Waging War on $8 Pay

Eli Seagall, reporter of Silicon Valley Business Journal, writes about the campaign; 

"Payroll worries

Mike Mendez, CEO of Mmoon, an empanadas eatery in downtown San Jose, said he already pays his employees $10 per hour. Mendez said he does this in part to attract more job applicants, and he would probably raise their earnings if San Jose voters approve the minimum wage increase.

Nevertheless, he opposes a forced hike. He said he doesn’t think many small business owners could handle a 25 percent jump in payroll, which is typically their largest expense. His restaurant pays $20,000 per month in payroll, and a 25 percent jump — or $5,000 — would be akin to doubling his eatery’s rent, Mendez said.

Moreover, he noted San Jose’s ongoing struggle to attract businesses, as well as the limited parking downtown and the city’s relative lack of retail. The wage increase could be just one more problem.

“You wonder why companies go elsewhere,” he said.

Michael E. Fox Sr., co-owner of San Jose beverage distributor M.E. Fox & Co. Inc., has mixed feelings on the proposal. Fox donated $2,000 to the ballot initiative’s signature-gathering campaign and said he supports a living wage.

However, he now believes the forced increase could have an “adverse effect.” Businesses might leave San Jose, he said, and workers could lose their jobs.

“It may not help the people it was designed to help,” he said."

(sources: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/print-edition/2012/05/25/waging-war-on-8-pay.html?page=all)
If interested in reading the full article go to above link.

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This is just section a of Seagall's article, which can be found on Silicon Valley San Jose Business Journal. I wanted to share this because this has been one of issue which many business owners have fear for as well as people who fear that businesses will move elsewhere if the proposition does pass. The matter of fact is that these fears are not fact proven, they are fears, and it was shown in a study of San Francisco wage increase that these things did not occur.

It's important for us all to understand the bigger picture of this campaign and the bigger picture we are trying to fight for. We believe in reducing the wealth gap, this whole issue of the 1% having hold of all of the wealth is linked to corporate greed, extreme capitalism, and the idea that we, as minority groups, cannot have a share of the wealth we help build. It's not like increasing the wage by an extra $2 will make the working class rich, no, it will not. It's the fact that we want our working class to prosper with more ease, to earn even just a little bit more for their hard work. 

Seagall also writes:"If voters approve the increase, they would make San Jose only the fourth city in the U.S. to have its own municipal minimum-wage law, alongside San Francisco, Santa Fe, N.M., and Washington, D.C."

 This is about us, the community, simply trying to work towards what is righteously ours. We want our community to grow. We've just about had it for Businesses and money driven politicians getting their ways, we want to be heard, and we want people to see the bigger picture this campaign is striving for.


(written by Karla X. Navarro)