I Left My Wallet In San Francisco (Part 2)
I've written before about San Francisco's high minimum wage. Well, it's going up. Effective January 1, 2012, the San Francisco minimum wage goes from $9.92 to $10.24 per hour. According to the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, which enforces the minimum wage ordinance, this figure applies to anyone who, in a particular week, performs two hours of work within the city limits.
I don't begrudge anyone their right to earn a decent living. But if a business that relies on unskilled labor has a choice where to open, wouldn't it avoid a location where it has to pay entry-level employees 28% more than the state minimum wage? For an earlier discussion of jobs leaving the state as a whole, read this.
Update - Here's a December 1, 2011 Huffington Post article about SF's minimum wage and studies discussing the effects of such increases.
