Nice Going Governor.. 15 an hour for Fast Food Workers across the State of New York. oh boy.....

[Iti oj]

Not true. It happens time and time again in the past. Prices will go up. Count on it.

from one market increasing wages? give me 2 examples

 

[Iti oj]

It doesn't but that doesn't mean the minimum wage idea is flawed - it's the fact that businesses are allowed to operate outside that legislation that is the problem. If restaurants paid their waiting staff at least the minimum wage then they wouldn't need to rely so heavily on tips just to make ends meet. The fault there lies with the business owners who pay their staff slave wages.

tips pay better than min wage

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

tips pay better than min wage

Only when tips are present, and even then only when they're generous. It also doesn't help that restaurant owners help themselves to most of their waiting staff's tips, leaving them a fraction of what they received. Indeed, the 'mandatory tipping' culture present in some places is what allows some restaurants to pay their staff ****-poor wages because it transfers the onus of fairly remunerating staff on to the customer. Well, that and the ridiculous amounts they spend lobbying to keep tipped wages sanctioned in law.

 

[Penumbra]

Lets see......

Just can't wait for food prices across the state to suddenly go up drastically effectively nullifying the difference made. So much for getting ahead while having the distinct privilege of paying more taxes for your new found wealth. Government will be happy happy happy.
Speaking of happy.....

20 dollar happy meals perhaps?

Will retail and service sector jobs make a stink as well? Unified call for minimum 15 wage across the board for all minimum wage workers everywhere???

Oh wait a minute....

More business packing up and saying screw you New York. Unemployment more unemployment.....

Sorry workers. Help will soon not be wanted. All positions filled.

Clicky source linky thing......

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/11/new-york-state-oks-15-minimum-wage-for-fast-food-workers.html

Ahem..

So what does the discerning customer expect from a 15 dollar an hour fast food employee?

Will my order finally be made right for once with everything that was ordered, and asked for?

Will the food be fresher and consequently taste better than serving something sitting under a heat lamp for several hours?

I now demand a retroactive reimbursement from all the years I had to work at a minimum wage job at a measly 3.50 an hour. :0°

I'm done.

Your turn.......

Labor costs only make up a certain percentage of expenses of restaurants, and food costs only make up a certain percentage of a person's income. So, increasing wages does not increase food costs to the customer by an equal amount, and whatever price increases do get passed onto a customer do not negate the overall increase in income of low wage workers.

And if you're a taxpayer like me, you're already paying extra for those workers anyway. Since their minimum wages don't typically cover family food expenses, rent, and other necessities, you and I are paying for food stamps and housing subsidies. Companies like Walmart and chain restaurants are essentially being subsidized by the government and taxpayers, because they compensate their employees so low that we are the ones paying the difference. And the U.S. has among the highest income inequality in the world; literally higher than any other large, highly developed country.

People also tend to have a distorted view of food costs I think. The percentage of disposable income that Americans spend on food has been cut in half over the last 50 years:
http://ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/detail.aspx?chartId=52216&ref=collection&embed=True

So, worrying about the cost of cheap meals is relative. You're paying far less for food than almost anyone historically in the world ever has. And a lot of that is because we're discretely paying that money in other forms: agricultural subsidies and indirect subsidies for cheap labor for corporations.

 

[Politesse]

Its a slippery slope. Now employers are going to have to match pay with other workers or risk losing them.

Usually ends up with turnover that perpetuates less experienced transient personal as being the new standard thus lowering overall quality and reliability that otherwise comes with a more stable employment base. Turnover seems to have gotton to the point today where it's normalized and accepted along with the lower standards it brings.

Still seeing no evidence that your scenario ever actually happens.

They DO treat workers as replaceable. But making the workers more of an investment doesn't make them more replaceable.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Still seeing no evidence that your scenario ever actually happens.

Really?

 

[Twilight Hue]

from one market increasing wages? give me 2 examples

Don't really have to. Watch what happens first hand for yourself.

Prices will Jack up.

Take it to the bank.

 

[Twilight Hue]

tips pay better than min wage

Nope. My sister worked as a bartender while in college. Maybe covered gas costs a little bit.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Don't really have to. Watch what happens first hand for yourself.

Prices will Jack up.

Take it to the bank.

The last time minimum wage went up I barely noticed an increase. However, when gas prices went up, that is when I really felt a pinch.

 

[Twilight Hue]

In years past inflation has risen much faster than increases in minimum wage. And you also have to consider those who have worked, who have been trying, who have done everything they're "supposed to do," but can't catch a break.

Trust me. I know what your saying. I felt the same way in the eighties.

That elusive break will likely come but people are going to have to realise a lot of work will be required to get to where you need to be.


It really is no different now than it was way back when. There we're times I even threw my hands up into the air and simply bawled my eyes out wanting to just lay down and die.

Looking back I really think it's a matter of attitude and fortitude that is lacking.

What we have now, is a generation of people that have a massive entitlement complex. It's unhealthy and destructive in so many ways.

 

[Politesse]

Really?

Yeah, really. You're stating this like you're talking reality, I'll give you that. But your statements aren't rooted in any actual economic study... increasing wages does not, in fact, cause legitimate businesses to flee. Some of the best job markets in the world also have high minimum wages, and all of the places in the world that lack minimum wage laws are economically depressed. So if you'll excuse a fast food reference, where's the beef?

 

[Politesse]

Trust me. I know what your saying. I felt the same way in the eighties.

That elusive break will likely come but people are going to have to realise a lot of work will be required to get to where you need to be.


It really is no different now than it was way back when. There we're times I even threw my hands up into the air and simply bawled my eyes out wanting to just lay down and die.

Looking back I really think it's a matter of attitude and fortitude that is lacking.

What we have now, is a generation of people that have a massive entitlement complex. It's unhealthy and destructive in so many ways.

So inspiring.

How many hours a week were you working, for what wages, and what bills did you have to pay? Because I think you are deeply slighting my generation on false grounds. The elusive "welfare queen" may exist somewhere, but everyone I know works hard as hell for little compensation, unless they were already employed when the recession began and managed to hold on to their old job. I finally broke out, with the help of a graduate degree and a lot of luck, but nothing has ever, ever just been handed to you. And if you're suggesting that if I had been making 15 dollars an hour instead of 6, I would have just sat down and failed to advance, well, I only have two words for that allegation, and it wouldn't be polite to say them.

 

[Twilight Hue]

The last time minimum wage went up I barely noticed an increase. However, when gas prices went up, that is when I really felt a pinch.

I dunno your particular situation nor is it any of my business, but perhaps you are better at managing finances or live more efficiently than others? Demographic play in as well. Other locations may prove more prosperous.

Still, where the perpetuation lays. Once people feel financially strapped it's always back to square one. There is no livable standard by which we can establish for any considerable length of time.

Next decade this will repeat itself with new calls for a living wage.

 

[Twilight Hue]

So inspiring.

How many hours a week were you working, for what wages, and what bills did you have to pay? Because I think you are deeply slighting my generation on false grounds. The elusive "welfare queen" may exist somewhere, but everyone I know works hard as hell for little compensation, unless they were already employed when the recession began and managed to hold on to their old job.

Trust me. What your saying came from my own lips when struggling in the late seventies and early eighties. I would have said the same words and rational as you are putting out now.

I still hate this saying but, "Life isn't always fair."

You just need to get used to it and persevere. Incidently, my days at work exceed 12 to 13 hours, much of it unpaid hours as I'm only paid mileage with some token compensation like border crossing and detention pay.


Just keep working hard.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Yeah, really. You're stating this like you're talking reality, I'll give you that. But your statements aren't rooted in any actual economic study... increasing wages does not, in fact, cause legitimate businesses to flee. Some of the best job markets in the world also have high minimum wages, and all of the places in the world that lack minimum wage laws are economically depressed. So if you'll excuse a fast food reference, where's the beef?

Any expense can cause a business to flee towards cheaper grounds. Even if wage increases were not the primary issue, it can potentially be "the straw that breaks the camels back" if you may parden the idiom.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

That elusive break will likely come but people are going to have to realise a lot of work will be required to get to where you need to be.

Just to put my own situation out there, if I want this "break" I am going to have to move. However, moving means moving away from a setting that I actually do like. It's nice, quiet, and peaceful here, and the only time my front door is locked when my jank door knob locks itself. I have some very good friends here, and I am friends with one family who has been far more of a family to me than my own family, and moving away is to loose all of that. Even though I'm still early in my transition, I have one friend who treats me like any other girl. I have another friend that no matter what, she'll have my back. Where I live, I can stand out in my back yard, smoke a bowl of pot, and watch 4th of July firework displays from several different cities. I really don't want to leave what I have. I hate living here, but the tranquility and the few friends that I do have I cherish very much. But if I want to make more than 10/hour doing something that isn't grunt work my options here are extremely limited.
Yes, I talk a lot about leaving here, but it actually really tears me up inside because the move is mostly for economic reasons. Just about any city I have looked at, outside of Indiana, I can find jobs that pay about three-times as much, or more, than anything I can find here, and when you consider rent compared to wages, even housing is much cheaper (even though it's technically more money per month, but I can make so much more elsewhere that it becomes cheaper).
The median income where I live, counting considering both counties since I live in one and just a few miles from another, is only around $40,000 a year, and we have plenty of doctors, lawyers, and Chrysler workers who bring the number up, while we have legions of low-wage workers who bring it down. Mentally I can't tolerate factory and warehouse work (I actually had an anxiety attack on my way to work once, at a warehouse, because work was consuming all of my time and energy and it was really not anything that resembled a life of quality), fast food and retail I refuse to do because no one should ever be expected to tolerate to the way those workers are treated, which pretty much leaves me with nothing. I did get a lead on a data entry job, which I lied on my resume to bulk up my data entry experience, and I got a lead on a driving job, which is going to hurt me knee like a mother ****er, but there just are no other jobs here that someone who graduated from college (magna cum laude) and is very multi-talented should be working. If my knee wasn't bad I'd consider doing roofing and construction again just because the job market here is so poor. Even my job skills lady told me that, yes, it is very hard to find good jobs around here.
And I consider myself lucky because I have no kids or "real" family tying my down here. I have no obligations, no reasons, no purposes to stay here. In that sense, I am very much free to pick and leave (just as long as I have the money to get there). But many cannot so easily relocate.
Although, I can admit, this push to increase minimum wage to $15 an hour has made me realize that rather than a federal minimum wage, we need to have a federal law that mandates a livable wage that is set by each individual state. Here $15 an hour is so much money that even a high schooler who works closing shifts at McDonalds wouldn't need to improve themselves financially unless they wanted the really expensive toys like jet skis.

 

[Koldo]

Anyways I view minimum wage thresholds as being no solution for personal viability. There will never be a livable standard met. Ever.

Let me see if I got this right : At worst, people end up eventually getting screwed if the minimum wage is raised. But they are already screwed in the first place. So, who cares ?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Let me see if I got this right : At worst, people end up eventually getting screwed if the minimum wage is raised. But they are already screwed in the first place. So, who cares ?

Actually I agree as to the implication. But let me ask you this. Is burger flipping for McDonald's a lifetime endeavor?

 

[Iti oj]

Don't really have to. Watch what happens first hand for yourself.

Prices will Jack up.

Take it to the bank.

of fast food not rent and groceries just purchasing power

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Actually I agree as to the implication. But let me ask you this. Is burger flipping for McDonald's a lifetime endeavor?

What of those who loose their job because "down sizing" or other euphemistic crap reason, and fast food is all they can get while they go on a job search of indefinite length?