Acting Up Against the Minimum Wage. Los Angeles actors sue their labor union to preserve small theaters.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

In the media drama over the minimum wage, businesses are typically cast as the villains for claiming they can’t afford to pay higher wages to low-skill workers. But a new plot twist is making it harder to tell this liberal tale. In the theater community of Los Angeles of all places, there’s a rebellion against mandated pay hikes. And the resistance isn’t coming from management but from workers upset with their union’s effort to dictate higher pay.

On Saturday in federal court in Los Angeles, a group of actors and other workers sued Actors’ Equity Association to stop the union from forcing theaters with fewer than 100 seats to pay union members at least $9 per hour.

The rebels, who seem to have a better grasp of economics than the union leadership, warn in their lawsuit that forcing the rules on theaters that used to be exempt will force many to “close altogether.” They add that “all will have greater difficulty producing original works.”

Some people want to work for below minimum wage! What a shock.