$15 Minimum Wage Battle Moves To Other Industries

[Tiberius]

I owned and opperated multiple restaurants for years, and the article is spot on.

Statewide, Anthony Anton, president and CEO of Washington Restaurant Association, says that each year in Washington, 17 percent of restaurants go out of business or change hands. In Seattle, with approximately 2,300 restaurants, that translates to approximately 400 closures or sells expected—“in a good year,” Anton says.

 

Sure is! Oh, but let's blame the minimum wage law. And seriously, which article are you talking about? The originial or the link in the link?

[DC Tom]

 

Sure is! Oh, but let's blame the minimum wage law. And seriously, which article are you talking about? The originial or the link in the link?

 

 

 

Washington Restaurant Association's Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”

He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.

With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.

“Everyone is looking at the model right now, asking how do we do math?” he says. “Every operator I’m talking to is in panic mode, trying to figure out what the new world will look like.”

Same guy you quoted. You saying he's right, and wrong?

[TH3]

STUDY: 2007 Minimum Wage Increase Made Recession/Unemployment Worse..

Thats quite a reach to rephrase the article title

 

The blue dots represent the results from a comparable regression to predict whether one of these low-skill individuals had a job. Clemens and Wither found that the federal minimum wage hike resulted in about a 6% decrease in the probability that low-wage individuals would have a job based on this comparison of states in which the minimum wage hike would have been binding and those for which it would not.

 

A SIX PERCENT DECREASE IN THE PROBABILTY.....

[B-Man]

Thats quite a reach to rephrase the article title

 

The blue dots represent the results from a comparable regression to predict whether one of these low-skill individuals had a job. Clemens and Wither found that the federal minimum wage hike resulted in about a 6% decrease in the probability that low-wage individuals would have a job based on this comparison of states in which the minimum wage hike would have been binding and those for which it would not.

 

A SIX PERCENT DECREASE IN THE PROBABILTY.....

 

Any particular reason that you skipped the next two concluding lines ?

 

 

 

The hike in the minimum wage thus appears to have raised the wage for low-skilled workers but made it harder for them to find jobs. Clemens and Wither conclude:

 

Over the late 2000s, the average effective minimum wage rose by 30 percent across the United States. We estimate that these minimum wage increases reduced the national employment-to-population ratio by 0.7 percentage point.

 

 

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[Tiberius]

 

 

Same guy you quoted. You saying he's right, and wrong?

Sounds like some person with a political agenda, I mean all that "panic" hasn't stopped this from the same article::

 

Despite these serious challenges, however, brave restaurateurs continue to open eateries in Seattle, which, remembering basic supply and demand, also naturally accounts for closures we’ve already seen and more that will come. Capitol Hill alone is carrying on an unprecedented dining boom, and in mid January, Capitol Hill Seattle announced that Nue, Chris Cvetkovich’s modernist global street food joint, was the neighborhood’s 100^th food and drink opening in three years.

 

[3rdnlng]

Totally bogus, right wing hit piece. Love how your links always have links to links. Only an idiot would believe them.

Are you trying to say that you believe them?

[birdog1960]

From the rich.

once again, rob is correct. he just didn't know why. now he does:

 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/biggest-scam-bankrupting-business-middle-class/

 

Our crisis of income inequality wasn’t principally caused by the rich not paying enough tax, even though we don’t. Rather, it is largely the product of the $1 trillion a year that once went to wages, but now goes to corporate profits. And this demand and investment-killing trillion-dollar-a-year transfer of wealth from the bottom 80 percent of households to the top 1 percent is the direct result of the economic and regulatory policies both Republicans and Democrats have imposed since the dawn of the trickle down era.

Edited March 14, 2015 by birdog1960

[ExiledInIllinois]

Call their bluff... Close, shutdown. Let it all burn, fall apart. Let's see what happens with the void that is created.

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. People will adapt and overcome. Wow, that last sentence sounds kinda conservative.

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure it out, things simply don't trickle down like they should. Humans hoard. Not that I am knocking it, they simply prefer to hoard. Whoever started this BS that they will let things trickle down? And anyway, who likes a trickle? LoL... Don't you want it to pour down? Should anybody be happy with a trickle. Obviously the numbnut conservatives feel people should be happy. Thank you sir! May I have another? In my best Oliver Twist voice: "Please sir!"

 

Ha!

[B-Man]

Oakland is seeing similar problems as it has raised its minimum wage from $9 to $12.25:

 

For 27 years, Sandy Vuong has supplied towering cakes and fluffy Vietnamese pastries to residents of Oakland Chinatown. Now she might shut her doors.

Vuong’s Delicieuse Princesse Bakery isn’t the only business that’s foundering after a new law raised the hourly minimum wage in Oakland from $9 to $12.25 — pushing the bakery’s payroll costs up by 36 percent overnight.

According to Carl Chan, a board member of Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, four restaurants and six grocery stores in and around Chinatown have already shuttered since January, at least partly for fear that the wage increase was going to put them over budget.

 

Among them is Legendary Palace, one of two banquet restaurants in the neighborhood.

 

“If it doesn’t reopen, then a lot of business in Chinatown is gonna go back to San Francisco, or down the 680 corridor to Milpitas and Fremont,” said George Ong, an attorney representing Legendary Palace’s landlord. Legendary Palace closed for a variety of reasons, not solely the wage hike, said Ong. Another reason had to do with internal disputes among the old owners. Now, Ong worries that higher labor costs might inhibit a new owner from coming in.

 

“There’s no question it’s gonna have an effect,” Ong said. “The question is how much.”

 

 

.

[ExiledInIllinois]

@ least there will be a lot less fat azzes eating towering cakes and pastries. But, the unemployed get food stamps? Duh!

 

Are we supposed to be crying... Let it all play out through the country. The strong businesses will suvive, the economy will throttle back and the shrewd will jump into areas that are now left open.

 

Let it ride... Raise the min to 25 bucks! ;-P

[birdog1960]

 

Oakland is seeing similar problems as it has raised its minimum wage from $9 to $12.25:

 

 

For 27 years, Sandy Vuong has supplied towering cakes and fluffy Vietnamese pastries to residents of Oakland Chinatown. Now she might shut her doors.

Vuong’s Delicieuse Princesse Bakery isn’t the only business that’s foundering after a new law raised the hourly minimum wage in Oakland from $9 to $12.25 — pushing the bakery’s payroll costs up by 36 percent overnight. According to Carl Chan, a board member of Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, four restaurants and six grocery stores in and around Chinatown have already shuttered since January, at least partly for fear that the wage increase was going to put them over budget.

 

Among them is Legendary Palace, one of two banquet restaurants in the neighborhood.

 

“If it doesn’t reopen, then a lot of business in Chinatown is gonna go back to San Francisco, or down the 680 corridor to Milpitas and Fremont,” said George Ong, an attorney representing Legendary Palace’s landlord. Legendary Palace closed for a variety of reasons, not solely the wage hike, said Ong. Another reason had to do with internal disputes among the old owners. Now, Ong worries that higher labor costs might inhibit a new owner from coming in.

 

“There’s no question it’s gonna have an effect,” Ong said. “The question is how much.”

 

.

 

it takes time to sort itself out. if everyone made at least $15/hour there'd be more people able to afford to eat out at a $15 buffet on a more frequent basis and a lot less never able to afford a $10 one. i doubt c level execs that have seen billions diverted to them from the middle class make up much of these places biz.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/10/25/cheat-sheet-middle-class-cant-afford/17730223/

Edited March 14, 2015 by birdog1960

[B-Man]

it takes time to sort itself out. if everyone made at least $15/hour there'd be more people able to afford to eat out at a $15 buffet on a more frequent basis and a lot less never able to afford a $10 one. i doubt c level execs that have seen billions diverted to them from the middle class make up much of these places biz.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/10/25/cheat-sheet-middle-class-cant-afford/17730223/

 

 

So the lower class now makes $15.00 an hour, but the price of everything rises correspondingly...................

 

exactly how did we help anyone ??...........

 

how will it sort itself out ??

 

Won't people suffer in the meantime ??

 

 

Bruce McQuain asks the question which puts this whole math issue in focus. What’s $15 times zero again?

 

Welcome to the land of $17 dollar cheeseburgers. And, as you can figure out fairly quickly, everything else will be more expensive too … which, of course, erodes the purchasing power of that $15 wage. More importantly, if you work for one of those establishments that is closing, your wage is $15 times zero hours, isn’t it?

 

 

 

Bigger companies who can absorb the financial hit from implementing new technology have already been preparing for these changes. McDonald’s has been experimenting with point of sale automation for taking orders and Applebee’s rolled out smart tablets at tables in multiple locations last year. The latter solution is the most interesting to me because it seems like the easiest for younger consumers to adapt to. Most of the people going out to eat in such places are already familiar with laptops, tablets and smart phones anyway. Having one waiting at the table which takes the place of not only the menu, but the waitress as well, isn’t going to come as much of a shock to the system.

 

If you plan to pay by credit or debit card (which is the only option in some cases) you barely interact with a human at all. You browse the drinks and food on the touch screen, place your order, swipe your card, and a short while later somebody strolls up with your food and beverage, says hello and drops them off. It’s a terribly impersonal service as compared to a bartender or waitress who stops to chat with you, but it gets the job done.

 

Of course, that last phrase is the big issue here, isn’t it? It gets the job done. That job used to be done by a person. Now it’s essentially a robot. So those workers are no longer on the payroll, but hopefully they’ll catch on someplace else. Unfortunately, as Seattle is finding out, employers who run single outlets and don’t have the backing and buffer range of a major chain often won’t be able to make the shift in technological infrastructure required to cut back on staffing while staying open. Those folks will shut down, and it’s apparently already beginning in Washington state.

 

 

You know… if only somebody had tried to warn them.

 

 

 

 

.

[Tiberius]

Ya sure, the sky is falling in Seatle. Try and follow B-Mans links back to the source. Just a bunch of idiot right wing bloggers blowing smoke.

[meazza]

Ya sure, the sky is falling in Seatle. Try and follow B-Mans links back to the source. Just a bunch of idiot right wing bloggers blowing smoke.

You quote someone, someone else uses the same source and you pronounce it as a right wing blog?

[B-Man]

You quote someone, someone else uses the same source and you pronounce it as a right wing blog?

 

 

Don't bother Meazza, he is incapable of any type of comprehension.

 

All he has is repetitive snark.

 

 

 

 

.

[TakeYouToTasker]

This thread is hilarious.

 

Real world impacts are sad.

[Tiberius]

You quote someone, someone else uses the same source and you pronounce it as a right wing blog?

They took one part of a balanced article, highlighted the part that they could twist into making their point the sky was falling, ignored the part that showed restaurants were still opening there and blasted headlines saying Seattle was a dead zone. All bull sh. It but you guys ate up.

 

I think that all might be too hard for you to understand. Obviously, it was way too complicated for B-Man to figure out

Edited March 15, 2015 by gatorman

[Chef Jim]

They took one part of a balanced article, highlighted the part that they could twist into making their point the sky was falling, ignored the part that showed restaurants were still opening there and blasted headlines saying Seattle was a dead zone. All bull sh. It but you guys ate up.

 

I think that all might be too hard for you to understand. Obviously, it was way too complicated for B-Man to figure out

Restaurants will always open up. The question is how long will they remain open?

[TakeYouToTasker]

They took one part of a balanced article, highlighted the part that they could twist into making their point the sky was falling, ignored the part that showed restaurants were still opening there and blasted headlines saying Seattle was a dead zone. All bull sh. It but you guys ate up.

 

I think that all might be too hard for you to understand. Obviously, it was way too complicated for B-Man to figure out

Prior to this increase, 9 of every 10 restaurants opened fail within their first year of operation.

[Azalin]

Prior to this increase, 9 of every 10 restaurants opened fail within their first year of operation.

 

Not only that, but from the employee's point of view, there's tremendous job security since there's always other restaurants where they can work (most don't last a year before they move on to another restaurant), while the number of restaurants that actually survive as a business beyond 4 or 5 years drops dramatically. Owners have by far the greatest risk in the business. Another point often forgotten is that the owners are the last people to make any money from their effort and investment, since they have to pay the cost of labor, overhead, taxes, licenses, maintenance, etc before they earn a nickel for themselves.