Investor’s Business Daily (10/15/13) Jed Graham

California’s minimum wage increase to $9 per hour in July 2014 and $10 in January 2016, coupled with the Affordable Care Act’s employer penalties, is expected to increase employer labor costs associated with the state’s lowest-paid workers by 50% or more per hour by 2016. The ACA employer mandate could add about $2.58 per hour to the pretax cost of a full-time minimum-wage worker.

Some employers are expected to avoid added labor costs under the ACA by making full-time workers part-time, and at least a dozen employers in the state have plans to cut hours or staffing levels in response to the law.