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    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    The Underground Economy and the Minimum Wage

    The Los Angeles City Council is debating today whether to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2020 -- considerably higher than either the state or federal requirement. We commonly think of people making the minimum wage as the lowest paid workers; it is the MINIMUM wage, after all.

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    By Madeleine Brand • May 19, 2015 • 1 min read

    The Los Angeles City Council is debating today whether to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2020 -- considerably higher than either the state or federal requirement. We commonly think of people making the minimum wage as the lowest paid workers; it is the MINIMUM wage, after all. But one study suggests that a third of all workers in Los Angeles actually make less than the minimum wage. How can that be?

    The full episode

    1 of 5
    L.A. Minimum Wage Vote, Getting People to Save Water, and Mammoth Clones
    1. 0:00The Underground Economy and the Minimum WageYou’re reading this
    2. 10:47Immigration Courts Face Unprecedented Backlog
    3. 19:37Getting People to Save Water: What Works?
    4. 28:21De-Extinction: Will Scientists Really Clone the Woolly Mammoth?
    5. 44:53The Valley's Restaurant Scene Heats Up
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Madeleine Brand

      Host, 'Press Play'

    • KCRW placeholder

      Jolie Myers

      Managing Producer, 'Press Play'

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Matt Holzman

      Producer, 'The Document'

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Anna Scott

      Former KCRW Housing and Homelessness Reporter

    • KCRW placeholder

      Tia Koonse

      UCLA Labor Center

      News

    The full episode

    1 of 5
    L.A. Minimum Wage Vote, Getting People to Save Water, and Mammoth Clones
    1. 0:00The Underground Economy and the Minimum WageYou’re reading this
    2. 10:47Immigration Courts Face Unprecedented Backlog
    3. 19:37Getting People to Save Water: What Works?
    4. 28:21De-Extinction: Will Scientists Really Clone the Woolly Mammoth?
    5. 44:53The Valley's Restaurant Scene Heats Up
    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand