oped: Hypocrisy anyone?...akin to Obama do as I say not as I do...yes indeed Liberalism/Progressivism is a mental disease...unjust and downright unfair!
A liberal university is now proving the conservative case against minimum wage law.
UC Berkeley says it can’t comply with a local ordinance that raises the minimum wage to $10 an hour because of “budget constraints.”
It’s funny, because that’s exactly what conservatives have been saying all along as a reason against government wage controls. While giant corporations can afford the wage increases, many small businesses can’t comply with such stringent government mandates and controls, such that they either have to find a way to pay their workers extra or be forced to shut down.
UC Berkeley says it can’t comply with a local ordinance that raises the minimum wage to $10 an hour because of “budget constraints.”
It’s funny, because that’s exactly what conservatives have been saying all along as a reason against government wage controls. While giant corporations can afford the wage increases, many small businesses can’t comply with such stringent government mandates and controls, such that they either have to find a way to pay their workers extra or be forced to shut down.
What’s infuriating in this particular case
is that UC Berkeley has been “exempted” from the local minimum wage
ordinance since it’s a state-run institution.
The Daily Caller reported:
People can gripe and complain that that’s greedy of these executives, and they very well might be right. But if it bothers them that much, they should petition their bosses for higher pay. I’m not saying that’s guaranteed to get them a raise, but they certainly shouldn’t go crying to the government to get them to force businesses to pay more. That’s not the government’s business. As long as a business is paying according to what they and their employees agreed, the government has no place in mandating wages.
California’s
minimum wage is $9 an hour for all workers, but on October 1 the city
of Berkeley implemented a local ordinance raising it to $10, seeking to
improve conditions for low-skill workers in a city with a high cost of
living. However, the city cannot compel state government entities to pay
the higher wage, and so UC-Berkeley, the city’s largest employer, has
exploited its state affiliation to keep paying 25 percent of its student
employees less than the city minimum, according to a report by Inside Higher Ed.
[…]
The school has defended itself, telling the local East Bay Express that
“budget constraints” require that it keep student wages down. However,
the UC system has recently given big pay boosts to some of its top
executives, leading many to criticize its claims of a money shortage.
For example, earlier this year, UC-Berkeley vice chancellor and provost
Claude Steele received a pay increase of $75,000, raising his base
salary from $375,000 to $450,000. That raise could have paid for a
higher minimum wage for 220 student employees working 20 hours a week
over a 17-week semester.
So, they’re paying their top
executives extra, but “budget constraints” necessitate that they
compensate many of their regular employees below minimum wage. They’re
acting like all the corporations they claim to hate. It’s the same
story. The higher-ranking executives get the big pay raises and the
yachts while the people at the bottom of the totem pole get pennies on
the dollar.People can gripe and complain that that’s greedy of these executives, and they very well might be right. But if it bothers them that much, they should petition their bosses for higher pay. I’m not saying that’s guaranteed to get them a raise, but they certainly shouldn’t go crying to the government to get them to force businesses to pay more. That’s not the government’s business. As long as a business is paying according to what they and their employees agreed, the government has no place in mandating wages.
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