Janet Napolitano was not only a corrupt, lousy head of Homeland Security, but she is also a corrupt, lousy university president. She announced that the university would raise the minimum wage at the university to 15 dollars an hour and that all contractors with contracts with UC Berkely would also have to pay all workers 15 dollars an hour. At the time, it was announced that the increase in wages would be paid through money earned through their bookstores and food services. No mention of any layoffs.
The bottom line boils down to economics. The university lost 109 million in 2015 and is on pace to lose 150 million this year. How else were they going to pay for the raises, not to mention the greatly increased costs from all of their suppliers, who were forced to pay the higher wage, not to mention the cost of providing yearly audits on their payroll?
Last year, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced plans to boost its minimum wage to $15 at the start of next school year, independent of the state law.Since UC Berkeley was already in financial trouble — it ran a $109 million deficit last year and is projecting a deficit of $150 million this year — number crunchers there had to have factored in the higher mandated wage when making their layoff decisions.
Those workers might want to have a chat with the folks at UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research, who just days before Brown signed the wage-hike bill released a study touting the minimum wage as a boon to low-income household breadwinners.
After that report came out, Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley center, told the Los Angeles Times, “This is a very big deal for low-wage workers in California, for their families and for their children.”
This is just another example of liberal ignorance running wild. I always get a kick out of it when voters pass the higher minimum wage laws just to find out they will lose their jobs and that it is almost impossible to find another one. The liberal elites don’t mind though. They still have their job.