Many, Many people do not know how a payroll expense is figured....they think that you set aside the $15.00 per hour and then pick up whatever expenses that there are involved with having an employee. That is one of the major reasons that small business failures are so high. In reality, an employer says I can afford $30 per hour for help. Out of that $30 comes unemployment ins, 1/2 FICA, vacation allowance, liability ins., health ins., and what is left of the $30, the employee gets.
And what most liberal idiots -- and apparently altogether too many FReepers do not realize -- is when the money is spent by regulatory or compliance costs, it means fewer employees. But you must get the same dollar return from those who remain, since you can't raise prices to customers. What does that mean? That the productivity of those who remain must increase. Effectively, everybody who still has a job when the government music stops must pay the cost of their new "freebies."