Istook Insight: Should government dictate raises for fast-food workers?
Published: August 1st, 2015
Should government dictate raises for fast-food workers?
New York has guaranteed $15 an hour for fast-food workers, without requiring any elected officials to vote on it.
Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed a special board that says wages must be $15 an hour by 2018 for fast-food workers in New York City, and everyplace else by 2021.
Curiously, if you dig ditches, clean hotel rooms, mop floors, or clean-out sewers, New York’s minimum wage stays at $8.75 an hour. Don’t expect fairness or logic in this; the mandate is purely a reward for fast-food political activists and protestors.
There is no guarantee that customers will get a better hamburger or faster service by setting a fast-food minimum wage of $15 an hour. The only guarantee is that it will cost you more. With or without fries.