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Raising minimum wage would have been bad for St. Louis job seekers
May 2017 · Jordan Bruneau and Michael Saltsman · Missourian
For St. Louis’ entry-level employees hoping to land a summer job, the recent end of the latest legislative session was a nail-biter. With just minutes to spare before the constitutional close of the session, legislators offered these job seekers a last-moment reprieve from the city’s dramatic minimum wage increase that would have made a difficult summer job market even tougher. Legislators voted to keep minimum wage at… -
Young adults: California’s forgotten class
April 2017 · Jordan Bruneau and Michael Saltsman · Orange County Register
California may have the world’s sixth-largest economy, but that’s cold comfort for young adults confronting a dismal summer job market. Once known for its beautiful beaches, moderate climate and stunning vistas, California today is better known for being inhospitable to the middle class — a net importer of better educated, higher-earning employees, and a net exporter of almost everyone else. For those who remain — young adults… -
Summer wage hikes punish young adults
July 2016 · Michael Saltsman · Detroit News
Last week’s jobs report brought the good news that the economy added 287,000 jobs in June. But for those who read the fine print, the report was less encouraging. In the last five months, the unemployment rate for black youth jumped by 8 percentage points to 31.2 percent. To put this in real numbers, June saw 60,000 more black teenagers looking for work and unable to find it than… -
The Minimum Wage Doesn’t Belong in the State Constitution
July 2013 · Michael Saltsman · The Record & Herald News
THIS FALL, the most important question on the ballot isn’t who should govern the state in Trenton or represent it in Washington, but whether the state constitution should be altered to hike the minimum wage and put it on autopilot to rise in most years thereafter. It’s a radical means of pursuing a debatable public policy — and it sets a dangerous precedent for contentious issues that… -
The Minimum Wage: A 75th Anniversary That’s Not Worth Celebrating
June 2013 · Michael Saltsman · Huffington Post
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is in a celebratory mood. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, which Harkin chairs, is holding a full committee hearing to honor the federal minimum wage and promote Harkin’s latest effort to boost it to $10.10 an hour, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. But Harkin’s hagiography… -
Ignoring the Obvious in the Minimum Wage Debate
June 2013 · Michael Saltsman · The Hill
It’s an article of faith on the progressive left that mandating new labor costs for employers has no negative impact on the people they employ. Like the handful of people who still believe the universe revolves around the earth, these bitter-enders cling to a handful of outlying studies and ignore the evidence piling up around them. Case in point: A recent op-ed on these pages by Jack Temple of…