As those two highprofile efforts play out in two of the nations most populaced states, were asking our viewers to weigh in. Should the minimum wage be raised to 15 an hour . If your answer is yes, should it be done on a statebystate basis or as a federal increase . Special lines this morning on the washington journal, minimum wage earners can call in at 2027488000. Business owners, the number is 2027488001. All others can call in this morning at 2027488002. You can also catch up with us on social media, on twitter, its cspanwj. On facebook, its facebook. Com cspan. A very good thursday morning. The minimum wage increase legislation thats moving through californias legislature is moving quickly this week after that deal was struck early in the week between governor jerry brown and legislators in that state. Heres the l. A. Times talking about the status of that legislation this morning. The plan sailed out of committee yesterday with broad support from democrats and is scheduled for a floor vote in the assembly on thursday morning, today. The bill is expected to have an easier time in the senate and supporters are expecting to possibly send the bill to governor jerry brown today. Heres what the plan would do. Under the plan, the states hourly minimum wage would increase 50 cents from its current 10 an hour on january 1 to 11 an hour the following year, and then increase by 1 annually until 2022, though brown and his successor could delay the increase by a year if the economy falters. Businesses with fewer than 26 employees would get an additional year to comply. Then the minimum wage would increase annually based on inflation. Heres some of the background on the legislation. Brown negotiated the package after two labor unions gathered signatures for November Ballot measures that would increase the wage on a more aggressive time table. The governor touted his plan as a compromise that can be adjusted for changing economic conditions. Thats the news thats running through california this week. Also a push in new york as well, as we said, Governor Andrew Cuomo with his own increase, his own package that hes trying to push, this according to syracuse. Com. Governor andrew cuomo said tuesday that the legislatures leaders agreed with him that there should be a minimum wage increase in new york, but state budget negotiations are continuing over the amount and phasein periods for different regions of the state. Minimum wage, the same thing. We all agree there will be a minimum wage increase. Now were discussing how much and by when and when, said cuomo, who wants the minimum wage to gradually be hiked to 15 an hour. So those are two of the highprofile efforts that are moving. We want to hear your thoughts this morning on the washington journal. Should the minimum wage be 15 an hour . Again, minimum wage earners, 2027488000. Business owners, 2027488001. All others, 2027488002. Charles lane in this mornings Washington Post lays out the case against increases in minimum wage, or at least an increase to 15 an hour, as much a large jump. He writes in his column today, the basic tradeoff is that the increased earnings that a higher minimum wage gives workers at the low end of the income scale might be offset by pricing those workers out of jobs that they could have had at less than the new, higher minimum wage increase. E writes host thats the debate we want to talk about today. Business owners, want to you call in. Minimum wage earners, want to you call in, have special lines for you. All others, its 2027488002. Well start with Business Owners, craig is in louisiana. Craig, good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, craig. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Your thoughts on a 15 minimum wage . Caller yes. What was the question again . Host would you support a minimum wage increase of 15 an hour . Caller no. No, sir, i wouldnt. Host why is that, craig . What kind of business do you own . How would it impact you . Caller basically right now the il field is in poor shape, and a person go to school and get a further education when youre paying them 15 an hour. You know, thats minimum wage was set up for people to get started and get their education and what they want, not to support a family for, you know, youve got to try to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and its not the fault of the government where you can make six figures on minimum wage. Im just using that as an example. Host craig, how many people work at your shop, and how many are on minimum wage . Caller i have four people now, man, because the oil field is shut down. Host and if today increase the minimum wage to 15 an hour for those employees, would you have to lay anyone off . Caller well, the employees i have now are getting paid better than 15 an hour, but i couldnt hire any helpers around the shop for 15 an hour, because it wouldnt support them. Host craig, appreciate the call this morning. James is calling in from buffalo, kentucky. That line for all others. James, good morning. Caller yes, thanks for taking my call. You know, on the 15 wage increase, its a real bad shame that our country has fallen to such a new low. Ack when i was a kid, the jobs , the minimum wage jobs for kids, our congress, our president , all sent us down the river without a paddle. D the thing about it is, the democrats would vote for trump so you could give them 5 and a fruit basket and they probably would vote for trump, because they react well for free stuff. And no, it shouldnt be no they should just set there and create jobs and bring our jobs back from overseas. Those are kid jobs, and the foreigners coming in here, mexicans and stuff, thats what they want. They want the 15 an hour. Were taking theyre taking the kids jobs. So, no, it shouldnt be. Thank you and have a nice day. Host thats james in buffalo, new york, this morning. Heres a map that shows the state of minimum wages in the United States. The green states on this map are states that have minimum wages higher than the federal rate, the 7. 25 an hour. All the other colors are states that have minimum wages at the same or lower than or no minimum wage than the federal law. The floor is the federal rate in those states, that 7. 25 an hour. But the green states are states that have wages higher than the federal rate. Again, california looking to increase theirs to 15 an hour over the next six years. And the l. A. Teams, which has been covering this story all week in all the california papers, been very closely following the story, has a chart this morning about who would be impacted the most with that 15 an hour wage increase. The share of workers who would get a raise under this proposal if it went through, 16 of retail workers in california, 15 of restaurant and food service workers, 8 of health workers, 7 of administrative and Waste Management workers, 6 of educational workers, and so on down the line. Those numbers coming from the u. C. Berkeley center for Labor Research and education. You can check out that graphic at the l. A. Times website. Rich is a Business Owner from centreville, virginia. Rich, good morning. Youre on the washington journal. Caller good morning. How are you . Host im good. Caller just a quick point. A Business Owner pays payroll tax, or a portion of the payroll tax. So if you imagine taking somebodys wage from, say, 7 to 15 an hour, the Business Owners share the payroll tax thats going to double. For me, as an example, i pay 1,000 a week in payroll taxes for my employees. So if they double the wages, say i just employed, you know, entrylevel workers, which i dont, but all the sudden it goes to 2,000 a week, thats somebody else you could have employed or paid down debt or so on and so for the. Then the other point is well, two quick points. The other point would be, so what happens to my guy if hes making 15 an hour right before the minimum wage goes up . All the sudden he feels like he should be making more because hes worth more than an entrylevel worker. And my last point is, it would be great if you guys could do a show or at least get somebody on to talk about payroll taxes, because thats something that the employers pay. The employers dont even know about it. And im not even sure why the hell we have to pay them. So thank you. Thank you for taking my time. Host thanks for the suggestion. Good topic for us to get into here on the washington journal. Well take the suggestion. Tom is up next in los angeles, california. Tom, good morning, on that line for all others. Caller good morning. Listen, im a senior, ok . This 15 an hour is a political thing. It allows the illegals that we have here to stay here. We have places in los angeles where it created stpwhrones to give people who dont where it created zones to give people who dont speak english. Its a political thing. Its put together by the unions. You have workers who are in the restaurant business, your dishwasher, minimum wage is an entrylevel. Its not a living wage. Its a wage to start on and move up. Its done primarily by jerry brown, the unions in l. A. Its going to be you think mcdonalds can stay in business . In san francisco, theyre already experimenting where you go in, you talk to a computer, you pa the computer, and you go pick up your food. This is going to cut down on business, and its not beneficial to anybody except the Democratic Party in california. We really dont need it. We want educated people to earn 15 an hour, and we want something that makes common sense. Like i said, its all politics. Host tom, you mentioned mcdonalds. A story that is from the Associated Press talking about new demonstrations happening at mcdonalds, this in northjersey. Com, running the Associated Press story. Mcdonalds customers stopping in for a big mac on the eve of tax day may be greeted by demonstrators calling for a pay and labor Union Organizers say theyre planning another day of strikes and protests exclusively targeting Mcdonalds Stores in dozens of cities on april 14, following similar demonstrations outside of a variety of fast food restaurants a year ago. The fight for 15 campaign has been at the heart of these efforts to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers. The fight for 15 campaign, as the Associated Press notes, is being backed by the Service Employees international union. For april 14, organizers say theyre focusing on mcdonalds because of its size and ability to influence Pay Practices throughout the economy, that according to the story. Getting your thoughts, should the minimum wage be 15 an hour . And if so, if you support it, should it be done on a statebystate basis . Should it be done by raising the federal minimum wage . Lets go to that line for minimum wage earners, special line for you this morning, 202748800. Ruth is on that line, michigan. Ruth, good morning. Caller good morning. Yeah, i dont think it should be raised. This is the reason why. Every time they raise anything, that means the prices of the food goes up, the prices of the gasoline goes up. So it really doesnt give us an increase. What they need to do is start fixing the prices of everything to get things back in order. Right now, anybody can raise every price that theyve got, from Health Insurance to medicines and everything like that. That is what is making it impossible for everybody to live on, no matter, you know i mean, when i was working, i made good money. Im on social security. We havent had even a 1 increase in the last three years, but yet look at all the increases and all the other prices. This is what is causing most of the problems. Host ruth, you used to be a minimum wage earner . Youre retired now . Caller yeah. Im on social security. No, i was above a minimum wage earner, but the thing is, it doesnt matter, because between the taxes and the price increase on everything, its ridiculous. Host minimum wage in michigan, where ruth is calling in from, 8. 50 legislation already passed to move the minimum wage up in that state to 8. 90 on january 1 of 2017, and 9. 25 on january 1 of 2018. Those numbers coming from the National Conference of state legislatures. Its ncsl. Org if you want to check out all the information they have on minimum wages in the various states. Michelle on that line for all others, minneapolis, minnesota, your thoughts on raising the National Minimum wage or state minimum wages to 15 an hour. Caller hi there. Good morning. Its a very sad subject when people sound as if a minimum wage is some great target. I mean, no one raises their child to say, hey, i just cant wait until you graduate high school and dont get any additional skills and get a minimum wage job and stay there for life. Im going to sound like most of your other callers this morning. Minimum wage was its for young people. The key here is that we have to there shouldnt be a 30yearold working at a counter in mcdonalds. That 30yearold should have had built their skill sets. Jobs are based on skills. Employers cant afford employers have Different Levels of jobs in their corporation based on skills, and the goal is to get everybodys skills to a point where they can get a better job. I mean, the goal is not a minimum wage job. I dont know how youre going to raise a family on a minimum wage. I dont even know frankly, im single, and i make 40 an hour, and i live comfortably, yes, but i mean, the goal is to get people educated. And youre want going to have these employers youre not going to have these employers who call in, they cant afford 15 an hour for a young kid, your young kids out of high school, i mean, 16, 17yearolds. How are they going to get a parttime job in the summertime if an employer has to pay them 15 an hour . Theyre just not going to do it. And i agree with the gentleman that called. Unfortunately, its the people at mcdonalds that are going to protest, but those people are going to be replaced by terminals, and thats just the way it is. Its very sad, and i dont know what the answer is, but the goal is not to grow up and keep a minimum wage job. Those are entrylevel jobs, and probably exitlevel. Host michelle, got your point. On the issue of younger people being the ones who benefit most, heres some more numbers from that u. C. Berkeley center for Labor Research and education. These were the numbers that were shared with the state Assembly Committee that took this issue up yesterday that passed this on a mostly party line vote, though not completely party line vote. In terms of who gets a raise with the 15 minimum wage, the one that would kick in in california over the next six years, 18 to 19yearolds, about 3. 9 of those who would get an increase are 18 to 19yearolds. 37. 8 of those who would get an increase are 20 to 29yearolds. 21. 8 of those who would get an increase are 30 to 39yearold. 6. 1 are 40 to 54yearold. And then 55 to 64yearolds make up about 10. 4 of those who would get an increase under this legislation thats moving through the California State Legislature. In terms of ethnicity of those who would get an increase, 54. 8 would be latino. 25. 1 white. 12. 7 asian. 4. 8 black. If you want to check out the story, its latimes. Com. Theyve been covering this and covering the numbers that have been coming up from the u. C. Berkeley study and others. Minimum wage earners have a special line this morning, 2027488000. Sandra is on that line from florida. Sandra, good morning. Caller good morning. Host good morning, sandra. What do you think . Should the minimum wage be 15 an hour . Caller yes. And id like to see yall out front passing out hamburgers for 15 an hour. Host sandra, what do you do . Youre on our line for minimum wage earners. I have ave therefore, i cant work, but i still say yall being out in front and work like they do. Host ok, thats sandra in florida this morning. Mannys on that line that we have set aside for Business Owners this morning, Daytona Beach, florida. Manny, good morning. Caller good morning. Yes, i own a bookstore in Daytona Beach, and i used to be a manager up a department store, so i know quite a bit about this. And what happens, in a department store, people just divide the sales by a certain percentage that the company allows, and then thats divided by how much people make. So like in my business, you know, i think the way to do it, i have an opportunity where my people can make more money if they perform, but to just say to give somebody 15 an hour, if i had to give people 15 an ur woit, say, like a bonus base an hour without, say, like a bonus, i would have to close. So there was a company out i think its called lincoln welding company, and i think this is what the United States should go toward, is that they ve the employees a part of how the company does. In other words, what im saying, it has to be a winwin. It seems like these days everybody wants to kill the corporations, and the corporations are the people that make the jobs, and small businesses, it should be winwin, not lets tax the crap out of business. Host ok, thanks for the call from Daytona Beach this morning. One of our earlier callers said this was a political stunt. Politicians weighing in on the california increase in the state of the federal minimum wage, democrats especially supporting this increase in california and an increase in the federal wage as well. Barbara lee, Congress Woman from california, well known Congress Woman, been in congress a long time, writes on her twitter page this week, people working fulltime shouldnt have to live in poverty. Californias fight for 15 is a step toward a living wage. And then theres congressman maloney, a democrat from new york, again, where this effort is being pushed, no one who works fulltime should be living in poverty. Im a proud ally in the fight for 15. President ial candidates weighing in as well. Hillary clinton with a tweet this week after that deal was announced in california, raising californias minimum wage to 15 an hour is a big win for workers and fight for 15 organizers. I applaud california and other states wo