Not having enough money is bad. Everybody should have more money. Therefore, the role of government is to raise wages. Then people will have more money, which is good. Good things are good.
Guess who doesn’t want things that are good?
Peter Jamison, David Zahniser, and Emily Alpert Reyes, LA Times:
Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.
The push to include an exception to the mandated wage increase for companies that let their employees collectively bargain was the latest unexpected detour as the city nears approval of its landmark legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
“With a collective bargaining agreement, a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both. The agreement allows each party to prioritize what is important to them,” [Rusty] Hicks said in a statement. “This provision gives the parties the option, the freedom, to negotiate that agreement. And that is a good thing.”
How can that be a good thing? If business owners wanted options, they shouldn’t have become business owners. They’ll pay their employees what they’re told to pay their employees, and they’ll like it.
And if they go out of business, that’s their bad luck. It’s not our fault they’re so greedy.
Take that, unions!