IBM lands utility deal in India

TalkBack 5 of 13:: Next »; « Previous

Thread View
Flat View

A tad overstated!: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage for private industry and State and Local government workers in the United States was $17.18 per hour. Federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. It would seem to me that a remarkably small percentage of Americans work for the minimum. Many (though admittedly not all) of those are students working part-time.

Certainly there has been offshoring. Many of those jobs, however, are also primarily minimum wage call center jobs.

If you live in California, however, you are seeing a major outflow of jobs. Some of those are being offshored, but far more of them are being moved elsewhere in the USA. According to the California Chamber of Commerce, about 60% of the net loss of California jobs are being relocated to other places in the USA, with Texas being the largest individual winner. Now why is that?

Are wages lower in Texas? Yes, but not dramatically so. So what is the cause of the loss of California employment? You simply need to look at some of the legislation passed in the last few years, during Gray Davis' administration for the answer. Laws that have dramatically increased the number of frivilous lawsuits filed against small and medium-sized California businesses. California also has the highest Workers Compensation costs in the nation.

Companies are running away from these crazy attorney-enriching laws and heading to a more business-friendly environment.

Those of you who think that being pro-business is being anti-labor are simply wrong. It is the proliferation of anti-business laws and regulations which is damaging employment in California and in the rest of the US. Keep passing more onerous laws, keep watching the jobs leave.; Posted by: vferrara Posted on: 03/26/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use