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 ...
18% would be enough to get my attention. I think were this hurts the most is with the lunch crowd. Here in fly over country, it is hard to get a decent lunch under $10. Lets say you have a budget for lunch of $10 a day. Your meal now is $12 a day. You either cough up $40+ a month to eat lunch or change your behavior. Restaurants face the risk of losing some of their daytime crowd once they figure out they can save a lot by bring their lunch to work.
It’s cool when you have a band, because the camaraderie is there along with the music.
I used to enjoy that a great deal when I was in a band.
It is a little harder as a solo act, but I appreciate the “old days” in Boston when it was like that for me! :-)
So the typical owner was only making $28k a year. Now with the $15/hr minimum wage, the employees will make more than the owner. Only a liberal thinks that is good.
How exactly does that work? That doesn't seem to make sense—it sounds like one of those direct sales jobs with Amway, & al.
I’m sure high end places where $50-100 tips per meal are typical could pull that off. You know, places where regime affiliates dine.
Sounds like some of your critics have never worked in the biz. I was a cook, but I looked out for my waitrons. :-)
Actually, my understanding is that the IRS (TheIRS!) dealt with that little problem many years ago by making an example out of quite a few waitrons.
I am sure they did!
LOL!
I will stop tipping if the costs of my restaurant meal rises due to higher minimum wages. Period.
When someone takes a job where tipping is expected, not only do I realize that they have a true incentive to give good service, I pay attention to how well they serve, and I reward them accordingly. There will be a lack of incentive for me to do that if their wage represents full value for that job.
I guarantee that if other people behave as I know I will in this respect, restaurant servers will find their take has gone down.
Let’s say I own a grocery store and I pay my entry level, a first time job holder or part time person only able to work a few hours per week and not interested in progressing or taking on additional responsibilities; the inexperienced cashiers and stock clerks who I have to invest a lot time and money to train BTW, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to start but now I have to pay them $15 per hour. I pay more based on performance and longevity and I pay for instance a more experience cashier or stock clerk, someone who is a shift leader, a go to person, but someone with no supervisory or management yet, but a person due to their experience who prior to the minimum wage increase, got $10 per hour and say an entry level first time shift supervisor getting paid $14 per hour, someone who may be a person who may be someone who could advance further, I’m now going to have to pay them both more than the entry level person who they are leading and or supervising and so on up the salary chain.
The ol’ “Golden Rule”?
You and I are SO old-fashioned!
LOL
Thanks. She will just drive them out of business. But that is the plan anyway. That school slop has spilled over into nursing homes and hospitals. I’d bet it has our Military too. We think a lot alike on the issue.
I’ve learned to eat around those digestive issues. Most stuff in common food is the run of the mill ingredients. I avoid exotic eateries. Besides I prefer my own cooking as I know what goes into it and how fresh it is and can control what needs controlling like to much SALT.
Like I told my boys growing up, you don’t like what I put on the table eat around what you don’t like or go hungry I was NOT cooking cafeteria style to suit everyone.
And I don’t need MOOCH to tell me how much I can eat, I am smart enough to listen to my body say when it is time to eat and how much to eat.
Unlike her fat butt, and face full of Lobster is telling me to do. I don’t even let my doctor tell me what I can and can’t eat, my body does that.
Amen! Who knows our bodies better than ourselves?
“Is Jesse Jackson realistic in his world view????”
Don’t know if he really is dumber than a bag of hammers or if he just says what the morons want to hear.
I hate going anywhere with servers. I want to go to a counter and pick up my order. And walk over and get a refill whenever I want. Limits me to fast food, I know.
“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.”
So six percent stands so the per item cost increases is 6 cents on a dollar.The subject is Min. wage, not "per item cost" (where did that come from?) You can't change the fact that an increase from 36 to 42 is a 16.66% increase and the math doesn't care if it's items or percentages.
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