In an utter fit of hypocrisy, LA’s AFL-CIO chapter is requesting an exemption for union employers from the new minimum wage regime that it lobbied to put in place. Many, like me, argue that unions argue for minimum wage to do damage to their non-union competition—presuming it’s a more effective strategy than hiring folks to chant and wave disparaging signs around their competition’s storefronts.
Chris Tilly, an urban planning professor at the University of California, Los Angeles makes the argument, he presumes, on behalf of unions:
“The argument for a union exemption for minimum wage is that workers represented by unions have the ability to bargain for a combination of wages, benefits and working conditions that works best for them,”
In reality, Tilly makes a case for those (of us) who see minimum wage as one of the most destructive laws ever constructed (it absolutely alienates low-skilled workers from the workforce): He unwittingly implies that many companies cannot afford to pay their least productive individuals $15 per hour while at the same time provide additional benefits and optimal working conditions. And he’s right!