12mo ago

Californians will vote on a $18 minimum wage. Workers already want $25 and more

calmatters.org

Antiwork @lemmy.ml

return2ozma @lemmy.world

12mo ago

Californians will vote on a $18 minimum wage. Workers already want $25 and more

calmatters.org /politics/2024/08/california-minimum-wage-2024-ballot-measure/

17 comments

Just index it to GDP/ inflation or executive pay/ compensation.
- Executive pay would be nice. Make it so the CEO gets paid a maximum of 20x the lowest paid worker. CEO pay goes up? So does company minimum wage. Make it account for stock grants too.
  
  Not CEO, but the highest paid position in the company.
  Someone in power can easilly just give the CEO title to some dude and give himself the title of "Chief General Officer" or some bs like that
  
  My biggest fear with this proposal is that lower wage positions just get offloaded or somehow classified as "independent contractors" or consulting or some other bullshit. Or they create some shell company to all these positions. Or some other chicanery.
  Don't get me wrong, I agree in principle. But God damn if actually enacting and enforcing wouldn't be some legal whack a mole with these slippery bastards
  
  While a nice idea, in reality you're dealing with sociopaths that will do anything to horde money. They would come up with work arounds in six months.
  
  Stock grants are always quite vague in value - it'd be really hard to actually come up with a precise number for it... and in theory a bad actor (like Elon Musk) might be able to really fuck up that algorithm.
- That's part of it. But it's pointless without raising it to a living wage first.
  Pinning it without raising it just cements the slave wages in place. Which business would love I'm sure.
In the eastern Kansas city that I live in, a living wage for a single person with no kids is almost $20/hr. There is no way $18 is nearly enough in California.
- You're right
Minimum wage should be adjusted to inflation, and get a COLA increase every year. It should also be retroactively adjusted, which would put it around $26+
There's no way an adult should be forced to work more than 40 hours a week for not enough to live on. When that is a norm it's an illustration the economic model is failing.
And frankly, even 40 hours is too much, keeping people too exhausted for civic engagement and parenting, which figures largely into our intergenerational mental illness epidemic.
TIE IT TO PRODUCTIVITY AND INFLATION, god damn it!! Picking a number is what got us here in the first place!
They should want $60 or $260 an hour. As long as people at the top are making billions a year off the backs of these workers, they should demand a lot more than they are getting.
I don’t care what the number is. Just want to be able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment, food/water, bills, and a bit of savings.

17 comments