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Amer Hawatmeh's family-owned restaurant in downtown St. Louis is struggling.
Along with rising sales taxes, and meat prices, a minimum wage hike to $10 an hour two months ago made it expensive to stay open. So he's cut back from five to two days a week for lunch. His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier and his customers scarcer.
...
And Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens agrees. Next month, the minimum wage will return to $7.70 an hour -- ten bucks an hour was a mistake, he says.
"Despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets," Greitens said.
There was also an account in the article about a woman making minimum wage who would take a hit.
Wanda Roberts, a minimum wage worker in St. Louis, said the new $10 wage brought in an extra $400 a month and helped the local economy.
"If we're making $10 an hour, we're going to go right back out and spend that money," Roberts said.
And now that it's being reversed, she says she would "go back to struggling."
After reading the article... I have an idea.
If liberals or anyone else want higher living wages, decrease sales taxes. I am looking at other factors in rising business costs - and above it says sales taxes are rising as well. So if the government wants to raise wages, let it come out of their pocket, and lower sales tax. At least that way, the rise in the cost to do business can be counterbalanced with a decrease in business taxes.
“Our state needs more private sector paychecks and bigger private sector paychecks,” Greitens said in a statement. “Politicians in St. Louis passed a bill that fails on both counts: it will kill jobs, and despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets.”
...
“It'll hurt them,” Greitens said of the hourly wage jump. “This increase in the minimum wage might read pretty on paper, but it doesn't work in practice. Government imposes an arbitrary wage, and small businesses either have to cut people’s hours or let them go.”
Conservatives love to increase sales taxes in order to decrease income taxes, and liberals love to increase income taxes in order to decrease sales taxes.
Conservatives also love to increase sales taxes in order to cut property taxes - a proposition guaranteed to make renters financially worse off.
A lot of liberals would be happy to cut sales taxes - conservatives not so much.
p.s. I'd like to remind everyone that the problem is not "minimum wage is too low". The problem is "there is a shortage of housing affordable to minimum wage earners". Best to address the REAL problem, because there is NO higher (or lower) minimum wage that will resolve the shortage of housing affordable to minimum wage earners.
As noted above, this wasn't a statewide decrease in the minimum wage. This was the Republicans in Missouri preventing St. Louis setting its own minimum wage.
I think St. Louis should be able to set its minimum wage independent of the state, and I'm pretty far to the right.
While you may be correct about the GOP being full of it with respect to this, that argument is a strong one. $15 an hour would finish the destruction of the economy of places like eastern KY. The cost of living changes across this nation so much that a federal minimum wage seems like a bad idea to me.
Eliminating the federal minimum wage means a race to the bottom for workers. Just because the cost of living changes across the nation doesnt mean a federal floor is a bad idea. But the GOP listen to their financial overlords, and then are given scripts to tell their constituents why they followed the will of their donors (who want no minimum wage, neither federal nor locally).
Amer Hawatmeh's family-owned restaurant in downtown St. Louis is struggling.
Along with rising sales taxes, and meat prices, a minimum wage hike to $10 an hour two months ago made it expensive to stay open. So he's cut back from five to two days a week for lunch. His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier and his customers scarcer.
...
And Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens agrees. Next month, the minimum wage will return to $7.70 an hour -- ten bucks an hour was a mistake, he says.
"Despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets," Greitens said.
There was also an account in the article about a woman making minimum wage who would take a hit.
Wanda Roberts, a minimum wage worker in St. Louis, said the new $10 wage brought in an extra $400 a month and helped the local economy.
"If we're making $10 an hour, we're going to go right back out and spend that money," Roberts said.
And now that it's being reversed, she says she would "go back to struggling."
After reading the article... I have an idea.
If liberals or anyone else want higher living wages, decrease sales taxes. I am looking at other factors in rising business costs - and above it says sales taxes are rising as well. So if the government wants to raise wages, let it come out of their pocket, and lower sales tax. At least that way, the rise in the cost to do business can be counterbalanced with a decrease in business taxes.
“Our state needs more private sector paychecks and bigger private sector paychecks,” Greitens said in a statement. “Politicians in St. Louis passed a bill that fails on both counts: it will kill jobs, and despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets.”
...
“It'll hurt them,” Greitens said of the hourly wage jump. “This increase in the minimum wage might read pretty on paper, but it doesn't work in practice. Government imposes an arbitrary wage, and small businesses either have to cut people’s hours or let them go.”
Supply & demand....
Around here the supply has taken a hit bigtime, with the Communist Mayor, City Council & the lady Sherriff, bringing heat on the illegal aliens, from the Feds, the minimum wage deal is sorting itself out.
There is a minimum wage in this very Progressive City, being punished up & up by the feds, with no extra wage laws.... for the city stocking, housing and helping cheap labor.
The "going rates" are double the minimum wages. Businesses know they will not fill staff, below a price point.
ICE makes a big difference in the Cities.
Minimum wages can price you out of work and food on the table, in more depressed areas with less opportunities, but the cost of living is not expensive, either.
Reduced regulations and fees, to business. will create a bunch of business owners in depressed areas. Kick starting the local economy.
"So he's cut back from five to two days a week for lunch. His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier and his customers scarcer"
Well I think I found this restaurants problem. They were only open 5 days a week for lunch and now they are open 2 days a week for lunch. Obviously this restaurant has other issues. I own a Chinese restaurant in Kansas and employees start at $8.00/hour. Legally I could pay a LOT less for waitstaff. But, the quality of those employees are going to be terrible. Most restaurant chains start at $8-9/hour, and think how bad most fast food employees are and now this guy wants to pay half of that, he's going to get what he pays for. If this restaurant goes out of business it will be because of mismanagement or other problems. Not because wages are too high.
EDIT: I buy sirloin quality beef from Sysco for under $5.00 a pound, 3 years ago I paid almost $7.00 a pound.
Your post got me interested in the individual named in the original article, Amer Hawatmeh.
In said article, Mr. Hawatmeh is cited as the 'owner' of the St. Louis restaurant on Washington Avenue. The article then states:
"Hawatmeh believes it's not the government, but a combination of worker determination and customer demand that should set the correct wage."
I consider that a little vague, although the 'customer demand' is telling.
Now, before we go forward, it must be recognized that St. Louis had passed a bill, in 2015, raising the minimum wage to $10.00, but due to court action and such implementation was delayed. Said new minimum wage finally went into effect on May 5, 2017. Now, with the bill, it will go back to $7.70 in August.
As for Mr. Hawatmeh, we must get into the Wayback Machine to October 2014:
In this article Mr. Hawatmeh is cited as being the general manager of the restaurant, not the owner. In October 2014 he identified the issue: he and other businesses were being harmed by Ballpark Village.
Indeed, Mr.Hawatmeh reported that the Washington Avenue restaurant group reported a 50 percent drop in gross revenue since Ballpark Village opened, and that he may have to stop serving lunch due to having so few customers.
As such, it is painfully obvious that raising the minimum wage to $10 in May 2017, as well as dropping it back to $7.70 in August, is a non-issue.
Here is yet another article from 2016 citing how some businesses had to close due to Ballpark Village:
"Copia manager Amer Hawatmeh said at the time that the "Ballpark Village effect" was being felt at establishments in as far as a ten-mile radius."
It was also reported that the drop in business was in the neighborhood of 70 percent.
As such, I would submit this is not a 'minimum wage' story, but more about a Goliath moving into the neighborhood, and destroying local businesses (see also: Walmart).
"So he's cut back from five to two days a week for lunch. His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier and his customers scarcer"
Well I think I found this restaurants problem. They were only open 5 days a week for lunch and now they are open 2 days a week for lunch. Obviously this restaurant has other issues. I own a Chinese restaurant in Kansas and employees start at $8.00/hour. Legally I could pay a LOT less for waitstaff. But, the quality of those employees are going to be terrible. Most restaurant chains start at $8-9/hour, and think how bad most fast food employees are and now this guy wants to pay half of that, he's going to get what he pays for. If this restaurant goes out of business it will be because of mismanagement or other problems. Not because wages are too high.
EDIT: I buy sirloin quality beef from Sysco for under $5.00 a pound, 3 years ago I paid almost $7.00 a pound.
Fascinating info. thanks and repped ya for anecdotal but useful info.
Your post got me interested in the individual named in the original article, Amer Hawatmeh.
In said article, Mr. Hawatmeh is cited as the 'owner' of the St. Louis restaurant on Washington Avenue. The article then states:
"Hawatmeh believes it's not the government, but a combination of worker determination and customer demand that should set the correct wage."
I consider that a little vague, although the 'customer demand' is telling.
Now, before we go forward, it must be recognized that St. Louis had passed a bill, in 2015, raising the minimum wage to $10.00, but due to court action and such implementation was delayed. Said new minimum wage finally went into effect on May 5, 2017. Now, with the bill, it will go back to $7.70 in August.
As for Mr. Hawatmeh, we must get into the Wayback Machine to October 2014:
In this article Mr. Hawatmeh is cited as being the general manager of the restaurant, not the owner. In October 2014 he identified the issue: he and other businesses were being harmed by Ballpark Village.
Indeed, Mr.Hawatmeh reported that the Washington Avenue restaurant group reported a 50 percent drop in gross revenue since Ballpark Village opened, and that he may have to stop serving lunch due to having so few customers.
As such, it is painfully obvious that raising the minimum wage to $10 in May 2017, as well as dropping it back to $7.70 in August, is a non-issue.
Here is yet another article from 2016 citing how some businesses had to close due to Ballpark Village:
"Copia manager Amer Hawatmeh said at the time that the "Ballpark Village effect" was being felt at establishments in as far as a ten-mile radius."
It was also reported that the drop in business was in the neighborhood of 70 percent.
As such, I would submit this is not a 'minimum wage' story, but more about a Goliath moving into the neighborhood, and destroying local businesses (see also: Walmart).
Watch the local economy shrug off the raise and the decrease. $10 was only going to kill some marginal businesses. They are not going to suddenly hire more people.
The Missouri governor is full of dog poo. Hiring will stay very close right where it is and was. The GOP is pro owner, not pro worker. Their laws reflect that. This is nothing more nor less than that. If Joe Rich Owner needs one dish washer he will not hire a second one if they set the minimum wage to zero. He does not need the second person and will not hire.
(Interesting idea on the sales tax.)
Wondering if min wage increase people are going to use a ballot question now.
Note: BOTH people in the story appear to not be the norm. Crappy jobs I looked at in the St Louis area seemed to pay around $9. The woman should have an easy time making up $1.30 of the $2.30 she is about to lose. Her employer sucks and so does the pay with the guy in the story.
Tinkle down economics...of course they're going to pocket those savings. You think they're going to suddenly hire 0.5 more people because they don't have to pay their workers as much as before? It doesn't work that (usually).
That sums it up. Same restaurant, two different stories: 1) business is destroyed by Ballpark Village; a few years later, 2) business destroyed by minimum wage hike that had not yet taken effect.
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