Woman says legacy restaurants are closing because nobody will work for them

[Estro Felino]

Businesses will respond, likely not as you expect or want.
Increased labor costs will inevitably have consequences,
eg, raising prices, changing staff, reducing staff, adding
automation, changing hours. It could be one or a mix
of those.
On occasion, businesses will shut down, as you joke about.
It happened to a foundry I know of. Employees unionized
& demanded more money. They owner anticipated losing
profitability, so he closed the business.

...or maybe it's due to the pre-Marxist dogma that the Capitalist must necessarily have the 90% of the business profit...
and all the rest goes to wages, costs, and other passive budget items...

 

[Estro Felino]

All a business has to do is show their profit margin that they can't afford it, but most know the truth most of those businesses , the successful ones , can most certainly afford it and absorb living wages without raising prices or altering wages and salaries including the owners.

If an owner wants to raise prices , let them do it. It's their problem in the end if people don't want to go anymore and patronize them.

I don't know what it is but I know people do have limits on what they're going to spend on something.

I think family businesses are a good thing...
That is the business owner hires his own family...

Well...if he doesn't hire them because not even his own family is disposed to slave away on that wage...
well...that speaks volumes.

 

[Revoltingest]

I was making a general comment....

Very general it was.
I took issue with that.

...about the scenario which was being presented here. Businesses are closing because they can't offer higher wages and no one wants to work for them anymore.

This was similar to other recent threads where the discussion of minimum wage hikes, painting a picture of businesses closing and employees out of work. It implies some kind of gloom-and-doom scenario of businesses shuttering and unemployment to the point of economic collapse due to government interference.

That's your inference. Not mine.
Complex system response isn't just either
a general great or terrible alternative.
But all consequences should be envisioned
& weighted, with plans to address the
problems created.

So, I guess my question is: Is that what's being implied here? What is the end game here? Where is all this leading?
It seems like this would hit harder on the smaller businesses, whereas the major corporations would be large enough to absorb the incurred losses from having to pay higher wages.

Small or large....not an issue I see.
Just consider all the likely consequences.
Are there problems? Address them.

 

[Revoltingest]

...or maybe it's due to the pre-Marxist dogma that the Capitalist must necessarily have the 90% of the business profit...
and all the rest goes to wages, costs, and other passive budget items...

What the Klingon commie has said is unimportant, and we do not hear his words.

 

[Estro Felino]

What the Klingon commie has said is unimportant, and we do not hear his words.

Are you speaking of Karl Marx?

 

[Revoltingest]

Are you speaking of Karl Marx?

Did you see that I was responding to a particular post?
I assumed that it wasn't Groucho, Chico, Zeppo, or Harpo.

 

[Wandering Monk]

They charge so much for food, but they cannot pay people a decent hourly wage? They must think their workers are garbage. I wouldn't trust the food to be safe to eat anyway. Its why I'm not hitting Subway. I don't understand why they ask for tips when I have no idea what the workers are paid. If its 2$ then of course I'll never eat there.

From what I can gather, profit margins for sit-down restaurants is between 2 and 6 percent.

 

[Brickjectivity]

From what I can gather, profit margins for sit-down restaurants is between 2 and 6 percent.

That is truly unfortunate.

I once applied for a job prepping in a kitchen. The manager was overworked and looked like they hadn't slept for a year. The floor was nasty with water and filth. They had a bar, waitresses, cooks. Thank goodness the clients couldn't see this mess in the back that I was walking in.

In a different state in the union I also washed dishes in a clean kitchen. It was an all you can eat place. We were all minimum wage workers, young people. Once in a while somebody did things without washing their hands. I never did, and I felt absolutely abominable about seeing this happen. Most didn't care. Of course this was long before Covid 19, and I don't know if things improved after that.

The fact is that the human immune system is typically reliable. Those with weak immune systems should never, ever eat out. When I eat out I always order a diet soda to follow the food. When I don't there is often a price for not doing so.

2% 6%? Not worth it.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Did you see that I was responding to a particular post?
I assumed that it wasn't Groucho, Chico, Zeppo, or Harpo.

Must be Chaplin then.

 

[Stevicus]

Very general it was.
I took issue with that.



That's your inference. Not mine.
Complex system response isn't just either
a general great or terrible alternative.
But all consequences should be envisioned
& weighted, with plans to address the
problems created.

Small or large....not an issue I see.
Just consider all the likely consequences.
Are there problems? Address them.

I don't see government interference in the private sector as a problem. It's the business owners and capitalists who complain about that, oftentimes threatening to take their ball and go home if they don't get their way. But they never really do.

 

[Estro Felino]

I also think that business owners should be smarter.
If you trust and treat your employees with kindness and appreciation, they will be disposed to work for low wages.
Because a very friendly, nice working environment is priceless. They will become attached to the business.

If you're bossy, if you diss and gaslight your employees and you even underpay them...well...I think you need to see a psychologist. Or better, a psychiatrist.

 

[Subduction Zone]

That's hard to believe.
Since 1999, restaurant prices have risen sharply,
which increases tips. And tipping has risen from
10% to 20% (more or less). So their income
has indeed risen.

Tipping.....it's a system imported from Europe in the 1800s.

The History of Tipping: How Tipping Came to America

Most people don't know the complex and controversial origins of tipping. How did gratuity become integral to North American restaurant culture?

www.7shifts.com

I was a waiter in the late 70's. Even then the standard was 15% to 20% for a tip. Less than 15% was an insult and the restaurant that I worked at was a fairly basic one. It was open 24 hours with a bar downstairs with limited hours. Tipping may have increased 5% since then, not since 1999. And when I first started one could lie about one's tips and get away with it. That ended while I was working where one had a minimal amount that one had to claim and today with almost everything paid by credit card almost all tips are reported so that would be a drop in earnings.

 

[Revoltingest]

I don't see government interference in the private sector as a problem.

Of course you don't.
Government always knows & does best.

It's the business owners and capitalists who complain about that, oftentimes threatening to take their ball and go home if they don't get their way. But they never really do.

You know fewer people in business than I do.
Also less about business history (at least in manufacturing).
Your apparent belief that it doesn't matter how far
government goes in regulation, it's always no problem.
**** that ****.

 

[Revoltingest]

I was a waiter in the late 70's. Even then the standard was 15% to 20% for a tip. Less than 15% was an insult and the restaurant that I worked at was a fairly basic one. It was open 24 hours with a bar downstairs with limited hours. Tipping may have increased 5% since then, not since 1999. And when I first started one could lie about one's tips and get away with it. That ended while I was working where one had a minimal amount that one had to claim and today with almost everything paid by credit card almost all tips are reported so that would be a drop in earnings.

I distinctly remember 10% being standard back then.
Perhaps different standards in different areas.

 

[Stevicus]

Of course you don't.
Government always knows & does best.

You know fewer people in business than I do.
Also less about business history (at least in manufacturing).
Your apparent belief that it doesn't matter how far
government goes in regulation, it's always no problem.
**** that ****.

I have nothing more to add.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I also think that business owners should be smarter.
If you trust and treat your employees with kindness and appreciation, they will be disposed to work for low wages.
Because a very friendly, nice working environment is priceless. They will become attached to the business.

If you're bossy, if you diss and gaslight your employees and you even underpay them...well...I think you need to see a psychologist. Or better, a psychiatrist.

People with discretionary incomes spend more so the money goes right back into businesses. It's why I don't believe in trickle down economics anymore, but rather trickle up.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I distinctly remember 10% being standard back then.
Perhaps different standards in different areas.

Could be. I lived in the Big City!

 

[Revoltingest]

I have nothing more to add.

Woohoo!

 

[Estro Felino]

Of course you don't.
Government always knows & does best.

You know fewer people in business than I do.
Also less about business history (at least in manufacturing).
Your apparent belief that it doesn't matter how far
government goes in regulation, it's always no problem.
**** that ****.

For the record: the United States is made up of properties.
The 90% of those pieces of properties were taken by the colonizers, even before the Declaration of Independence.
The colonizers and their heirs make up, let's say, the 10% of the US population. (Even if we all know it's much less than that).
So the 90% of the US population has the 10% of the overall pieces of property.

So...it's natural that there is a government that regulates a society and an economy based upon inequality.
Unless you want to state that that 10% are gods, while the remaining 90% are nothing.
And gods deserve everything, while non-gods deserve nothing.

 

[Revoltingest]

For the record: the United States is made up of properties.
The 90% of those pieces of properties were taken by the colonizers, even before the Declaration of Independence.
The colonizers and their heirs make up, let's say, the 10% of the US population. (Even if we all know it's much less than that).
So the 90% of the US population has the 10% of the overall pieces of property.

So...it's natural that there is a government that regulates a society and an economy based upon inequality.
Unless you want to state that that 10% are gods, while the remaining 90% are nothing.
And gods deserve everything, while non-gods deserve nothing.

That is quite a collection of words.