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Well a small business start up gym might not have that many employees if it has a membership number that is too low. The owner would work more hours until business picked up to afford more employees. Small businesses that can't afford minimum wage shouldn't get a pass to hire employees for less than that. They should first focus on increasing revenue, in this case, increase membership before hiring new employees.
Um, okay, but not sure why that is important to this discussion. Do you think businesses fail for more than just wages? If you had a business that wasn't selling enough product, would you say it was the lack of sales or the cost of employees that caused your business to fail?
I remember someone I use to know that owned a comic book shop, he was the only employee for it for a long time, he was there to open and close it, and every hour in between. He eventually started to turn enough of a profit to hire an employee so that he could have a little bit of time off. Eventually he made some right moves and got involved with a few key collecting trends that created a real drive in income for his business that made it so he could actually hire a couple more employees to give himself some time off each week, as well as focus on other parts of the business to help make more profits.
Had he started that business out with 5 employees, he would have been out of business before his next month's rent was due because his business was not profitable yet to hire any employees.
In my lifetime I have had 4 businesses. The first one failed due to my lack of knowledge. The next two were profitable and I sold them. My current business I have been in for the last 18 years. Wages are a balancing act between maintaining the best qualified personnel for a given position and maintaining profitability. Pay to little and a good employee will find other employment. Pay too much and it cuts into your profits and can limit not only your income but also the potential for further growth. Your premise of determining wage and deciding who should be in business and who shouldn't is extremely naive. An employee should be paid well enough to retain him in the position he is in. This is irrespective of whether an employee is being paid $7 an hour or $25 dollars an hour. Pay is always determined by the level of skill required for the particular job and experience. If you want to make $15 an hour, get the training or attain the skills that are required in a skill to obtain a $15 an hour job. If you are working in a $7 an hour job and expecting it to pay for a family of 5 to live on, you are an idiot and probably deserve $4 an hour but your boss is being generous.
In my lifetime I have had 4 businesses. The first one failed due to my lack of knowledge. The next two were profitable and I sold them. My current business I have been in for the last 18 years. Wages are a balancing act between maintaining the best qualified personnel for a given position and maintaining profitability. Pay to little and a good employee will find other employment. Pay too much and it cuts into your profits and can limit not only your income but also the potential for further growth. Your premise of determining wage and deciding who should be in business and who shouldn't is extremely naive. An employee should be paid well enough to retain him in the position he is in. This is irrespective of whether an employee is being paid $7 an hour or $25 dollars an hour. Pay is always determined by the level of skill required for the particular job and experience. If you want to make $15 an hour, get the training or attain the skills that are required in a skill to obtain a $15 an hour job. If you are working in a $7 an hour job and expecting it to pay for a family of 5 to live on, you are an idiot and probably deserve $4 an hour but your boss is being generous.
And which one of those 4 businesses went under due to minimum wage going up? We have had minimum wage increases over the past 18 years, the minimum wage has gone up $3 in the past 20 years. Even if minimum wage was increased to $15, we all know it wouldn't happen overnight, and would take probably another 20 years before it hit that number, based on the way things function in this country. We have a better chance of raising minimum wage up to $10 than we do $15.
And which one of those 4 businesses went under due to minimum wage going up? We have had minimum wage increases over the past 18 years, the minimum wage has gone up $3 in the past 20 years. Even if minimum wage was increased to $15, we all know it wouldn't happen overnight, and would take probably another 20 years before it hit that number, based on the way things function in this country. We have a better chance of raising minimum wage up to $10 than we do $15.
If I had typical minimum wage employees and the minimum wage increased significantly, I wouldn't go out of business, but I would reduce hours possibly and would expect more from the employees that I kept as full time. They would also get an increase to keep them off the bottom tier but for that increase they would have to pick up the slack of those who had their hours reduced.
Urban life must be a troll, bc no one could truly think like this. But i will bite and respond.
First some facts:
Small businesses employ half the country's workforce.
Only 10% of all small businesses had revenue above $100k, which speaks nothing to profit.
Where are you getting that this fictional gym has 227 members? Are there not property costs, taxes, insurance, electricity, utilities, etc?
- I would say the majority of small biz owners would be happy netting $150k / yr. how much do you think independent coffee shops, bakeries, etc make? So your argument that these are failing businesses just holds no merit. Take any variable cost that is likely a businesses largest expense line item and double it, and what do you think is going to happen?
- so these employees can't get a job paying $10/hr now? But a ton of small biz are going to close, and they will just be able to walk down the street and get a job making $15/hr? Right, got it.
Not against raising the MW, but will someone then also give ME a raise? I've worked as an RN for 30yrs and only make 2x the proposed MW. Please raise my wages by the same % as you raise the minimum. Please and thank you.
Not against raising the MW, but will someone then also give ME a raise? I've worked as an RN for 30yrs and only make 2x the proposed MW. Please raise my wages by the same % as you raise the minimum. Please and thank you.
No, we have to cut your wages (by not giving you an increase to absorb increased costs) in order to give the increase to those on the bottom tier... Although I would give you the increase. After all, I may be in your ER or ICU one day.
If I had typical minimum wage employees and the minimum wage increased significantly, I wouldn't go out of business, but I would reduce hours possibly and would expect more from the employees that I kept as full time. They would also get an increase to keep them off the bottom tier but for that increase they would have to pick up the slack of those who had their hours reduced.
So you would keep your profit margins just above the cost of minimum wage for your employees? That sounds like a bad business practice....which means it will be a business that will be going out of business.
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