Higher Minimum Wage Coming Soon

You think the country benefits by having low minimum wage?

Low minimum wage + lax enforcement of labor laws is what’s driving mass immigration into the US (both legal and illegal)


This country’s demographics -- hence destiny -- is being forever altered by pea size brained idiots who think saving a few thousand bucks on salary per year will improve their bottom line.

For those that think this will ignite inflation, I challenge you to come and live in California with us. We are on the receiving end of this experiment and guess what? We have both high inflation and massive immigration.

That’s because salary levels are not the only inflationary force. If your population is exploding, the price for everything goes up. Having 500 Mexicans stand in front of Home Depot willing to work for $20 per day will not benefit society. If it did, California would be the #1 state in the union.

 

How many employees does your buddy have that are minimum wage that they want to cut their wages? My guess it isn't many and if he cuts by more than $ 0.50 he is probably going to lose those employees. And if they stay how much will he save, maybe $ 50 to $150 a week. If $100 a week makes a difference in success or failure in business then you're too close to the edge financially.
Making the working poor even poorer is not going to fix the employment problem in America.

 

$100 a wk X 2 = $200 a wk X 4 wks = $800 a month.
Not insignificant savings, for a small sandwich shop.
To extrapolate further, 2 employees X, oh lets say $800 a month each is a savings of $1600 a month.
Even more savings for a little business struggling to stay alive.
The choice came down to save the business, or fire 2 employees.

 

They'll be less people working, period. You , as an employer, give your raises to the employees you wish to reward. To have a Centralized govt tell you what to pay is ludicrous. Ask any contractor about Workman's Comp. Especially in an economy like this, it costs jobs. Maybe some business that could hang on won't be able to. Or maybe the owner just throws in the towel. But hiked minimum wages to this degree is not a good thing.

You get yourself some employees, and report back to us. I for one, would choose what I wanted to pay. Your employee doesn't like it, he moves along You want to keep him, you give him a raise. Seems simple to me.

It's going to be interesting as the rest of the economy collapses later in the year. I wonder if they'll claw this back, as everything else comes in. We'reprobably already at 12% unemployment if the Cookie Lady told the truth. What do they do at 15? Make it 16 bucks? Or do they bring it in to give the little businesses a chance.

 

I would agree with flytiger and ianmacquaide completely and you are missing the point big arrow. First remember, the vast majority of employers in the US are small businesses, which I classify as anyone with below 50 employees and many less than 20. They don’t have the cash reserves of larger companies and every little bit makes a big difference. Second, this affects all minimum wage workers, those with the least marketable skills and the one’s who need the money the most that will be affected by this. Servers, busboys, lot guys on car lots and so on. There are a lot of servers out there and others at places like Starbucks and so on. And fewer of them will have jobs because of this.

I have a friend who has a diner/ice cream shack and he is not happy as he will be getting rid of some employees for sure and as suggested above, pick up the slack himself. If you actually ran a small business, with all due respect, you would change your tune I believe. Now society has to help support these people. And it may sound a bit harsh, but people are paid what they are worth, whether they admit it or not. If all you can get is a min wage job, then that is what your skills to an employer are worth. If you don’t like it, improve your skills and move up the ladder.

Also consider more important than the headlines and feel good talk that this raise gives politicians to show how much they “care” about the less advantaged. Remember all those servers and others who make very low wages and make most of their money on tips now have higher taxes that are reported as well. So on paper they may make more, but now their effective wage is lower because they didn’t use to report all their earnings and thus are not taxed on the majority of them. So they are probably really losing money. Not a great step forward in my book.

Agreed, this doesn’t affect skilled workers much if at all. But I also agree I don’t want the govt. telling me how to run my business or how much to pay my employees, unless they want to subsidize the higher wage (no I am not a socialist just saying). Let supply and demand do its job. As suggested, if they don’t like the wage go somewhere else. If I like them, I will give them a raise. Not everything always needs "improved" to make things better. Let the free markets do their job.

Good trading.

BM

 

I'm getting back to you like you asked. I've had employees for going on 22 years. I'm not a small business expert like you are but I have a few years of experience under my belt. As for your worker comp remark, it's not a big deal if (and that's a real big if) everyone is bidding jobs based on the same rules, but that's a different discussion.

The minimum wage laws fall into the same category as minimum worker age laws, overtime pay laws. Most people don't have one problem with these other laws where the government restricts what an employer can do with regards to his employees but you are hung up on the minimum wage part. Minimum wage in itself isn't a problem, if it's to low it can be a problem for the working poor and if it's too high it's a problem for business. Where it's at now isn't a problem for business.

from mcquaide comments - $100 a wk X 2 = $200 a wk X 4 wks = $800 a month.
Not insignificant savings, for a small sandwich shop.
To extrapolate further, 2 employees X, oh lets say $800 a month each is a savings of $1600 a month.
Even more savings for a little business struggling to stay alive.
The choice came down to save the business, or fire 2 employees.

You will not keep any of your existing employees if you cut their pay by $400 a month so your example isn't realistic, not even close. And when an employer does that the remaining employees will start looking for a more secure job.
Face it guys right now there is no problem with the minimum wage.

 

What is your opinion of the mandatory overtime wage laws?

Been in business since 1987 and not once has the minimum wage been an issue for me.

 

Probably not a concern for people who pay under the table, either. But can you see how it can be for a lot of people? And that a guy in a Gucci suit, calling himself a Democrat, not letting windturbines in his backyard can profess to be a champion of the little man, as long as he doesn't have to look at him or smell him, or break bread with him, and hurt him just the same?

 

.70c hourly increase x 33 hrs (avg work week) = $23.1

7.65% employER share of FICA = $1.77

$24.87 base wage increase per employEE, per 33 hour work week.

Include applicable state and local taxes which are rising, workmans comp fees, and all other administrative costs of doing business within a particular locale for the more accurate weekly figure.

Whatever, let's be bourgeoisie and say this sandwich shop has an 80% NET profit per $5 footlong ... to maintain CURRENT profitability, assuming stable food costs (ha) and no (overhead) cost pass-though to the customer, Mr. Sandwich must sell an additional 6.2 (six point two) footlongs per week, per employee.

BigArrow wins the BigIdiot comment of the weekend.

 

Bigarrow,

I am glad minimum wage has not been an issue for you. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an issue for others. If you ran a restaurant where you were used to paying someone 2.20 to 2.50 per hour or whatever and they made the rest in unclaimed (and untaxed) tips and now you have to triple your wage cost to the 7.25 minimum, I am sure you can see how that is bad for the restaurant owner. Their wage cost tripled for no benefit to them other than for the government to “appear” to help the little guy or gal, which I am not convinced they are doing. Again, I don’t own a restaurant so this doesn’t affect me personally (nor would I want to be in such a commodity business but that is another conversation) but I certainly see and understand the restaurant owners and many small businesses' perspective this will affect.

Regarding mandatory overtime wage laws, I disagree that an employer should be able to force an employee to work mandatory overtime, except in extreme circumstances like a natural disaster (one of four exemptions to the law) in the county of nurses for example. But again, I haven’t had much exposure to this law. Personally, neither law will not affect me as the few employees I have had have been well above minimum wage (the quality you get for minimum is lacking IMHO) and overtime is very rarely needed so I will pay it when needed. This is not affiliated with the trading side of my interests. I am far from an expert on employment law I confess. That is what attorneys are for.

Good trading and best of luck in your small business.

BM