Posted on 03/27/2016 8:18:26 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A deal that would raise California's minimum wage to $15 an hour was met with a mixture of joy and anxiety across the state Sunday.
Some workers and labor officials hailed it as a breakthrough in providing higher-wage jobs in fields where it's a struggle to make ends meet. But some business owners feared the shift would hurt their bottom lines -- and perhaps even put them out of business.
The debate is likely a preview for the weeks ahead as the minimum wage proposal works its way through Sacramento.
Selwyn Yosslowitz said that minimum wage hikes add increased pressure to restaurants, which already operate on very slim margins. With the minimum wage going up, Yosslowitz said he's going to have to rethink his menu and what dishes his restaurants serve.
"First, you have to raise prices, otherwise you'll be out of business," said Yosslowitz, president of the Marmalade Café, which operates seven Southland restaurants and an outlet at LAX. Restaurant owners also have to think about "re-engineering the menu" to require fewer kitchen workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I can’t wait for Carl’s Jr to open one of those robot restaurants and all these crybabies trying to raise 5 kids on a minimum wage job are out of a job.
Of course then they will be drawing Unemployment Comp.
Every time I talk to some one who is for this I just point to the u-scans at one of the local stores. They have 12 of them.
I ask why the store has them. They pretty much know it is to cut labor costs. Those 12 machines run all day and all week. That is 3 shifts for 12 machines for 7 days. Or 252 shifts. That is or 40 full time employees. If you figure just half of that because of night shifts that is 25 employees that lost their jobs.
Then I go and ask what about ATM machines? Pretty soon they start to realize what I am getting at.
A few years ago, Carl’s Jr. introduced the “Six Dollar Burger” that was supposed to be the equivalent of a six dollar burger in a fancy restaurant, but at about half the price or less. Nowadays, as the price of these burgers actually approaches six dollars, they are being renamed “Thick Burgers.”
Illegals primarily have these jobs and I believe the actual aim of this measure is to act as a stronger magnet for illegals.
And I think the goal is ELECTORAL, has NOTHING to do with bettering the lives of Americans.
The effect of this is to put the accelerator through the floorboards on robot development.
In 5 years it will be puzzling to order from a human, rather than from a touchpad.
Menu changes so that less kitchen staff is needed means factory made food fried/microwaved on site instead of food made at the restaurant. Yuck.
It is incredibly hard to run a successful restaurant. IIRC over 80% of new restaurants fail. It’s a service industry (requires a fairly large staff) with a perishable product (going to have losses). Though kitchen staff are terribly underpaid considering the stress level, there isn’t anywhere to take money from to pay them more.
In California, the unions pushed through a law banning the use of u-scan devices for the purchase of alcoholic beverages—it was to ‘protect the children,” of course. But it makes sure that every supermarket that sells alcohol must keep some union members at work manning check stands.
We were in a Chili’s this weekend and saw the new ordering kiosks on every table. You could order appetizers, deserts and drinks from it - though the server still came by to refill drinks and take the main orders.
A modest reduction in the number of people wandering around asking if you want/need anything.
And they charge $1.99 to the tab if the kids want to play games on the pad while you wait for the food.
Good news: I got a raise!
Bad news: I got no hours...
Went to Olive Garden recently because the granddaughter wanted to eat there. They have the same thing. Rarely saw our waitress.
This will also mean fewer and fewer independent restaurants and more chains, which can afford to absorb the costs.
In my neighborhood, there was a very popular seafood restaurant that opened in 1961 and outlasted just about every other restaurant on that street for a distance of about 20 miles. But in 2014, mainly due to rising costs including Obamacare, the family that ran it decided to call it a day and sold it. A chain that specializes in pancakes now owns the building.
California companies welcome to Texas. Bring your Mexican labor with you. You can pay them 7.50 per hour for the legal ones and 4.00 per hour for the illegals.
$15/hour for one guy to keep the robots running. Not what the supporters are going to be expecting.
Olive Garden has order at table pads and you can pay on them also.
They likely already have it spent ten years out.
The electorate is weary of additional taxes, so what to do , what to do.
Oh yeah, raise the min wage!
Employers charge more to cover the increase, this more money for the state in earned income tax. The employees are also now in a higher tax bracket, so more to the state.
The gullible middle? They are the ones that will be servicing this increase in the form of increased costs to all services and products, thus, in the end, they indeed pay more taxes, only it is disguised as an aid to the poor downtrodden.
Nothing changes in purchasing power, because goods cost more, but the state now gets an additional chunk of the voter's hard earned cash.
Yeah, Austin is really more “progressive” than many parts of CA.
There are restaurants that aren’t affected by higher labor costs?
People will stop leaving tips. $15.00 an hour is more than enough to bring your food to the table so you will no longer feel obligated to leave a tip.
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