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 ...
There are two concepts foreign to liberals: math and logic.
Oh, it was definitely aimed at fast food workers but, of course, actions have consequences across the board.
As presently done at Panera Bread and Chipotle in some locations.
What are you talking about? If local communities and states want to commit economic suicide and set a magical wage, who cares? This is more proof that the minimum-wage should be abolished at the federal level. I have no problem with Seattle drinking the koolaid.
Absolutely! I worked my way through college as a waiter. I could cover my months rent in one weekend, just on the tips.
As a musician...your success will be directly proportional to your perfomance, skill, enthusiasm, and artistry.
*************
And your ability to hold the crowd. Club owners don’t hear the music; they only hear the cash register and if it plays a nice tune you’ll be asked to return, especially if it appears that you have a “following”.
Learning to work the crowd is a must if you want to survive. Its all about the entertainment value of the performance IMHO.
I hereby nominate your comment for post of the day.
Personally, I think it is more of a corporate effort to remove temptations from the wait staff to steal. It is, however, a big inconvenience to some customers, whether on principle or other reason.
See tagline, LOL
Similar to playing music for a living!
There was always some clown who would request a totally obscure song from the 19th century, just to mock at me when i had never heard of it.
But I fooled them. Since i play by ear, have a great memory, and parents who sang all the time, I ended up usually knowing the song and was able to present it in an acceptable fashion.
This would usually enrage the perpetrator, as he wanted to triumph over me by his superior knowledge of old music.
And of course, that meant “NO TIP FOR YOU!”
Thank you.
I grew up in NY and often ate at a local chop house where our waiter, Stoney, served us for all of those years. He put a couple of kids through college and he and his wife lived a comfortable life finally retiring to FL. He is gone, may he RIP, but unfortunately so are those days. I have no idea what his “salary” was but I do know that he was loved by his customers and was tipped accordingly.
You are correct about that!
Sounds like you have “been there”! :-)
A 6% increase is closing down restaurants? 36% to 42% labor increase? So a $10.00 entree now is $10.60. Sucks but not earth shattering. Something else is going on here.
JRandom-
How’s it hangin’?
JRandom-
How’s it hangin’?
I dont think most liberals understand economics or what’s involved in running a business. They don’t understand about a 4% profit margin in this example of a restaurant’s financial situation. They don’t understand that this restaurant can’t just raise prices to compensate for the increased minimum wage. They don’t understand these basic concepts. Unfortunately liberals run this country.
Seattle, like Portland and Frisco and nearly every large liberal city has drug rehab treatment places ALL over. Too many foks doing squat with their hand out waiting for welfare.
Thanks..... I have not been in one of those places for a while. But the future is zero waiters and minimal waiters as in a buffet. I tip at buffets but not as much as at a real dining place where a waiter is in more of a beck and call situation which I don’t like.
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