@TBPInvictus right here
Should you’re bored with California-minimum-wage-and-its-impact-on-limited-service-restaurant-employment tales, I perceive. Depart this web page instantly. I’m bored with it, too, however some tales are so factually challenged that they demand a response. So, permit me to handle a scorching mess of a story that appeared just lately within the California Globe. Within the curiosity of your time and my sanity, I’m going to attempt to confine myself to the worst of the story’s atrocities. Strap in.
Proper up prime, we now have the lede:
Earlier in June, the Globe reported that California has misplaced just below 10,000 quick meals jobs because the new $20 minimal wage for quick meals workers was first signed into legislation late final 12 months, in accordance with the California Enterprise and Industrial Alliance (CABIA).
CABIA cited knowledge and a report from the Hoover Establishment at Stanford College.
The “earlier in June” report was fatally flawed. That was detailed by us right here and, subsequently, by Michael Hiltzik right here. Actually, the writer on the Hoover Establishment – Lee Ohanian – recanted upon studying that the info within the Wall St. Journal on which he’d relied was not seasonally adjusted.
Up to now, there’s no follow-up for the badly-mistaken, relying-on-recanted-evidence, uncorrected Globe story. However wait, there’s extra:
The Globe spoke with Rebekah Paxton Friday morning in regards to the Bureau of Labor Statistics studies, for clarification.
“Yesterday, they put out a press launch claiming that California’s quick meals business has added each month this 12 months,” Paxton mentioned. “The fact is that California misplaced over 2,500 quick meals jobs since January 2024, when taking a look at seasonally adjusted knowledge.
Ms. Paxton, to her nice credit score (/sarc), apparently has enough smarts to know that seasonally adjusted knowledge ought to be the main target. Child steps.
On to the alleged proof of Newsom’s catastrophe:
Month Variety of Jobs Change in Jobs Jan 2024 742,326 1,050 Feb 2024 741,822 -503 Mar 2024 739,792 -2,031 Apr 2024 739,850 59 Could 2024 739,804 -46 When utilizing January 2024 as an alternative of January 2023, there’s certainly a lack of over 2,500 jobs in simply that 5 month interval.
For starters, January looks like a considerably random start line — the legislation was signed final September and took impact this April. So, January to Could feels a bit arbitrary, however hey, its when the 12 months began.
However right here’s the query: Have “over 2,500 jobs in simply that 5-month interval” been misplaced? No, expensive reader. They haven’t. The Globe, amazingly, can not even sum a column of 5 small numbers.
We’ve precisely two prints because the legislation took impact — April and Could. They present a internet achieve of a statistically insignificant 13 jobs added. There have been 2k shed in March. Was that associated to the minimal wage? We merely have no idea; there are at all times myriad components at play in our dynamic labor market. What ought to occur right here — however gained’t — is that we wait, patiently, and gather loads of extra knowledge from which we will – perhaps – make some inferences.
We transfer on to:
Paxton advised the Globe that the true job losses started the day the Legislature handed the $20 minimal wage hike invoice. That will clarify why the Hoover Establishment compiled the ten,000 quick meals job losses.
Why would anybody hearth a employee in September to keep away from a wage improve 7 months later? This makes little sense.
What occurred as an alternative is the tip of the summer time begins the seasonally weakest interval EVERY YEAR. The Hoover Establishment’s since-retracted declare that the writer relied on, and extrapolated from, was merely a foul quantity that appeared within the WSJ in March. (“Ohanian acknowledged by electronic mail that “if the info aren’t seasonally adjusted, then no conclusions will be drawn from these knowledge relating to AB 1228,” aka the minimal wage legislation.”)
Gov. Newsom and his employees together with Brandon, are choosing numbers and months to serve Newsom’s personal false narrative.
That is straight-up fiction. Newsom and his employees tried to set the report straight. It was the Journal, then Hoover, then CABIA, that did all the cherry-picking, and used a foul set of numbers to do it.
A bit out of sequence, however price mentioning: The Globe took a gratuitous swipe at LA Instances columnist Michael Hiltzik, who’d adopted our work right here with a chunk of his personal, citing a few tweets on the matter (mixed right here):
Only one downside right here, Gavin: The @latimes received its knowledge blended up. You despatched reporter Michael Hiltzik knowledge from 2023 to indicate that fast-food employment is up. The wage hike occurred Apr 1 2024. That’s not even math. That’s simply with the ability to learn a calendar. @GovPressOffice. The @latimes‘ Michael Hiltzik is among the many worst reporters in California, and proves it once more right here: Cites knowledge from final 12 months to show that fast-food employment is up this 12 months, regardless of @GavinNewsom‘s wage hike. His numbers aren’t faux, simply mistaken 12 months. Might occur to anybody with the title “Michael Hiltzik.” @GovPressOffice
Hiltzik (who had been despatched nothing from Newsom) had — fairly appropriately, because the knowledge weren’t seasonally adjusted — appeared on the numbers on a year-over-year foundation and concluded:
As of April, employment within the limited-service restaurant sector that features fast-food institutions was greater by almost 7,000 jobs than it was in April 2023, months earlier than Newsom signed the minimal wage invoice.
Michael was taking a look at a Could classic of not seasonally adjusted knowledge when he wrote his June 12 piece, and the year-over-year achieve at the moment was, actually, “almost 7,000 jobs.”
Now, you would possibly anticipate a good media outlet to make a bunch of corrections or pull the piece solely. However you’ll word I used the phrase “respected,” so don’t maintain your breath.
On a associated word, I had an electronic mail alternate with a Tony Lima (who on a facet word undoubtedly needs you to know that he received a Ph.D. from Stanford) a couple of piece he posted right here. He tried — and failed miserably — to take Michael Hiltzik to process for his latest column: “There are three issues with Hiltzik’s evaluation.” [Narrator: There were not]. I conveyed that to Professor Physician Lima in painstaking element. He then invited me to have the controversy in public (whereas semi-obsessing about my identification):
I took Physician Professor Lima up on his provide, and posted my correct critique of his work on Twitter, instantly after which this occurred:
So, Professor Lima, PhD, simply know that I’m round – my Twitter deal with and have my electronic mail tackle – when you ever wish to proceed our dialogue.
