Nevada recently increased its minimum wage and the results aren’t uniformly nice. The Las Vegas Review-Journal writes:
Several Nevada nonprofit organizations received grim news Friday that could affect their ability to offer jobs to disabled people. Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek told representatives of the nonprofits that he sees no way to exempt them from a new minimum wage law that took effect last month.
Organizations including Southern Nevada’s Opportunity Village and Easter Seals previously have been allowed to pay disabled clients based on the amount of work they can perform in an hour, called piece-work, instead of a set wage. The recent voter-approved boost in the minimum wage, which raises it to $6.15 an hour for employers who don’t provide health insurance, makes no exemption for piece-work.
Ed Guthrie, Opportunity Village’s executive director, said he hoped to be granted an exemption based on the fact that the organization’s disabled workers are not considered employees by the Internal Revenue Service. But Tanchek said he sees no way around the new Nevada law, other than through another voter-approved constitutional amendment.
Hat tip: Wilson Mixon at DivisionofLabour
This is what happens when politics interferes with the price system.
