Speaker 1: An insane new law from California Democrat politicians just went
Speaker 1: into effect, creating a minimum wage for goat herding. Goat
Speaker 1: herders are now going to earn Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1: A quarter million dollars each per year under this new
Speaker 1: minimum wage. I'm not making this up. It's really coming up.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you all about the law and why it
Speaker 1: reflects the insanity and the extremism of today's Democrat politician
Speaker 1: in California. Perfect textbook example of why Democrats know nothing
Speaker 1: about how to manage an economy. Their ideas sound nice
Speaker 1: on paper and practice higher costs, fewer jobs, a worse
Speaker 1: environment for us all. I'm Carl Demio, chairman of Reform
Speaker 1: California in a California state representative, and I never thought
Speaker 1: I'd be talking about a minimum wage for goat herders.
Speaker 1: But this is a big deal. Let me give you
Speaker 1: this headline. We can just get right into it. Goat
Speaker 1: herders are about to get a massive salary increase. Oh
Speaker 1: but there's a catch. After this law goes into effect,
Speaker 1: if it stays in effect, there will be no goat
Speaker 1: goat herding in the state of California. Here's the headline,
Speaker 1: California relies on goats to combat fires. A wage change
Speaker 1: threatens the industry. So what happened was Assembly Built ten
Speaker 1: sixty six was passed about fifteen years ago, and it
Speaker 1: basically was backed by the labor unions. They said farm
Speaker 1: workers weren't being paid enough money, and so for overtime
Speaker 1: and minimum wage, this law needs to go into effect
Speaker 1: to make sure all of the farm workers are getting
Speaker 1: more money. Now you know my point of view on
Speaker 1: minimum wage and labor and our standards. I believe the
Speaker 1: market should regulate that, not government. Government when it gets involved,
Speaker 1: usually creates higher costs and the result is lower numbers
Speaker 1: of jobs. It just decimates industries, and of course you
Speaker 1: pay a higher cost. This law on goat herding is
Speaker 1: a perfect example of my argument as to why minimum
Speaker 1: wages typically hurt people who are trying to earn money.
Speaker 1: Assembly Build ten sixty six regulates farm worker earnings, but
Speaker 1: there was an exemption put in years ago for goat herding.
Speaker 1: Sheep hurting, by the way, is not covered under Assembly
Speaker 1: Build ten sixty six, So if you're a sheep herder,
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay over time and comply with
Speaker 1: all these rules The nature of sheepherding and goat herding,
Speaker 1: which I had to do some research in order to
Speaker 1: do this podcast, is that the sheep herder or the
Speaker 1: goat herder stays with the flock, with the herd twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven. That's the nature of the work. And
Speaker 1: so when someone is hired to be a goat or
Speaker 1: sheep herder, they spend all this time with their their
Speaker 1: their their their herd, and the company that hires them
Speaker 1: pays them a wage, and it's a good wage but
Speaker 1: basically covers all their living expenses, their room, their board,
Speaker 1: their food, their transportation. They get a company car. It
Speaker 1: is a pretty good job. And a lot of the
Speaker 1: workers who are goat or sheep herders are actually people
Speaker 1: who've come in to this country as immigrants under the
Speaker 1: H two to a Work program, the VISA program. Well,
Speaker 1: now we're finding that the Assembly Built ten sixty six
Speaker 1: minimum wage requirements and overtime requirements will now kick in.
Speaker 1: And as a result of that July first, the law
Speaker 1: went into effect. Goat grazing companies say the expiration of
Speaker 1: the exemption of Assembly Build ten sixty six for a
Speaker 1: goat herding will result in an annual salary of two
Speaker 1: hundred and forty thousand dollars per goat herder because of
Speaker 1: all these overtime requirements, because remember they have to be
Speaker 1: with the herd twenty four to seven. And they've said
Speaker 1: that if this stays into effect, these higher labor costs
Speaker 1: means that they're going to have to switch from goats
Speaker 1: to sheep, shut down, sell all the goats. Well, you
Speaker 1: who's going to buy a goat. It's not easy to
Speaker 1: transport them, so a lot of goats will end up, oh,
Speaker 1: that's right, being slaughtered. They say that one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand goats used for grazing might end up
Speaker 1: being completely killed. And as a result of getting rid
Speaker 1: of all the goats, you don't just lose that industry.
Speaker 1: You lose the jobs, but you lose the wildland fire
Speaker 1: risk reduction that these goats provide. As you can see here,
Speaker 1: these goats are out there eating brush, reducing the risk
Speaker 1: of catastrophic wildland fire. And this has been very effective.
Speaker 1: It's been covered in the media and about twenty percent
Speaker 1: of wildland fire programs are coming from these goat deployments,
Speaker 1: which is great. It's a win win. So this bill
Speaker 1: was supposed to be told in terms of implementation, but
Speaker 1: the legislature never got around to it. The expiration on
Speaker 1: the exemption of goat herding kicked in July first, and
Speaker 1: so now these goat herders have to comply with this
Speaker 1: higher minimum wage and the overtime. Now the labor advocates say,
Speaker 1: so be it. They should earn that money. A quarter
Speaker 1: million dollars, that's what they're doue, that's what they should receive.
Speaker 1: Ill guess what the industry is going to shut down.
Speaker 1: And we've seen this time and time again where people
Speaker 1: are told by these Democrat politicians if there's a free launch, oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to give you a salary increase, And so
Speaker 1: they mandate these labor costs, these minimum wage increases, and
Speaker 1: in some cases the costs are just passed on to
Speaker 1: the consumer, so in other words, you're paying for that. Well,
Speaker 1: when the costs of living increase, then it doesn't really
Speaker 1: pencil out that your minimum wage increase somehow benefited you,
Speaker 1: because whatever benefit from the minimum wage increase is just
Speaker 1: going to be gobbled up by ooh, that's right, rising
Speaker 1: costs in terms of everything you buy. And so in
Speaker 1: this case, you're not going to have the cost being
Speaker 1: passed on because a quarter million dollars per goat herder
Speaker 1: is simply just not sustainable. They're saying they will shut down,
Speaker 1: and the question becomes where do all the goats go?
Speaker 1: And how do you do the wild land fire mitigation.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the legislators are now waking up
Speaker 1: to the fact that there's a quarter million dollar salary
Speaker 1: that's now going to be required for goat hurting, and
Speaker 1: they're still sitting on their hands doing nothing. I signed
Speaker 1: a letter asking that we take immediate action in passing legislation.
Speaker 1: There was an exemption called SB one three, and this
Speaker 1: was a bill that was passed several years ago that
Speaker 1: extended the exemption on goat herding also required that we
Speaker 1: study alternatives. The study was submitted to the legislature, but
Speaker 1: the legislature did absolutely nothing about it. So now we
Speaker 1: have this crisis, and the question becomes what happens. Legislature
Speaker 1: has intil the end of this month to pass legislation
Speaker 1: providing an extension on the exemption from AB ten to
Speaker 1: sixty six. We are not seeing the likelihood of that happening.
Speaker 1: So this is an absolute disaster. And I'm surprised. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a story here in Stackramento b that we're scrolling through,
Speaker 1: but I'm surprised that there's not a bigger focus on this.
Speaker 1: I mean, because the reality is you have hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of goats that are about to be slaughtered. I
Speaker 1: guess you could ship them to other states, but I
Speaker 1: just don't know how that market works. But worse, you're
Speaker 1: going to have a wiland fire risk reduction tool taken
Speaker 1: off the table. And this is something that everyone agrees
Speaker 1: is a good idea. That you're not doing a controlled burn,
Speaker 1: you're not cutting things down, you know, with mechanical equipment. Instead,
Speaker 1: you're allowing nature to run its course. You're allowing goats
Speaker 1: to grace. Smart idea. Even the environmentalists should like it. Nope,
Speaker 1: Democrat politicians they just simply say, let them eat cake, well,
Speaker 1: let them eat hey. Minimum wage and they just somehow
Speaker 1: think that there's going to be a benefit, that this
Speaker 1: is going to be sustainable. We're just going to raise
Speaker 1: people's salaries and by all means, they should be excited
Speaker 1: and they're going to be very happy with us. They'll
Speaker 1: vote for us in the next election. But what is
Speaker 1: the result. We lose the jobs, we slaughter the goats,
Speaker 1: the fire risk increases. Perfect textbook example of why democrats
Speaker 1: know nothing about how to manage an economy. Their ideas
Speaker 1: sound nice on paper and practice higher costs, fewer jobs,
Speaker 1: a worse environment for us. All sound off in the
Speaker 1: comments below. What are your thoughts on a quarter million
Speaker 1: dollars for a goat herder? You know that it's not
Speaker 1: going to happen. I mean, you can't turn to your
Speaker 1: son or your daughter and say, you know, I said,
Speaker 1: I wanted to you to be a doctor, maybe a
Speaker 1: lawyer when you're growing up. But no, no, no, you
Speaker 1: need to be a goat herder. Quarter million dollars a year,
Speaker 1: not happening. Insanity of California politics. Until next time. I'm
Speaker 1: Carl Demio, chairman of Reform California and a California state representative.
Speaker 1: Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed this episode.
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