Mayor Eric Garcetti is pitching a minimum wage hike in Los Angeles to $13.25 an hour. Does the plan do enough to appease unions and labor leaders? Also, The leak of celebrity nude photos stolen from iCloud storage sparks concern about privacy and cyber security. Then, writer Chris Farrell delves into the phenomenon led by Americans who are redefining what it means to live, age, and work.
Mayor Garcetti: $13.25 minimum wage would bolster buying power, boost productivity
Mayor Eric Garcetti is pitching a minimum wage hike for workers in Los Angeles. The goal is to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 an hour, phased in over three years.
Critics are concerned about the effect on payroll and job retention within L.A., with some major business groups argue that higher wages could drive jobs and businesses outside of the city.
While many proponents advocate higher wages, there has been criticism even within that camp that Garcetti’s proposal doesn’t raise the minimum wage enough. Unions have been pushing for an immediate increase to $15 per hour. That proposed wage increase would immediately boost the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $10.25/hr from the current $8/hr, with a $1.50 increase each following year until inflation-based boosts began in 2017.
Garcetti joined AirTalk Tuesday to talk about his proposal. Here's an excerpt:
Interview Highlights
Larry Mantle: You see the city's overall economy benefiting. How do you see it beyond the benefit to the workers themselves?
Mayor Eric Garcetti: We looked at this proposal — which is a reasoned and reasonable proposal — that would add about $6 billion to our local economy. Most economists are saying that the recovery is lagging simply because you have no buying power at the bottom end of the spectrum. And the good news is American workers are more productive than they've ever been. Over the last three and half decades, we've seen productivity go up double digits. The top of the wage ladder: People have seen their wages go up by 17 percent. But at the bottom end, they've actually seen a reduction by 12 percent.
People are falling further and further behind, working more and more jobs. And poverty is bad for the city; poverty is bad for business and it represents now over a quarter of the population of the city. So it's important for us to make sure we reward hard work and help them keep up and to spur the economy with the added benefits of that spending power...
LM: If it is stimulative, why not raise it even more?
EG: At a certain point, that is a reasonable question. We think this is a great proposal because without doing anything, we're stuck where we are. But you can go too high and there is a point where people would see job displacement, would lose jobs. But we had economists from UC Berkeley — who are the experts in the country on this — release a report, which is available on our city's website (if you go to lamayor.org/raisethewagela). You can see that this would not disrupt the economy; it would be a net gain across the board...
LM: Are you concerned that a nearly 50 percent wage increase is going to cost jobs?
EG: Given where the state is going to already increase the minimum wage, it's about a 33 percent increase over the following three years.
[...] When you look at this, raising the wage helps reduce worker turnover — days that workers take off. It increases productivity, stability and it lowers recruiting and training costs. It really adds prosperity to the overall business and I think the canard that employment of low wage workers will decline has been disproven.
LM: If you're coming from an industry where this is your bread and butter — you run convenience stores, fast-food outlets, hospitality services — this is a significant hit.
EG: There's no question that what we have now doesn't work. Sixteen thousand dollars. When you work full-time — even doubling that with a couple kids — you can't live on two minimum wage jobs. And they're not just jobs for kids anymore, entry-level jobs. We have about 567,000 Angelenos who reply on minimum wage to support themselves and their families.
I would kind of flip the question a bit, which is to say, right now we are subsidizing poverty when we have companies that come in and pay the minimum wage for fast food or for retail. We are essentially subsidizing that poverty with food stamps, emergency room visits and all the things that happen. Let alone the social costs when a parent can't come home and spend time with their kid to go over homework — and we wonder why our schools are failing and other things.
This interview has been edited. To hear it in its entirety, click on "Listen Now" above.
Guests:
Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles
Gary Toebben, President, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
NLRB’s move to redefine “joint” employer could mean huge impact for temps and freelancers
The National Labor Relations Board is considering changes to its definition of what constitutes a “joint employer,” reports the Wall Street Journal. The move could impact millions of temp and freelance workers.
The reconsideration is spurred by two cases. The first one involves McDonald’s and its franchisees, which were charged with violating the rights of certain workers. The NRLB agreed with some of the complaints and ruled that the corporation should be considered a “joint employer” in the case. The ruling means that McDonald’s, along with its franchises, would be subjected to legal actions the agency plans to file. The second case involves a California waste management company that employs contract workers through an Arizona-based temp agency. A Teamster union has asked the NRLB to consider the California firm to be deemed a “joint employer,” which requires the company to be part of contract and wage negotiations for those workers.
Opponents say a change in definition would have huge impact on all kinds of businesses; it’s been estimated that 3 million contract and temp workers are used in the US economy weekly. Unions say Big Business is inflating the potential impact.
Guest:
Melanie Trottman, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal who’s been following the story
Celebrity nude photo hack brings to question safety of cloud storage
The leak of celebrity nude photos stolen from iCloud storage has sparked concern about privacy issues and cybersecurity. The large cache of photos include pictures of actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst, model Kate Upton, and others.
While some of the women claim that the photos are fake, several have confirmed their legitimacy: Jennifer Lawrence called the hack and release a “flagrant violation” of her privacy.
The incident has prompted an investigation by Apple into its own security and by the FBI into the identity (or identities) of the hackers, who may have been motivated by bitcoin payments. Meanwhile, across the internet, commenters are weighing in on privacy concerns, debating the ethics of viewing the photos, and attempting to find a responsible party.
To keep your information safe, Jeff Schilling, chief security officer at FireHost, recommends having a full understanding of what you're sharing on the cloud.
"As they set up these applications on their phones, they're just kind of clicking through the settings that ask, 'Do you want to use the cloud for this?'" he said. "I think that people need to become more personally educated on what exactly they are enabling on their phone when they take pictures."
Here are some tips to help keep your information safe:
- Have a complex password: Schilling says having a strong password is key. Hackers will attempt to break into an account using a list of the 500 most popular passwords, so making your password complex can be a great first step. You can also opt for two-step verification of your identity. A hacker who has your password will also need to a have a code that is sent to your phone or email inbox, so as long as the hacker does not have your phone, your account will stay secure.
- Opt out of cloud usage: Simply check your settings if you are unsure if you agreed to store information with iCloud. iPhones will have the photo stream option set to on if their photos are being stored in the cloud. On Android phones, check the Auto Backup settings under Google+ in Google Settings.
- Delete photos from your phone or device: Most cloud services will delete information from storage once they are deleted from your device, as long as the device is synced with the cloud service. You can also log in to the cloud service's website to check out what is being stored, technology analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy says.
Guests:
Jeff Schilling, Chief Security Officer at FireHost, a cyber security firm in Texas that focuses on data and cloud security
Mary Anne Franks, Associate Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law. Her research and teaching interests include cyberlaw, self-defense, discrimination, free speech and privacy
Sacramento legislation that survived the last days of session
Among the most contentious bills debated late into the legislative session was a package of laws regulating the pumping of groundwater in California.
As reported by The San Jose Mercury News, Democrats pushed forward the measure over objections from lawmakers who represent farmers struggling through the drought with the help of pumping groundwater.
Another environmentally-minded bill awaiting Governor Jerry Brown's signature is a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags.
As for labor laws, a bill requiring three paid sick days annually was amended to exclude In-Home Supportive Services workers. That caused the Democratic bill to lose some union support, but the alteration reportedly saves it from veto.
What fate is expected for the other last-minute legislation?
Guests:
Katie Orr, State Government Reporter, Capital Public Radio
Chris Megerian, Sacramento Reporter, Los Angeles Times
Finding purpose after work: How the boomer generation is redefining retirement
While many think of retirement as a destination one arrives at after decades of work, for those in the baby boomer generation, it is often just a beginning.
In the new book, Unretirement,” writer and economics commentator Chris Farrell delves into the phenomenon led by an estimated 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, who are redefining what it means to live, age, and work.
Many in the group, Farrell finds, are extending their post-retirement working lives as entrepreneurs, contract workers and volunteers, and he examines the societal and economic impact of this new movement.
Guest:
Chris Farrell, writer and contributor to Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Minneapolis Star Tribune and author of Unretirement (Bloomsbury Press, 2014). He is also economics contributor for the public radio show, Marketplace.