A study last year claimed that Seattle’s minimum wage had hurt low-income workers, a claim that went against both the vast majority of previous minimum wage studies and Seattle's booming economy. But a new study, co-authored by UMass economics professor Arindrajit Dube and incorporating 137 minimum wage increases, finds—again—that raises don’t hurt jobs:
On average, minimum-wage increases eliminated jobs paying below the new minimum, but added jobs paying at or above the new minimum. The two changes effectively cancel each other out. [...]
The decline in jobs paying less than the new minimum wage is offset by an increase in those paying more. Jobs further up the pay scale are largely unaffected, as economists would expect — the minor fluctuations beyond $4 above the new minimum wage are not statistically significant, the study found.
Yet another data point—or 137 of them—for voters (looking at you, Massachusetts) and lawmakers alike to keep in mind as they consider future minimum wage increases.
● Drugstore chain CVS is raising its starting wage and adding paid parental leave.
● For some reason, a group of airlines is suing over Washington state's new paid sick leave law, arguing that it’s onerous to have to handle different sick leave laws in different states when your workers cross state lines constantly. But why are they suing over Washington’s law and not those of other places with similar laws? Also, if their complaint is that there are different laws in different places, they could always lobby the federal government for a national paid sick leave law ...
● The National Employment Law Project’s Christine Owens on the Trump administration's tip-stealing plan:
The agency’s cover-up has kept workers and their advocates, along with many other stakeholders, in the dark about critical evidence related to the impact of the proposal, which is already deeply unpopular with voters. Even before news about the Labor Department cover-up broke, a recent poll revealed that 82 percent of Americans disapprove of the proposal. Worse, 57 percent indicate that if it is finalized, they would tip less money and less often, a fact that indicates that the economic reality of this proposal is probably even far worse than the Economic Policy Institute or Labor Department first estimated.
America’s workers deserve a Labor Department that puts their interests first at every juncture. For the sake of the integrity of this process, and for the sake of the low-wage workers who stand to lose billions in wages under the new rule, the Labor Department should scuttle this wrongheaded proposal and continue to let people keep the tips they earn through their own hard work.
● A driver's suicide reveals the dark side of the gig economy.
● Good ideas that will go nowhere. At least until we change the courts, which we are less likely to be able to do because of decisions made by the far-right judges Republicans have been so successful at getting onto the courts.
● Rubio's fake family leave policy comes from a fake women's group.
● Contract workers went on strike at Boston’s Logan Airport this week.
● Jeff Bezos's quest to find America's stupidest mayor:
Now, Jeff Bezos is taking the bidding war into the Internet Age with this highly publicized contest for Amazon’s next headquarters. He put out the promise of a new headquarters with “up to” 50,000 high-paying jobs, and then the country’s cities put in their offers. (Toronto is the one non-American city also in the running).
The structure of this bidding war is virtually guaranteed to ensure that the city that lands the new headquarters will end up paying out far more in subsidies than it gets back in benefits. Once a location is named as being in the top 20, political leaders have their appetite whetted. They want more than ever to be the winner and are prepared to raise their offers so that they don’t end up in second place. Bezos is using a standard tease as an inducement to keep people gambling, just like the $10 or $50 prizes in the state lotteries or the small jackpots at the slot machines. They give the players just enough incentive to want to keep playing.
In addition, to minimize the extent to which an informed public can scrutinize the commitments being made by their leaders, Amazon has encouraged city officials to keep the details of their offers secret. This means that there will be very little time between when city and state officials celebrate the big victory and when city or county councils have to vote on the package.
