Minimum Wage Hike: Isn't retail and fast food already at minimum staffing aleady? (unemployment rate, cost)
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One of the arguments against raising the minimum wage is that if wages go up there will be less employees hired and the unskilled workers will face higher unemployment rates.
I don't understand that argument at all. If I am running a store or a fast food restaurant if I want to make a profit I hire and schedule a minimum number of employees to get the job done, no more no less. I try to find the middle ground between having the employees standing around with nothing to do between customers and having enough staff to keep the level of customer service my customers demand. If I have too few workers and customers come in and the lines are too long, because there is not enough people at the cash registers, my customers will walk out and go somewhere else.
So if the minimum wage goes up, I can't really cut staff because I am already running at minimum staffing already. (I don't hire people to stand around all day regardless what the wages are.) So if I have to pay more wages I would have to raise prices or cut my profit.
I agree. The fallacy that minimum wage increases lead to job losses is based on the entirely false notion that employers are currently paying extra workers to do nothing out of the kindness of their hearts since the minimum wage is so low.
If the minimum wage increases, prices might go up or owners might make smaller profits, but claims that minimum wage workers will lose their jobs since they now cost more are ridiculous.
One of the arguments against raising the minimum wage is that if wages go up there will be less employees hired and the unskilled workers will face higher unemployment rates.
I don't understand that argument at all. If I am running a store or a fast food restaurant if I want to make a profit I hire and schedule a minimum number of employees to get the job done, no more no less. I try to find the middle ground between having the employees standing around with nothing to do between customers and having enough staff to keep the level of customer service my customers demand. If I have too few workers and customers come in and the lines are too long, because there is not enough people at the cash registers, my customers will walk out and go somewhere else.
So if the minimum wage goes up, I can't really cut staff because I am already running at minimum staffing already. (I don't hire people to stand around all day regardless what the wages are.) So if I have to pay more wages I would have to raise prices or cut my profit.
Raise your prices or cut your profits then. Obviously you don't have a good business to begin with if it hinges on $7 part time "only when you need them" no benefits people to do the work for you. Here's the thing, they are pretty much MORE important than you, the owner, in many ways because they are dealing with what you need...the customers. Without them, lack of them, customers not coming back because of them and YOU go down.
Raise your prices or cut your profits then. Obviously you don't have a good business to begin with if it hinges on $7 part time "only when you need them" no benefits people to do the work for you. Here's the thing, they are pretty much MORE important than you, the owner, in many ways because they are dealing with what you need...the customers. Without them, lack of them, customers not coming back because of them and YOU go down.
That's like saying, "Without this brick, your house will fall down." What you fail to realize is that bricks are easy to come by, and no matter how many bricks you single out as being indispensable, one can always find another brick, and they're not expensive.
In other words, labor is a commodity. Low/no skill labor is plentiful and cheap, and it always will be.
There is far from any agreement amongst economists as to the impact of increasing minimum wage. I think the one area more are likely to agree is that wage subsidies ( in the form of EITC and such) are more cost effective at combating poverty than increasing minimum wage.
If the company could survive with less employees and still provide a good service to the customers then the business owner was a fool to start with all the overstaffing.
I have no idea what the impact of the minimum wage is on individual businesses, and I highly doubt that most of you do either. We've raised it and every time we have, the sky didn't fall.
That's all I know.
I don't know what the profit is on a hamburger with no mayo and extra pickles. Nor am I gonna pretend to know.
That said, we shouldn't make wage laws onerous for businesses, but I have no earthly idea where that threshold is for the fast food industry.
So if I have to pay more wages I would have to raise prices or cut my profit. Do you agree?
I think you've got it right. It wouldn't put a dent in my lifestyle if my morning egg white egg McMuffin cost me 10/20 cents more and the staff at McDonalds got a raise in return for all of the customers paying a little more. If the head of lettuce cost 20 cents more and the farmworkers, as a result of all shoppers paying that increase, got more in wages or better working conditions ... I'd be okay with that, too.
If the company could survive with less employees and still provide a good service to the customers then the business owner was a fool to start with all the overstaffing.
Do you have any experience in management? There is a line where the cost to automate exceeds the cost savings. If minimum wages increase, that line shifts and a company is willing to invest more time, effort and money into automation.
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