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I am not far left and yes ALL workers despite their title deserve a living wage.If you don't like it tough.These companies can afford millions for CEO's they can and WILL afford higher wages for workers. Tons of large companies are raising wages we have won this battle...the companies blinked and are trying to buy us off with slight wage hikes...it ain't gonna work.
rigth because a franchisee takes in millions every year and thus can afford to pay higher wages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freemkt
That would happen only for those workers with greedy landlords - remember, the landlords don't HAVE to raise rents to meet an inflated cost structure, because the landlords either paid cash (and thus are immune from mortgage increases) or have fixed-rate mortgages (and thus locked in their P & I payment).
there are all kinds of things that affect how much rent you pay, including property taxes, income taxes, etc. and not every landlord has a fixed rate mortgage by the way.
I'm a broken record on this but you people supporting a minimum wage really need to educate yourselves. It's a tool to keep minority and low skilled workers from taking good paying jobs away from Whites and always has been. Canada, Australia, South Africa and right here in the USA starting with the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. The goal has always been to force companies to charge a high enough hourly wage that minority, immigrant and low skilled workers are priced out of the market. In the 1940's and 1950's unemployment between Blacks and Whites was 1:1. Since the full implementation in the 1960's it's now more than 2:1 and somewhere in the neighborhood of 5:1 for Black teens. Not only does this help White workers today, but by squeezing Black teens out of the jobs it means they accumulate no work history, no job references, don't learn the routine of working and helps ensure the brightest and hardest working never work their way out of low paying jobs. It also helps racist employers avoid hiring Blacks. It's called the cost of discrimination. If a Black guy is willing to work for $7.25 p/h and the White guy will only work for $9.25 p/h, then it costs me as an employer $2.00 p/h if I want to discriminate based on skin color. Times that by 40 hours a week, times 10, 20, 50, 250 employees and most employers could not afford to discriminate. With everyone by law having to earn $9.25, I can hire only Whites and I pay no penalty. I'm a White working man, so by all means raise the minimum wage to $15 or even $20 p/h. It's not going to hurt ME any.
instead of raising the minimum wage they need to install a maximum salary cap just like pro sports. Once as a business owner you make the MAX you are now capped and have to distribute the profits of your company to the rest of your employees based on loyalty and performance metrics.
The problem lies NOT in the minimum wage but the fact that all executive level pay and most business owner pay is out of control.
Enforcing a salary cap on everyone would also create a better product, better service and a larger middle class. The min wage workers now work 100x as hard as if they make the owner more money and hit the cap everyone underneath profits. This way no matter what you do, flip burgers or an accountant you are 100000% focused on growing the company.
I think you completely misunderstand salary caps, who is capped (players) and who gets the money that's left over (team owners).
But I get your point. My ex used to work for a fairly large and profitable locally owned bank. The bank's investors had already made millions from their investment, so they gave the okay to split the bank's profits with all the employees, usually at 20-25% of their gross annual pay. Many employees started running up credit card balances, because they knew they'd get a big windfall at Christmas.
It worked for a few years.
Until the bank went under.
And nobody got the big bonus. Because nobody had a job.
rigth because a franchisee takes in millions every year and thus can afford to pay higher wages.
there are all kinds of things that affect how much rent you pay, including property taxes, income taxes, etc. and not every landlord has a fixed rate mortgage by the way.
That isn't my problem. That's just the big companies way of getting around paying more taxes and pushing the blame onto the small businessman.
When you adjust for inflation the minimum wage has been on a steady decline 1968. Is the "value" of a burger flipper or retail worker less than it was in 1968?
In 1968 Fast food workers had to know how to correctly count back change, had to get a order correct without a button that says Whopper, add cheese, add pickles.. etc. In 1968 young people were willing to actually work... So Yes indeed.
"Besides, even if you suddenly raised MW to $15 an hour inflation will quickly catch up and the workers will be begging for 20 and 30 bucks an hour."
THAT is a fact! It will probably only take 6 months, and the actual purchasing power of that $15 per hour will be the same or less than those folks had at the $10.50 to $12.50 they were getting!
YES, fast food workers here start at $9.50 per hour in the lowest paying places, but most are paying $10.50. Most of them have "NOW HIRING" signs posted, also! Some even have NOW HIRING on their roadside signs!
Not so many years ago, I made $9.50 per hour as a licensed A&P mechanic. Davis/Bacon prevailing wage rate for government contracts was $13.75/hour.
Now, "they" want $15/hour for minimum wage?
OK, fine, but my wife and I want no less than $25 per hour. She is a registered nurse, I am a licensed aircraft mechanic. We should both be worth at least $10 an hour more than a Hardee's worker!
Your wife deserves $30 an hour because I may be in her care... You deserve $7 an hour, because I don't fly.
How are 90% of small businesses going to survive that? Do you realize what a wage hike like that would do to a relatively stable small business, where the owner is making, say $200k? Cupcake / coffees hops, restaurants, etc.
Quick example - how about your neighborhood gym. Let's be generous and say Joe Gym owner makes $150k / yr. his gym is open from 6am - 10pm every day, or 16 hrs per day. Let's say his staffing needs are 5 employees at the gym at all times - a front desk employee, two maintenance workers, a trainer, and a juice bar attendant. Again, we'll be generous and say they are currently making $9/hr. That's 80 employee hours per day, 360 days per year, and increase wages by $6/hr. That's $172k in additional labor costs, putting the owner in the red - but I know, not your problem. I'm sure you think the greedy business owner should run at a lose so his employees can make a living wage.
In real life, what is he going to do? Either shut the gym, costing many jobs. Or cut a bunch of jobs, keeping only 2 employees on, not 5.
Quote:
Originally Posted by White Wolf
I am not far left and yes ALL workers despite their title deserve a living wage.If you don't like it tough.These companies can afford millions for CEO's they can and WILL afford higher wages for workers. Tons of large companies are raising wages we have won this battle...the companies blinked and are trying to buy us off with slight wage hikes...it ain't gonna work.
How are 90% of small businesses going to survive that? Do you realize what a wage hike like that would do to a relatively stable small business, where the owner is making, say $200k? Cupcake / coffees hops, restaurants, etc.
Quick example - how about your neighborhood gym. Let's be generous and say Joe Gym owner makes $150k / yr. his gym is open from 6am - 10pm every day, or 16 hrs per day. Let's say his staffing needs are 5 employees at the gym at all times - a front desk employee, two maintenance workers, a trainer, and a juice bar attendant. Again, we'll be generous and say they are currently making $9/hr. That's 80 employee hours per day, 360 days per year, and increase wages by $6/hr. That's $172k in additional labor costs, putting the owner in the red - but I know, not your problem. I'm sure you think the greedy business owner should run at a lose so his employees can make a living wage.
In real life, what is he going to do? Either shut the gym, costing many jobs. Or cut a bunch of jobs, keeping only 2 employees on, not 5.
How do small businesses survive the current cost of minimum wage employees? If raising the minimum wage is enough to put a business out of business, then there was something wrong with how they were managing their money regardless of how little they were paying their employees.
As for this gym, the average monthly membership is $55, that means they only have 227 members. Each Gold's Gym has about 5,000 members. It sounds like this gym needs to increase membership numbers or go out of business.
I say raise it to $11.50 and I'll pay like $0.30 more for my burger and be done with it. A wage increase isn't going to cripple the economy despite what the blowhards tell you.
why raise it at all.... min wage is meant for UNSKILLED workers
you raise it and everyone will lose instead of gain
small business lose
skilled workers lose
people losing their jobs lose
most americans are employed by small business, and most small business is operating on a 1%-10% profit margin
we just saw the min wage get raised in 07/09 and it was part of the perfect storm recession
raising the min wage will cost jobs...
raising wages even hurts the middleclass more...why because it wont make them more viable...especially when everything costs more
raising the minwage adds to inflation.. thereby hurting the middleclass
thousands of small businesses are facing situations like this:
Quote:
here is an example of what will happen with this 'raising'
minimum wage is for UNSKILLED currently at 7.20
I pay my UNSKILLED laborers (that clean the shop) over $9 an hour, the min wage is $7.2
an example:
I run a maintenance shop
I have a shop foreman...$24/hr
I have 3 mechanics.......$22/hr
I have a parts manager...$22/hr
I have 2 mechanic helpers...$14
I have 2 parts workers/drivers...$12
I have 2 labors (to clear the shop)....$9 (2 over min)
minimum wage is $7.2
the 'government' raises the minimum wage to 15
now I HAVE to increase the laborers wage to AT LEAST 15.. and he will WANT $17 (2 over min)....but If I give the "unskilled" laborer $17 then the driver (must maintain a clean license) will want more (hey boss, I was making $3 more than the unskilled guy) ...as so on, and so on...
either that or you will make what was 'above' min wage skilled worker to being min wage workers
thus RAISING THE COSTS of my SERVICE that I provide to the society.....
I would to raise salaries on mech helpers, drivers, and laborers...not to mention the actual SKILLED workers....meanwhile the business will end up failing, because it not is too costly to stay in business
so either costs will go up....or people will get laid-off......because as a small shop owner I cant afford to give any more than I am giving
this is just one example of what will happen, if we try raising the min wage anymore
and let's not forget the COST of raining it to 15...those workers are NOT going to see much of a raise....
it also increases the taxes on EVERYONE who fell in that zone
increase of income taxes
increase of payroll taxes
loss/reduction of obamacare/Medicaid/other health care subsidies
increase cost of health premiums
increase of state income taxes (if any)
loss/reduction of social benefits such as welfare/food stamps
so possibly half of that raise magically disappears into the pockets of the politicians
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