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Cuomo’s about to crush New York restaurants
April 2018 · Michael Saltsman · New York Post
It’s déjà vu all over again. Less than four years after Gov. Andrew Cuomo convened a wage board to study tipped-employee pay, the Labor Department will hold a series of hearings to decide whether New York should follow seven other states and eliminate the tipping system entirely. The first hearing, on Friday at SUNY-Farmingdale, will pit service-industry staff who value their tip income against labor advocates who prefer all… -
Higher wage means fewer jobs in N.D.
April 2018 · Michael Saltsman · Grand Forks Herald
North Dakota’s secretary of state recently approved for signature collection a ballot initiative that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2021. To get a sense of how radical that is, that’s a 107 percent increase over the state’s current minimum wage–at a phase–in that would happen even faster than scheduled increases in California or New York. Before voters rush to endorse this ballot measure,… -
Minimum wage hike will cut worker salaries
March 2018 · Frayda Levin, Michael Saltsman · Daily Record
In his inaugural address, Gov. Phil Murphy told his colleagues in the legislature, “Send me the bills … to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” promising a stronger, fairer economy as a result. On January 25, Senator Troy Singleton gave Murphy what he wanted in S1142, the first step to reaching a $15 minimum wage. Unfortunately, raising New Jersey’s minimum wage will likely result in… -
California’s cautionary tale for New York restaurants
February 2018 · Michael Saltsman · Crain's New York Business
A proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to eliminate New York’s tip credit has worried restaurateurs, who are already reeling from recent wage hikes. Cuomo counsel Alphonso David recently dismissed these concerns by pointing west. “California, as an example, does not have a tipped wage, and the sky didn’t fall,” he said at a Crain’s forum. David might want to take a closer look at the data. For many California… -
Report on minimum wage gets it all wrong
February 2018 · Michael Saltsman · The Gazette
It’s deja vu all over again in Johnson County. County leaders tout a new and misleading report as proof that their recent experiment with a higher minimum wage benefited local businesses. Of course, basic economics holds that buyers generally demand less of a product when the price of the product increases, and higher minimum wages make labor more expensive. But Johnson County leaders ignore this principle, and… -
Why The $15 Minimum Wage Will Cost California 400,000 Jobs
December 2017 · Michael Satlsman · Forbes
In the new year, less-skilled workers across California will face an old, familiar threat to their employment: A soaring minimum wage. In 2016, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that put the state minimum wage on track to reach $15 per hour by 2022. The next increase—from $10.50 to $11.00—is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2018. If you’re a business in one of thirteen different California localities–from Mountain…