How does a $22 per hour minimum wage sound to you?
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill creating a “Fast Food Council” to determine standards for pay, hours, and working conditions for the state’s fast food workers. Under the legislation, the council could raise the minimum wage for fast food workers up to $22 an hour, well above the $15 an hour in the state for employers with more than 26 workers. The move has the restaurant industry distressed, recognizing that the prices to customers for fast food would have to greatly increase, and result in the loss of sales.
Until the 20th century, working conditions were often harsh, workdays were long, and employers were merely encouraged to offer their workers a “just wage.” In the 1920s, American legislators sought to improve working conditions and, by 1925, fifteen states had passed minimum wage laws—including California at 16 cents an hour.
Things changed radically under President Roosevelt’s New Deal when the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established the first federal minimum wage at 25 cents an hour. The law also imposed overtime pay (“time and a half”) after a mandated 40-hour regular workweek. Each state had the right to set its own minimum wage, but it could not be lower than the federal rate.
In 1938, a gallon of gas was 10 cents, a postage stamp was 3 cents, a movie ticket cost a quarter, tuition to Harvard was $420 a year, and the average house price was $3,900.
The minimum wage has continued to...
Professional rivalry and office politics were the driving forces behind the "false" sexual harassment and conversion allegations levelled against Tata Consulting Services (TCS) employee Raza Rafiq...