From the L.A. Times.
Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces. . . .
“With a collective bargaining agreement, a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both. The agreement allows each party to prioritize what is important to them,” Hicks said in a statement. “This provision gives the parties the option, the freedom, to negotiate that agreement. And that is a good thing.”
Commenters on that site and elsewhere point out that this is a device to increase unionization, if employers have reason to believe that the union will be compliant and agree to a lower wage, leaving workers with, yes, a job maybe that wouldn’t have existed otherwise, but also union dues to pay. And the logic? Why should unions be able to agree to a way lower than the statutory minimum, but not individuals? After all, the purpose of a minimum wage is not to protect workers from Evil Employers, but from each other — to prevent some workers from underbidding others in terms of the wages they’d accept.