Posted on 05/22/2015 8:37:03 PM PDT by grundle
A pizza shop owner in Seattle says the city's new minimum wage law is forcing her to close her doors.
The new law says businesses have six years to phase into giving employees $15 an hour.
Devin Jeran was happy to get a raise when Seattle's minimum wage went up to $11 an hour at the beginning of the month.
“I definitely recognize that having more money is important, especially in a city as expensive as this one,” he said.
He'll only enjoy that bigger paycheck for a few more months. In August, his boss is shutting down Z Pizza, putting him and his 11 coworkers out of work.
“Fortunately she keeps us in the loop, and didn't just tell us last minute,” Jeran said.
Ritu Shah Burnham doesn't want to go out of business, but says she can't afford the city's mandated wage hikes.
“I've let one person go since April 1, I've cut hours since April 1, I've taken them myself because I don't pay myself. I've also raised my prices a little bit. Yeah, there's no other way to do it,” she said.
Small businesses in the city have up to six more years to phase in the new $15 an hour minimum wage.
But Shah Burnham says even though she only has one store with 12 employees, she's considered part of the Z Pizza franchise so she has to give raises in just two years.
“I know that I would have stayed here if I had seven years, just like everyone else, if I had an even playing field. The discrimination I'm feeling towards my small business right now makes me not want to stay and do anything in Seattle,” she said.
The director of Now Seattle, which rallied for the minimum wage, had no comment, only saying "Restaurants open and close all the time, for various reasons."
Shah Burnham is concerned about where her employees will end up when she does close.
“I absolutely am terrified for them,” she said. “I have no idea where they're going to find jobs, because if I'm cutting hours, I imagine everyone is across the board.”
Seattle is the first major city to pass a law that gives workers $15 an hour. It comes out to about $30,000 a year if an employee works full-time.
And many to follow.
Obama’s fault.
You know, there’s another unintended consequence that most people probably don’t know about...
In a divorce (ahem...), when one ex isn’t working, a minimum-wage income is “imputed” to the unemployed ex, and then it’s deducted from the alimony the other ex pays.
IOW, when the minimum wage is raised, the amount someone pays in alimony will drop.
I’m sure that would make many people here who are paying alimony very happy (although it’s going to put me in a tough spot). :-(
Pretty soon they will pass another law forbidding businesses from closing due to wage increases. I’m only half joking.
we told ya so...
Seattle is whitening up right on the Left’s schedule. LA next, and the City of Austin.
Directive 10-289
Exactly
And all of this wonderful goodness will be paid by increased tax revenue, or at least that is the fantasy, because with our 'progressive' tax system (IE: soak the rich), it makes OH so much good sense to take those nasty HIGH TAX BRACKET PROFITS and redistribute them to low income earners who will pay little to no tax on that additional income.
What? Make more money, get a higher tax bracket! And that's true, they would enter into a higher tax bracket, and maybe pay a collective 5% of the tax bill vs the 0% they presently are paying. But really, the cities are counting on increased sales tax income as people spend those higher salaries.
But what's going to happen? The same thing that happens every time that there's a minimum wage increase: Rents increase in direct proportion to the amount of extra income. That means $800 a month apartments will go to $1200 a month. It means that cable and cell phone bills will increase, as they aim for a certain percentage of the rate payer's income.
So no fat sales tax bonanza for any of these cities - just more public employee wages, higher health costs for current and retired employees, and of course, higher costs for already retired as they'll get a piece of the pie as well.
Betcha the shorter hours start expanding beyond minimum wage jobs and into the public sector.
Why you smug, callous little SOB...
That’s interesting.
The business pays more in salary but also, then, more social security tax and unemployment tax. I am not that familiar with unemployment tax, but I assume it is a percentage tax.
By taking money from top earners and giving it to bottom earners the left is also reducing the amount of tax they collect because the top earner pays a higher percent on the same money. Unless of course it is offset by charging more to the customers. In the case of pizza, there is only so much a person is willing to pay.
$15 an hour, figure a pizza slice costs $2 bucks so you would have to sell 7 slices an hour or one every 8 minutes just to pay the help, and on top of that you would have to make money to pay the store rent, then insurance then money for yourself to pay your rent and support a family. Oh yes, I can definitely see how $15 an hour would work. And don’t tell me: Millionaire liberals push this crap. Millionaires who really never worked real jobs or ran a real business in their lives.
This is all part of the plan of the statists to get the citizen more subservient and dependent on the government. Get as many illegals as possible into the country while raising minimum wage of the citizen all but guaranteeing the small business person will hire illegals leaving more and more of the citizenry on welfare and food stamps, then simply threaten them every election cycle “If you don’t vote Democrap you’ll lose your welfare and food stamps” which will all but guarantee Democraps win every election. And Repubs sit back and allow this to happen because they all have the balls of Kansas city faggots. Face it - When it comes to playing hardball Republicans make Richard Simmons look like Chuck Norris. They are the biggest effin wuss bags going today.
That’s unexpected. Who would have guessed that making labor more expensive would reduce the demand for labor?
The government requires inflation to handle the debt it has to pay off. The reason government debt is allowed, is that its paying future dollars for today’s debt. But when there is no inflation, future dollars can’t keep up with the growing debt.
This of course will always be a problem. There are only a few times when the tax revenue grows faster than the debt growth. But between 1983 and 2007 we had this situation most of the time. And its starting to occur now. But it won’t last long. Inflation often causes increased government expenses and a higher cost of government debt. Then ad a recession and its all over.
Don’t you mean they make Chuck Norris look like Richard Simmons?
I mean...it's not like people's lives are being ruined. (sarcasm)
If you took most minimum wage employees and gave them an eight-hour introduction to the cost angle to the operation....I think most would stand there in shock. Most have no idea what the rent costs for the operation. No one could make a reasonable guess on utilities (pizza ovens run continually, thus sucking huge electrical costs). If you make deliveries, there’s some cost there. Toss in insurance and advertising. If you run some franchise operation, then you have eight to ten percent of your profit going out the door. Just two or three ‘bad’ deliveries a week could turn off potential customers and screw-up your long-term profit margin. For $15 to work...an average pizza would have to be at least 20-percent more than it is currently. Who the heck would pay $14 for a medium pizza?
Someone needs to do a fictional business introduction video of a little pizza shop and how this ‘cog’ fits into a business profile....surviving off marginal profits.
“The director of Now Seattle, which rallied for the minimum wage, had no comment, only saying “Restaurants open and close all the time, for various reasons.”
“In the name of the general welfare, to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that:
“Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such Board to be appointed by the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources. All persons reaching the age of twenty-one shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.
“Point Two. All industrial, commercial, manufacturing and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit nor leave nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under penalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any and all of their property.”
As per Point Two, no more need to worry bout that restaurant closing for any reason! Be of good cheer comrade ‘Now Seattle’ director! The new USSA is almost complete and shall enter into the time of Glorious Worker Paradise!
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