Posted on 05/25/2015 6:50:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
If you love In-N-Out burgers and care about the workers who flip your burgers, then you should support a minimum wage of $0.
Deep down, I know you’re tired of seeing actors jump up and down for TV cameras while waving professional signs that read: “McGreedy! McStingy! McPoverty!” or “McShame. McDonald’s. Raise That Wage.”
You weren’t born yesterday. You doubt that these protestors come up with these slogans on their own or fashion them into makeshift signs with their own cardboard, sticks and markers. You suspect they were given signs and paid to wave them. Indeed, in recent protests, 84% of McDonald's "protesters" were not real McDonald's employees but paid and trained professional rioters.
Professional rioters pout and shout in public for a one-time cash payment—not a cause. Since rioters are not entrepreneurs, they do not empathize with the challenges of competing in the restaurant business where profit margins hover at 4%. Nor do they understand the feat of turning a profit while relying on a staff of over-paid and inexperienced high school students.
Greed clouds the intellect of many professional wage protesters. For, reason as well as the Fourth Amendment tell us that every American business owner has a natural right to spend their private property (or cash) on employee wages as they see fit.
Los Angeles’ current minimum wage is above the Federal minimum of $7.25. Last week, the Los Angeles city council voted to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour. Los Angeles is a city of nearly 19 million. According to TIME, a maximum of 800,000 people—or about four percent of the city’s population—will benefit.
Besides “benefiting” up to 800,000 people, the wage hike will eventually hurt an untold number of people. Prepare to see (and smell) more wrinkly clothing and shaggy hair when Los Angelenos delay trips to the dry cleaners and barber.
Joking aside, we have recent a case study of what happens when we jack up the minimum wage. After the city of Seattle, Washington raised its minimum wage to $15, Forbes reported: “Restaurants are closing at higher than normal rates.”
On the national level, six years after the “end” of the Great Recession, wages are still anemic. In April, hourly wages rose 0.1 percent, prompting the New York Times to run a story in May about how “the growth in jobs failed to translate, once again, into any significant improvement in pay.” So, even if you believe the government’s data on job increases, there is no way to avoid the reality that wages are stagnant. Across America, employers are keeping wages low in order to eek out a profit.
So far, no one has solved this riddle: how do you create MORE jobs while forcing employers to raise wages by 107%, from $7.25 to $15?
Seattle tried, without luck. Now Los Angeles is trying. But Bank of America just surveyed their small business owners and found that only 21 percent have experienced full economic recovery over the past six years. Retailers in particular are fighting for the pecuniary crumbs of price-conscious American consumers. Indeed, my Millennial peers are so frugal that Whole Foods is rolling out a cheaper version of its grocery brand in a frantic attempt to get us to even walk through their doors.
Our overall economy is floundering and no amount of arbitrary lawmaking will spur wage growth. We need organic growth, which comes from small businesses generating profits that are sizable enough to justify expanding, hiring and increasing benefits.
Entrepreneurs have and will respond to mandatory wage minimums by moving their companies; raising prices; reducing staff; deferring expansion plans; or by reducing the quantity and quality of their services.
You are left with two choices. You can enjoy tapping your foot in line at your favorite burger joint as you wait for that cheeseburger, soda and fries that used to take three minutes and now takes 15 due to staff reductions. You can accept mediocrity as the new reality of American retail service. Or, you can speak up in defense of a $0 minimum wage and an America where bureaucrats do not force entrepreneurs to over-pay burger flippers. It’s a juicy choice to ponder as you grill out on Memorial Day.
True, of course.
Obviously, the point I was attempting to make is that across-the-board cost increases do not create a competitive imbalance.
Compare this to one of the industries I used to be in, janitorial services.
Company A hires illegal aliens. Their costs are considerably lower as a result. The industry is considered a commodity service, decisions of who to hire are based primarily on price. It’s also a very labor-intensive industry, much more so than restaurants.
Company B, which for ethical reasons chooses not to hire illegal aliens, is faced with Company A being able to undercut their pricing by 20% or more.
Unless Company B abandons its moral principles, it will soon lose massive market share to Company A and other companies operating the same way. In fact, Company B will soon be out of business.
BTW, many years ago I worked for Company B.
He lost you there? Who is he?
Only $25 per hour? Why not $50, 100, 1000, 10,000 or even $1million per hour. I know you are sarcastic and so am I, These are idiots
Zero would definitely be the minimum
The minimum wage push is all about unions, and financed by unions. It has nothing to do with the poor. As usual, the Leftists are using the poor as their weapon of choice... not that it will help the poor in any way if the Marxists succeed.
No or little education no or little skills yeah your going to get $15.00 an hour guess what dreams don’t even end up that way and that hand you feel in your pocket is your union rep.
Every time the minimum wage is is risen the employer cuts the hours in half or even more. So were does the raise go? Out the door that’s where and these idiots that call for the minimum wage increase don’t even get it in their thick skulls
Serves these idiots right
Dont know why I thought this was Katie Pavlich.
Same first name
"Mr. TA Sir, that's an interesting analysis. I noticed you didn't analyze how it would impact the owners ROI, or whether the business was currently profitable, or would be under the wage assumptions. Will the business be profitable?
We don't know.
Is that a concern?
No.
And on he went.
Far be it from me to be critical of your economic analysis, of facts no less...but you're tossing assumptions like Pike Place fish.
Far be it from me to stand in the way of " analysis," even when the lives and property of others becomes grease for the tracks of your analysis "tank"... but where is the analysis of current profitability and ROI of the business?
Am I the only person to notice that the interests of the business are not of interest?
I hope you're doing well, Mr. TA.
Even wait staff?
Are those professional protesters getting paid 15/hours or is it less?
So the impacts of this proposal on any given business simply cannot be analyzed in advance, and it is not even in theory possible to figure out what they might be.
As I said up front, there are lots of reasons to oppose this proposal, but hyperbole about all the restaurants closing isn’t one of them.
If you object to my admittedly and intentionally simplistic analysis, why don’t you provide one? Why is it necessary to discuss the issue in an intentional fog of vagueness?
As a consumer, I may be the outlier, but my spending habits are firmly rooted is “What is best for me”. This has many facets to it.
When I NEED something I read packaging labels.
Brand, Country/State of origin, and ingredients. I absolutely refuse to consume Chinese anything... for health reasons and for the reason that it SHOULD BE able to be produced domestically, or by myself at less cost.
It maybe “only be” a $3.79 manual can opener... but the Made In USA label means the employees of that company are paying taxes, as opposed to collecting SNAP benefits. I CHOOSE the “premium” price over the Ding Dong one knowing that the one I picked is most likely not made by slave labor using Chernobyl scrap steel, recycled medical instruments, and ground up aborted fetuses.
As far as I know, yes.
Small businesses can pay $10, instead of the current $11 for big businesses, if the employee receives tips.
I believe Seattle restaurants had to pay minimum wage to wait staff before the recent $15 legislation.
That might be the law nationally.
I parked cars for a national hotel chain in the early 1980’s and got minimum wage plus tips.
health certificates and out of date meat
Wouldn't be the default response. That's the bureaucrats' argument and it's false from the start. Remember that Upton Sinclair is a known liar and the Jungle is a work of fiction.
A reasonable approach. If more people followed your lead we’d avoid some problems. Sadly, if enough people jump to the Chinese products the US competitors go out of business and you won’t have a US option anymore.
When there is no US option, the alternative for, say, a can opener, are usually between a cheap Chinese version and a fancy European one at perhaps 10x the Chinese price.
At least that’s often been my experience.
Au Contraire...the impacts are simple to predict, based upon fundamental economic principles. If one wishes to analyze the impact upon business and the number of possible relocations and out-of-business sales that result, it's possible. It cannot be credibly done without analyzing the ROI and profitability of particular businesses before and after a change.
As I said up front, there are lots of reasons to oppose this proposal, but hyperbole about all the restaurants closing isn’t one of them.
As I said, your analysis is insufficient to get one there. There's been a lot of reporting on this issue in the Puget Sound Business Journal. If this $15/hr proposal happens restaurants will see salaries skyrocket.
Know also that the impacts will be felt differently. The Bistro on Eastlake will feel it more harshly than the McDonalds on Westlake.
The minimum wage IS zero.
Think about it.
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