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A Monday evening debate in California between a number of candidates vying for an open Senate seat included a query about elevating the minimum wage to $50, an concept that one Democrat candidate has floated.
“In the Bay Area, I believe it was the United Way that came out with a report that very recently $127,000 for a family of four is just barely enough to get by,” Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee mentioned when requested to defend her earlier help of a $50 minimum wage and clarify how it will be “sustainable.”
“Another survey very recently: $104,000. For a family of one, barely enough to get by, low income because of the affordability crisis.”
Lee has beforehand referred to as for a $50 minimum wage, which might quantity to round $104,000 per yr of earnings. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and ranges from $16-$20 in California.
Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee (Fox News Digital)
“Just do the math. Of course we have national minimum wages that we need to raise to a living wage,” Lee continued. “We’re talking about $20, $25 — fine. But I have got to be focused on what California needs and what the affordability factor is when we calculate this wage.”
Former baseball star Steve Garvey, the solely Republican on the stage, advised the moderators that the minimum wage “is where it is and should be.”
“If you look at what California has done to fast food franchises right now, increasing the minimum wage to $20, and what’s going to happen,” Garvey mentioned. “That’s going to increase costs for hardworking Californians to go to a franchise to get a Big Mac for $9, it’s going to be $15.”
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Congressman Adam Schiff speaks at the “Just Majority” Burbank Press Conference on May 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Demand Justice)
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff took situation with Garvey’s assertion and mentioned that so many individuals reside on the avenue as a result of they’re being paid “poverty wages.”
“Try to find a house anywhere in California when you’re earning minimum wage,” Schiff advised Garvey. “We have to raise people’s incomes.”
GOP California Senate Candidate Steve Garvey (Steve Garvey)
Schiff and fellow Democrat candidate Katie Porter have floated help for minimum wages starting from $20 to $25 per hour.
California handed laws final fall that may require a $20 per hour minimum wage in any respect eating places with not less than 60 places nationwide — although the regulation consists of an exception for eating places that make and promote their very own bread.
Several main fast-food franchises, together with McDonald’s and Chipotle, have already signaled that costs must rise in response to the elevated labor prices.
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As companies think about passing prices on to shoppers, Fat Brands chairman Andy Wiederhorn not too long ago defined that “someone’s got to pay” for the soar in wages.
“The consumers who are voters must have known what they were getting into by promoting this legislation to raise the minimum wage from $15 to $20 and on its way to $25,” Wiederhorn advised Fox Business earlier this month.
“Everyone wants their employees to make more money, but it just costs. And someone’s got to pay for it. And the restaurant operators don’t have the margin for that. So prices are going to go up.”
U.S. consultant Katie Porter speaks as U.S. President Joe Biden is seen at the occasion on reducing prices for American households at Irvine Valley Community College in Irvine, California, United States on October 14, 2022. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency by way of Getty Images)
A 2021 Harvard Business Review research discovered that elevating the minimum wage truly results in decrease compensation for staff.
In addition to corporations being pressured to boost costs, many economists have additionally warned that corporations might be pressured to chop jobs, which regularly finally ends up disproportionately hurting low-wage earnings earners, the very group supporters of elevating the minimum wage are aiming to assist.
“Apologists for the minimum wage routinely claim that increasing it will help low-income workers and have no negative effects,” E.J. Antoni, a analysis fellow in regional economics with the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, advised FOX Business about elevating the minimum wage final yr.
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“They often cite corporate greed as the only reason for relatively low wages in places like the fast-food industry. In reality, raising the minimum wage reduces employment, and causes the higher cost of labor to be passed on to customers. Because low-income workers disproportionately buy fast food (like McDonald’s), they disproportionately bear the cost of not only the more expensive labor, but also the lower employment levels.”
Antoni continued, “That fact exposes the reality that the true minimum wage is, and always has been, zero. For the worker that loses his or her job because of a higher minimum wage, they now have no income and higher food prices.”
Fox News Digital’s Madeline Coggins contributed to this report
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