Unions Fight for 15 for everyone but them. 

The battle for an increase in the minimum wage has been aggressively fought by the Left for the past several years. Leading the charge has been none other than the purse of the Democratic Party: Big Labor.

Ignoring the negative economic repercussions that accompany raising the minimum wage – job losses, and more part-time and less full-time positions – there is a less talked-about problem.

Unions are lobbying, in some areas successfully, to be exempt from the minimum wage increases they previously championed. It is not because they had a change of heart or finally understand basic economics.  Rather they want to give themselves an advantage by manipulating labor costs.

Tom Blumer from NewsBusters reported on this hypocrisy by speculating on why the press has been largely silent:

 The issue is whether union workers should be exempt from minimum wage laws, especially the sky-high minimums being enacted in some U.S. cities. To those who have been unaware of the issue up until now and are thinking that all of this must be a joke — it's not. It's just that the press, which not coincidentally has a higher percentage of union members than the private sector as a whole, has barely noted it.

If the unions are able to secure a higher labor cost for everyone but themselves, they gain an unfair advantage.  Not only does the rest of the labor market have to face the economic reality, but unions also benefit trying to organize new businesses as they could negotiate a lower starting salary with management. They make themselves look better by pricing everyone else out of the conversation.

Joining a union also suddenly becomes more attractive to the workers if it means actually having a job. Non-unionized businesses would have to make cuts to meet the new payroll demands that big labor wouldn’t have to.

If unions really believed minimum wage hikes are good for workers they would not exempt union workers. But the truth is that they are just manipulating costs in their favor, just like all cartels.