Posted on 07/30/2019 11:05:25 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
Many retail employees are having a hard time making ends meet. Leftists have proposed raising wages to $15/hour, and sometimes have done so, but such wages are unrealistically expensive for most retail employers.
If retail stores had restricted occupancy apartments above their selling floor, retail employees could live in these and not need to pay for a car and liability insurance. Residential restricted occupancy is sometimes found in English agricultural regions to keep housing affordable for people working in agriculture.
Retail store residency would have additional benefits of reducing road congestion and CO2 emissions, increasing employee reliability, the amount of employee free time and the number of people able to live in an metropolitan area without overcrowding its roads.
Employees might get paid $4/hour plus usage of the apartment plus $.01/hour for each square foot of their apartment less than 600.
In some cases there might be sliding wall system in an apartment to make for either one large bedroom or two small bedrooms.
To fund adequate Social Security benefits for the employee, an added $1/hour FICA tax might be levied on the employee.
The apartment might be valued at $700/month for income taxation, welfare and health insurance subsidy purposes.
There might be a 10-day grace period to live in the apartment after quitting or getting fired from a job. There might also be a waiting period of up to 10 days to move into such an apartment.
Whether or not specific apartments are employer furnished and their exact size would be left to employment market forces.
Employees not needing or currently getting an employer apartment would simply work for the usual wages and benefits.
Excess retail store apartments might made available to nearby restaurants and their employees on a similar basis.
As an owner of such an apartment, why would I rent it out at a discount?
Many businesses exist in relatively expensive areas. Most businesses can’t succeeded if they are in the middle of nowhere. The rent in those areas is high.
Can’t escape that reality.
“If it was a viable concept, it already would be happening...on a much larger scale...”
Zoning and federal and state minimum wage laws have to change.
The Congress must act, the state must act and the local government must act.
All three must sing in harmony.
Back when he was offing people Dr. Jack Kevorkian lived upstairs of a Chinese restaurant in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan.
Which makes one wonder just what kind of doctor would live in such a place?
I believe he became Tennessee Ernie Ford because he was from Bristol, which straddles the VA-TN line.
And apparently there was another Ernie Ford on the Virginia side of town.
“Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents”
“fifty cents” a day
In Silicon Valley, apartments can now run to about $100/day.
You have a really appropriate screen name.
The only things that can possibly fix the economy are reinstituting the underclass as observed by Malthus, or ability based reproduction rights as described by Sanger.
But if you want to fantasize, go right ahead — that’s what we’ve been doing for 250 years.
Here’s a better idea: pricey rooftop garden apartments making the retail spaces more money allowing them to hire more people?
With the Left the government has claim on your soul.
In my city it is spelled out that they are following Agenda21. In 15 years the downtown has gone from single-story buildings like the horse and tack place, the plumbing supply place and the diner to 8-story condos with fancy retail on the ground floor. With little to no parking.
A huge influx of foreigners (Microsoft). Of course coming from a crowded city in India or China, living in one of these buildings is a huge upgrade.
Try evicting someone that doesn’t want to leave once their employment ends. Lawyers make this proposal impractical.
I lived in a very roomy studio above a Rexal drug store & lunch counter one year up in a small town in northern Michigan overlooking a yacht basin. Right on Main street. Of course this was before the town went upscale and touristy. But what a nice place that town was.
Tennessee Ernie Ford, real name Ernest Jennings Ford IIRC.
“As an owner of such an apartment, why would I rent it out at a discount?”
Because the law would allow you to create it in the first place.
Housing density laws are mainly based on local road limitations. If workers won’t tax road capacity, more housing can be built in an area.
Remember, if there was no zoning or planning, apartments in Silicon Valley would rent for maybe $600/month in just a few years, not $3,000/month. Driving to work? Maybe you’ll be able to get there.
There are English houses in the country restricted to agricultural employee/owner use.
In my area, there are places restricted to the over 55 set, who are less likely to drive during rush hours.
Saved on hiring a security man here or there.
Still no delegated power given the federal for the statute.
“The ability of most retail operations to pay wages has collapsed because of Amazon.”
Retail is pretty much a zero sum game.
Amazon gross for 2018 was around a quarter trillion. If you figure it takes about a quarter million gross to sustain a small shop, that’s one million small shops that Amazon has replaced....
The min. wage has survived every Constitutional challenge (so far).
Ring Ring
Hey Brian, can you come down quick, we’re really busy down here and short handed due to illness and vacations?
No?
Well, you can find yourself another job and place to live.
Many years ago, my wife, who was an RN, lived in an apartment building run by the hospital she worked at. And sometimes she was called just like you describe, to pick up extra shifts.
Sometimes she liked it, to earn the overtime pay, but other times, she wasn’t interested in picking up extra hours. Sometimes on days off, she would go to her mother’s house and be off the premises, just so they couldn’t come looking for her. This was years ago, before cell phones, so she was out of touch when she left the premises.
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