Wednesday became the latest major company to give workers -- albeit a fraction of its total workforce -- a pay bump that will lift average hourly pay to $9.90 from $9.01. The move, which will go into effect on July 1, follows a similar change made in February by Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer.
What, after years of stagnant wage growth for low-paid workers, is causing corporations to shell out more to their staff?
For some companies, the pay raise has been compelled by a sense of ethical leadership.
Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini raised the minimum wage at the health insurance company to $16 per hour after reading French economist Thomas Piketty’s bestsellerCapital In The Twenty-First Century, which warns of the increasingly wide gap between rich and poor.
Other firms have been motivated by the desire to maintain market share.
“We’ve known for a really long time that if you look like a good corporate citizen, that’s good for sales,” Bob Keener, spokesman for the nonprofit Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, told The Huffington Post. “If you make a big public announcement about how you’re going to raise wages, you look like a good corporate citizen, and that’s going to increase your sales.”
Competition is also driving wages up. Call it a wage-hike domino effect. As the U.S. economy continues to add jobs, even retailers who claim to keep prices low in part by minimizing payroll expenses must increase how much they pay their workers to avoid losing them.
Since apparel giant Gap Inc. raised its minimum wage to $9 per hour last year, the company has seen a major influx in applicants, The Washington Post reported.
“When other large, low-wage employers boost their wages, McDonald’s has to be concerned about its employees moving to another employer where they can get another buck per hour,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the nonprofit National Employment Law Project. “There is undoubtedly some tightening in the labor market at the low end that is having an effect on wages.”
Plus, higher wages are good for business. Sales at McDonald’s and Walmart have languished over the past year, and boosting wages could actually be part of a strategy to help turn things around.
For every extra $1 a company spends each month in payroll, it could get backanywhere from $4 to $28 in monthly sales, according to a 2007 study by professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and elsewhere.
Companies are also facing intense pressure from protesters to pay a living wage. Workers united under such groups as the "Fight for 15," which advocates for a $15 minimum wage, have led rallies in cities across the world, including a major gatheringoutside McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, last May. Fight for 15 is also planning a series of strikes for later this month.
Protests for higher pay are gaining steam. This week, Seattle began the process of raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour. Los Angeles is considering bumping the minimum wage for the city’s hotel workers to $15.37 -- making it the highest in the country.
While both McDonald’s and Walmart aim for a $10 average wage by next year, that is still $5 below the wage that protesters are demanding. Critics worry that these incremental pay boosts could be an attempt to undercut a movement that is gaining serious clout.
“This is a PR and a political move meant to knock the wind out of this growing and increasingly militant movement,” Peter Dreier, a professor of urban policy at Occidental College, told HuffPost. “The companies are now competing with each other not to look like they’re the worst employer in the world.”
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LA County joins City in considering minimum wage hikes
Apr 3, 2015 | Intersections - South LA
By Annenberg TV News
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and United States Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez advocated to raise the minimum wage this week, arguing that it would benefit all residents. They also lashed out against wage theft.
“If all the people who lived in poverty in L.A. were an independent city, they’d be the tenth largest in America, the third largest in our state,” Garcetti said.
“In January of this year, seven million Americans got an increase in the minimum wage as a result of state and local action,” Perez added.
The pair was greeted with cheers at an event in Downtown L.A. where hundreds of people with United Service Workers West came out to support an increase in the minimum wage and greater protection for workers.
Tina Tran said she was a victim of wage theft. While she was able to file a claim and settle with her employer, many of her co-workers haven’t been able to do the same. She says she wasn’t paid for overtime and never received meal or rest periods.
“The biggest issue of all was that I was being misclassified,” said Tran. “As a result, that’s why I was not being paid for overtime.”
Minimum wage debates have sprung up across the city. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors commissioned their own study this week to examine the effects of raising the minimum wage. In addition, the City Council’s Economic Development Committee held a meeting Tuesday night to solicit public input.
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Minimum wage bill would exempt certain workers
Apr 3, 2015 | Sacramento Business Journal
By Allen Young
As California lawmakers consider raising the state’s minimum wage to $13 and cities consider similar moves, a bill has emerged that could take the pressure off at least some businesses.
The bill by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Daly of Anaheim would freeze the state minimum wage at the current level of $9 for restaurant servers and bartenders who earn at least $15 an hour including tips.
Assembly Bill 669 is sponsored by theCalifornia Restaurant Association, which argues the bill would help restaurants raise wages for cooks and dishwashers, many of whom may earn less than servers.
“This is absolutely not paying a sub-minimum wage in any way … It frees labor dollars to go to non-minimum wage people in the back of the house,” said Matthew Sutton, the association’s vice president of government affairs and public policy.
It's not clear what effect, if any, Assembly Bill 669 would have on cities that set higher minimum wages. The association said that local government leaders in Los Angeles are considering a similar "carve-out" measure for a local minimum-wage law. The association also has engaged city council members in Sacramento on the issue.
As the city of Sacramento prepares to consider a new local minimum wage, the association also is spreading the message that restaurateurs are generally opposed to the idea, especially because the state minimum hasn’t yet reached $10 an hour, which it is scheduled to do next Jan. 1.
“The ink isn’t even dry (on the last raise), and we’re already charging forward with more increases,” Sutton said.
Between changes in federal health care reform and a new state law around paid sick leave, “There’s already a lot of cost pressures on restaurant community right now,” he added.
Assembly Bill 669 is opposed by the AFL-CIO and a host of other unions in California. The bill will be heard in the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on April 22.
Public Hearing / Minimum Wage Coverage
National News
Regional News
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