Posted on 03/14/2015 6:54:42 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Seattle is about to embark on a civic experiment that most experts predict will be an economic disaster; a $15 an hour minimum wage is set to go into effect on April 1st. And some restuarants in the city have already shuttered their doors and are either going out of business or moving to friendlier climes.
This was entirely predictable - and was predicted when the measure passed the Seattle city council. Restuarants are particularly sensitive to this sort of increase in wages since most of their employees are paid at the minimum, and such a large percentage of their operating costs go to labor.
“Washington Restaurant Association’s Anthony Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”
“He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.
“With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.”
Restaurant owners, expecting to operate on thinner margins, have tried to adapt in several ways including “higher menu prices, cheaper, lower-quality ingredients, reduced opening times, and cutting work hours and firing workers,” according to The Seattle Times and Seattle Eater magazine. As the Washington Policy Center points out, when these strategies are not enough, businesses close, “workers lose their jobs and the neighborhood loses a prized amenity.”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The $15/hour Minimum Wage
An effort to increase egg production
by strangling chickens.
The Seattle government will be ecstatic. Now they will have more drones as a voting constituency and fully dependent on government handouts.
My husband ran a private club for years that had a restaurant attached to it. The waiters were unionized and while some of them were professional, others behaved in insane fashion - truly - especially the shop steward. They got a nice salary, great benefits, couldn’t be fired, didn’t receive tips and so had no incentive to behave professionally. What a nightmare!
Our special today is “only” $36.95 for the entre. Our wine selection of the day is “only” $18 a glass. lol
And like Obamacare and workers over 30 hours @ week, what did they think would happen?
They hire and limit hours to 30 and they lay off restaurant workers.
Restaurants are capitalist oppressors. All workers should be fed in free communal mess halls provided by the Party.
That is all, comrades.
Do you tip at McDee’s? lol
Seriously, you don’t see much of the urban Amish at any of the more decent places in town.
When I got out of the military in 1976 and brought my wife and son home after 8 years of hard and sparse living, I got a job repairing electronic medical equipment for $150 a week - it was more than I made in the military, actually.
However, Carter’s economy hit and that $150 didn’t go so far. My wife helped out working at a German Bakery here in Georgia making sandwiches all day long waiting on customers for very little money and not much thanks. We put our son in daycare and we shared the one car and tried to subsist but it got worse.
I finally bit the bullet and committed to college with the GI bill and my wife slaved many long days at work wearing that apron and having to work under a Nazi (my opinion of him) while I stayed up at night until 2 or 3AM studying.
It took three hard years of very demanding work from both of us but it has since paid off. But we always, ALWAYS paid near-extravagant tips since then because of my wife’s hard work to eke out a living. We knew what it was like.
If that minimum wage ever hits here in Georgia, that tipping will stop.
The future of casual restaurants is going to be no waiters. As in place your order from an iPad type thing///// find a table////// Pick up your order at the counter/////
This will apply to couples and large families and everyone else
The closed businesses will no longer pay taxes and fees to the government.
yep.
As a musician, I have noticed that, if you play for a small amount of money, but put out a tip jar, you can have a very good night. This works in clubs, or even on a street corner. However, your success will be directly proportional to your perfomance, skill, enthusiasm, and artistry.
On the other hand, when doing a private function, a “Tip Jar” is very unprofessional and just plain wrong. So for a “General Business” gig, there is a much higher contract price for the gig and is based on an hourly wage.
The worst situation is when the union takes over the music business. You then have no choice what you charge for a gig, and you can be priced right out of business.
Then, along come the DJs and Karaoke-Mongers to fill in the gap.
Damn chicken choking geeks!!!
Chili’s has that automated bank Nazi thingy at the tables to pay your bill. The first time I encountered it, I told the waitress I don’t have a credit card, only cash.
I haven’t been back since.
A nice socialism test tube experiment - see how this goes.
It’s in the Constitution of The Barackamerica.
In Canada all the restaurants have those wireless thingys & the waitress watches you as you `input’ the tip. Creepy.
I was not a good waitress - too small, tiny hands, klutz-incorporated - but when I worked at the Hilton in NYC, I brought home hundreds of dollars in tips. Unbelievable! But really hard work and the guests were impossible to please.
I think efforts such as this are aimed at currying favor with the semi-literate entry level McDonald’s employee who messes up your order and couldn’t give you correct change if the register didn’t do the calculation.
I’ve never met a waiter or service worker who didn’t tip well. They’ve been there and never forgotten. I’ve heard Rush is an extravagant tipper although I don’t think he did that kind of work in his youth.
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