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IPFS News Link • Minimum Wage

The Hazards of Government Wage Mandates

• https://www.fff.org, by Michael Tennant

In January, the city of Long Beach, California, decided that grocery-store employees deserved hazard pay for doing their jobs in the era of COVID-19, a virus with a survival rate of more than 99.7 percent.

Marc Perrone, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, praised the move, saying, "City leaders stepped up to take care of these essential grocery workers and ensure they receive hazard pay for the danger they face."

Did officials personally fork over the hazard pay when they "stepped up to take care of" the workers? Of course not! They simply decreed that "grocery stores with at least 300 workers nationwide and more than 15 employees within Long Beach … pay an extra $4 an hour for a 120-day period," reported CBS News.

This mandated wage increase, which the "progressive" Brookings Institution called "a promising model for other local governments across the country to replicate and build on," came on top of a state minimum-wage hike to $14 an hour.

Soon after the law went into effect, Kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain, announced that it was closing two of its Long Beach stores.


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