$15 An Hour

[3rdnlng]

but people making minimum wage can for the most part only afford cheap junk. walmart , mcd's and the like are their primary vendors in many cases. thus, it may well be in those particular employers best interest to increase pay to their workers and for others with less to gain, to be compelled to do so as well.

 

So, if Walmart raises wages so their employees don't have to buy their cheap junk and can go to Target instead, what will happen to the Walmart employees jobs when no one is buying their cheap junk?

[boyst]

So, if Walmart raises wages so their employees don't have to buy their cheap junk and can go to Target instead, what will happen to the Walmart employees jobs when no one is buying their cheap junk?

hello, bailout! Walmart, too big to fail!

[keepthefaith]

Makes sense. Maybe instead of pay increases they could just issue banana credits.

 

If we use bananas as currency does that make us a banana republic?

[NFL95MelGrayDomination]

A Charles Dickens Xmas

 

CEO: "Jesus Christ, we can't allow people to make $15 an hour, how will we ever afford the Happy Meal Toys & our year end bonuses & stock options? We can't sustain this wage increase! These people are so lazy 1/2 of them aren't signing up for the free government handouts they'd qualify for!"

Burger Flipper: "Thank you for helping me get Medicaid & EBT. Is there anything we can do?"

CEO: "Don't worry about us. Our wages have gone ONLY gone up 127% over the past 30 years. Your wages need to stay low so you can afford our Dollar Menu. Never mind our wage increases it will trickle down. If your wages go up it will lead to hyper-inflation. In the meantime we are going to continue to funnel money to PACs that are hell bent on de-funding govt assistance programs. Merry Xmas!"

Burger Flipper: "I'm glad you have all this money to donate for the betterment of our society!"

Edited December 11, 2013 by NFL95MelGrayDomination

[3rdnlng]

A Charles Dickens Xmas

 

CEO: "Jesus Christ, we can't allow people to make $15 an hour, how will we ever afford the Happy Meal Toys & our year end bonuses & stock options? We can't sustain this wage increase! These people are so lazy 1/2 of them aren't signing up for the free government handouts they'd qualify for!"

Burger Flipper: "Thank you for helping me get Medicaid & EBT. Is there anything we can do?"

CEO: "Don't worry about us. Our wages have gone ONLY gone up 127% over the past 30 years. Your wages need to stay low so you can afford our Dollar Menu. Never mind our wage increases it will trickle down. If your wages go up it will lead to hyper-inflation. In the meantime we are going to continue to funnel money to PACs that are hell bent on de-funding govt assistance programs. Merry Xmas!"

Burger Flipper: "I'm glad you have all this money to donate for the betterment of our society!"

 

Are you a bot?

[Nanker]

If we use bananas as currency does that make us a banana republic?

That IS the plan.

Forward!

 

Just like its the plan to put everyone on the Single Payer Plan. Medicare/Medicaid level of service for EVERYONE baby! I wonder if McDonalds and Walmart will still be viewed as vindictively by the "progressives" then. Another way for them to look at it - if they were honest with themselves - is that those companies are the tip of the spear wrt single payer. Why carp about them not giving hc insurance to their employees when a year from now NO company sponsored hc plans will exist?

Forward!

 

Hey - did you see the selfie of the Great Indulgent One with that hot blonde somewhere in South Africa? Wow! Wonder if he got some.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Nanker

[birdog1960]

I don't need a lesson in negotiating. Answer the question. Who is the 'most' you say agrees that $15 is a starting point? Is McDonalds or Walmart part of this 'most' or by 'most' do you mean all the people who post a comment at the bottom of a Krugman article. Who comprises this 'most?'

all the liberals here seem to agree that less than $15 will be achieved. colleagues and coworkers i've discussed it with don't believe $15 is gonna happen. i don't believe it's gonna happen. no, i don't have a poll. so what? the likelihood is that mcd workers won't be upped to a $15 minimum wage. i think they will likely get a raise. and asking for $15 to start will likely be instrumental in gettng it.

[Jauronimo]

all the liberals here seem to agree that less than $15 will be achieved. colleagues and coworkers i've discussed it with don't believe $15 is gonna happen. i don't believe it's gonna happen. no, i don't have a poll. so what? the likelihood is that mcd workers won't be upped to a $15 minimum wage. i think they will likely get a raise. and asking for $15 to start will likely be instrumental in gettng it.

So you have consensus? Thats all I needed to hear. Sign me up. We've already established that consensus is hard science.

 

Have you guys gotten around to addressing the small issue of demonstrating that McD's employees are earning a below market level wage?

[Dante]

talk to me after you've won the nobel prize for economics and land a job a princeton.

These are good things? Take a look at all the jack offs running things these days. They all went to ivy league schools. I have more respect for someone that graduated the University Of Phoenix. Nobel Prize? Who gives a shite about that?

[Gary M]

These articles about fast food wages all lament the decline of manufacturing in this country before describing how the clown and the king do not pay a "livable" wage. Is the issue really McD's employees earning wages which are too low or do we have a severe structural employment problem? Why mention the decline of manufacturing?

 

Is there a lack of skilled jobs forcing otherwise capable workers into the fast food industry? Is there a shortage of skilled labor to fill better paying jobs?

 

http://www.nytimes.c...force.html?_r=0

 

 

 

http://progressive.org/skills-gap-myth

 

The unions drove Manufacturing to China

[birdog1960]

These are good things? Take a look at all the jack offs running things these days. They all went to ivy league schools. I have more respect for someone that graduated the University Of Phoenix. Nobel Prize? Who gives a shite about that?

who? fortunately, a little more than 1/2 the electorate.

[IDBillzFan]

all the liberals here seem to agree that less than $15 will be achieved. colleagues and coworkers i've discussed it with don't believe $15 is gonna happen. i don't believe it's gonna happen. no, i don't have a poll. so what? the likelihood is that mcd workers won't be upped to a $15 minimum wage. i think they will likely get a raise. and asking for $15 to start will likely be instrumental in gettng it.

 

So in other words, most people don't support it. That's all you had to write the first time. I understand how progressive sit around agreeing on things and thinking it's a global concensus, but...ummm...it's not even close. And you'll never get people to negotiate with you when it's clear you're just making up stats.

[TPS]

all the liberals here seem to agree that less than $15 will be achieved. colleagues and coworkers i've discussed it with don't believe $15 is gonna happen. i don't believe it's gonna happen. no, i don't have a poll. so what? the likelihood is that mcd workers won't be upped to a $15 minimum wage. i think they will likely get a raise. and asking for $15 to start will likely be instrumental in gettng it.

In addition, this is not simply about reducing poverty, it's also trying to remedy the rise in inequality that's a result of policies that began in the 1980s. Policies that de-regulated finance (and other industries) and increased globalization shifted power in favor of capital over labor, profits over wages. As I stated in my last post on this topic, workers' bargaining power has been decimated, so all of the gains from productivity have gone to capital. This generates a "demand gap" over time, because even though we are able to produce more, workers' earnings are stagnant. Some results from this over time: the US has the worst inequality among the advanced economies; workers/households increased reliance on debt to maintain living standards; an economy prone to asset bubbles and speculation as the more money that goes to the top means more money searching for financial investment outlets. The end result of these policies was an accumulation of private sector debt = 300% of GDP, which exceeded the 240% level in 1929. The private sector debt ratio was relatively stable around 120% of GDP from 1960-1980, then began a steady rise to the peak of 300% in 2008.This rise in private sector debt "masked" the underlying long term weaknesses in the economy caused by the shift of income from wages to profits.

 

Conclusion: you can't fix this problem by continuing the policies that try to raise profits without raising demand for products. An increase in the minimum wage is one way to raise all wages relative to profits. It may not be the best way, but it's definitely needed in an economy where the main problem is demand, not supply.

[Jauronimo]

They might get $15 an hour, but they'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands!!!!!

 

[TakeYouToTasker]

A Charles Dickens Xmas

 

CEO: "Jesus Christ, we can't allow people to make $15 an hour, how will we ever afford the Happy Meal Toys & our year end bonuses & stock options? We can't sustain this wage increase! These people are so lazy 1/2 of them aren't signing up for the free government handouts they'd qualify for!"

Burger Flipper: "Thank you for helping me get Medicaid & EBT. Is there anything we can do?"

CEO: "Don't worry about us. Our wages have gone ONLY gone up 127% over the past 30 years. Your wages need to stay low so you can afford our Dollar Menu. Never mind our wage increases it will trickle down. If your wages go up it will lead to hyper-inflation. In the meantime we are going to continue to funnel money to PACs that are hell bent on de-funding govt assistance programs. Merry Xmas!"

Burger Flipper: "I'm glad you have all this money to donate for the betterment of our society!"

 

Again, this post demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the franchise business model, and the profit margins of the restaurant industry.

 

McDonalds is a franchising business which enlists small business owners, rather than a megalith corporate stucture, to service it's customers at the retail level. Individual store owners usually opperate between 3-10 box locations; each of which, when running at peak efficiency, generates a profit margin of 8-12%. The restaurant industry abides by the following natural structural rules: roughly 30% of all revenue goes to food costs, another estimated 30% goes to overhead and opperational costs, and finally, again roughly, 30% goes to labor. The 10% remaining (or the 8-12% prior mentioned) is profit. Noting this information, a doubling of the minimum wage would drive labor costs to 60% of revenue. The 30% food costs and 30% opperations and overhead costs are both fixed and efficient, and account for another 60% of revenues combined. Your proposal ensures that restaurants actually run at a 20% loss for it's owners, nevermind cutting into it's profit margin. Why would anyone opperate a restaurant under these conditions?

Edited December 11, 2013 by TakeYouToTasker

[B-Man]

After Taxes, the Minimum Wage Is Higher Than It Was in 1968

 

Here is the link to David Neumark’sonline op-ed for the Times about the importance of the earned-income tax credit to the minimum-wage debate — but there’s even more to the story.

 

While it’s true that the federal minimum wage is lower, adjusted for inflation, than it was in the 1960s and 70s, people earning that wage aren’t making less money. Those eligible for the earned-income tax credit (EITC), a program which refunds the income taxes low-wage workers pay, and then writes them a check on top of the amount, are better off.

 

Ernie Tedeschi, a former Treasury economist, took this a little further, and the result is even more striking. Here’s the kind of chart you usually see from advocates of increasing the minimum wage:

 

(Graphs at link)

 

This reflects one of the points Neumark raises about the superiority of the EITC over the minimum wage: The former can be tailored to increase incomes the people who actually need it, i.e., working families (and whose relatively uncommon plight minimum-wage advocates always cite), while the latter risks shutting out less-skilled people (especially teenagers and single minority men) out of the labor market.

Edited December 11, 2013 by B-Man

[Jauronimo]

Again, this post demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the franchise business model, and the profit margins of the restaurant industry.

 

McDonalds is a franchising business which enlists small business owners, rather than a megalith corporate stucture, to service it's customers at the retail level. Individual store owners usually opperate between 3-10 box locations; each of which, when running at peak efficiency, generates a profit margin of 8-12%. The restaurant industry abides by the following natural structural rules: roughly 30% of all revenue goes to food costs, another estimated 30% goes to overhead and opperational costs, and finally, again roughly, 30% goes to labor. The 10% remaining (or the 8-12% prior mentioned) is profit. Noting this information, a doubling of the minimum wage would drive labor costs to 60% of revenue. The 30% food costs and 30% opperations and overhead costs are both fixed and efficient, and account for another 60% of revenues combined. Your proposal ensures that restaurants actually run at a 20% loss for it's owners, nevermind cutting into it's profit margin. Why would anyone opperate a restaurant under these conditions?

For the greater good, of course.

[Taro T]

Back in the '80's many union contracts were tied to the minimum wage. Is that still the case? If so, isn't this more about the D's core constituency than the high school kid w/ an entry level job?

[NFL95MelGrayDomination]

Back in the '80's many union contracts were tied to the minimum wage. Is that still the case? If so, isn't this more about the D's core constituency than the high school kid w/ an entry level job?

Back in the '80s the median home price was $50,000. Is that still the case? If so, isn't this more about the financial industry buying our government & hypothicating the creation of debt?

[B-Man]

Back in the '80's many union contracts were tied to the minimum wage. Is that still the case? If so, isn't this more about the D's core constituency than the high school kid w/ an entry level job?

 

 

 

 

Why Unions Want a Higher Minimum Wage - Wall Street Journal

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Union 'Studies' Lead To Minimum Wage Legislative Malpractice

by Richard Berman

 

Being a union-backed wage hike activist must be the easiest job in the world. You start by picking out a random number—$9, $10.10, $15, or maybe even $22, if you’re Senator Elizabeth Warren—then claim that your proposal will eliminate poverty and give millions of people a desperately-needed raise. When pressed for evidence, you cite a union-funded study with a predictable conclusion.

 

The last step is simple: Sit back and lap up the inevitable outpouring of praise from the cultural elites at MSNBC, the New York Times, and every liberal commentator in the country, all of whom praise you for supporting such a sensible and long overdue policy. The unions who first brought the idea to you may even fund your next campaign.

 

http://www.forbes.co...ve-malpractice/