California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will increase the state’s minimum wage from $8.00 to $10.00 over the next two years, but the signing of the bill creates short-term gains and long-term problems.

At the signing of the bill, Gov. Brown went on record in a statement, saying that “This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy.”

The bill will raise the statewide minimum wage from $8.00 to $9.00 by 2014, and will increase it again to $10.00 by 2015. Brown sounds supremely confident that ensuring a $2.00 an hour increase will help working class families statewide in the economy we have been saddled with. The California Chamber Of Commerce doesn’t agree with the honorable governor.

Following the passage of Brown’s new law, the Chamber of Commerce stated that the new law “…will continue to increase costs of employers of all sizes…[it] will have a negative impact on any economic recovery by either limiting available jobs or worse, creating further job loss.” When the state’s Chamber of Commerce and the state’s governor disagree on a law that involves money and/ or jobs, that doesn’t do a lot to keep me calm and confident that the law in question is a good idea.

One of the obvious consequences of raising the minimum wage is that it will increase the cost of living in an area that is already known nationwide as being too expensive when it comes to rent and the like.

The site livingwage. mit.edu, a site created by Amy K. Glasmeir (a professor of urban planning at M.I.T.), allows for the calculation of cost of living by state and county. According to this site, on average, a single adult must make at least $12.83 an hour to survive in San Mateo County.

The most expensive bills for the average individual are housing (with a monthly cost of $1,144.00) and transportation ($285.00 a month). Even with the increase to $10.00, the average working class California resident will STILL not be making enough to survive.

A fun fact that Gov. Brown didn’t take into account is this: Since people will be paid more, they will have more money. More money means that prices are going to go up statewide, because we all have more money to spend.

This realization makes Brown’s new law seem like more of a popularity contest than a law that will truly help the state as a whole. The site also provided a list of jobs that pay enough for a single adult to survive: Sales ($12.94), health care support ($13.37), production ($13.73) and transportation/material moving ($13.84).

The passing of this law looks good on paper. Everyone likes making more money.

More money means the economy flourishes since people will be spending more money. The negatives are rooted in the positives. People will be willing to spend more money; therefore the costs of products and such will increase since there’s more money to be spent.

Time will tell if the increase has positive effects on the state, but for all intents and purposes the law sounds like a bad idea with ramifications that will increase the costs of living in this state to the point where it is almost impossible for the average citizen to survive.

This article has been updated to fix formatting errors. 9:42 P.M. 10/11/13