In Seattle, 42 percent of surveyed employers were “very likely” to reduce the number of employees per shift or overall staffing levels as a direct consequence of the law. Similarly, 44 percent reported that they were “very likely” to scale back on employees’ hours to help offset the increased cost of the law. That’s particularly bad news for the Seattle metro area, where the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds is already more than 30 percent — due in part to Washington state’s already-high minimum wage.
Perhaps most concerning about the $15 proposal is that some businesses anticipated going beyond an increase in prices or a reduction in staffing levels. More than 43 percent of respondents said it was “very likely” they would limit future expansion in Seattle in response to the law. One in seven respondents is even “very likely” to close a current location in the city limits.
You don’t say.
Perhaps they should not expect to continue operating a ‘business’ which cannot pay its employees a living wage. Are they a non-profit so they can ask people to work for them for next to nothing while they are collecting food stamps as the business owners keep the profits to themselves?
There are plenty of places with minimum wages that have pretty much close to full employment around. While in some other historic places where slavery was instituted getting a job was sometimes pretty blood hard.
If you’re a teenager living at home, $10/hour is a “living wage.” And it’s a lot better wage than zero.
You are blindly focused on one issue, that is, a wage in line with the cost of living.
But ask yourself: why is the cost of living so high?
Why is health care high? And rent, food, clothing, insurance, energy and education? In most of these cases, you will find the culprit is expansion of the money supply. From there you can deduce malinvestments from the Fed, as well as subsidies from the federal government.
“why is the cost of living so high?”
Expanding money supply, taxes, poorly considered regulations, diversion of labor to welfare roles… in other words, leftist gooberment.
Godzilla, valiantly fighting the losing war against the laws of economics.
Zing!
(everything between these parentheses is included solely to satisfy the minimum-character requirement.)
Then we must make this national, so nobody can get away with being evil.
I demand a minimum living allowance for every American.
I wonder what Seattle will say when the brands that are known as being “from Seattle” (Starbucks, etc.) end up closing shop because they can’t afford to pay their workers, or because their price hikes put their goods out of reach of their consumer base and they close up shop due to lack of sales.
Now, one may argue that “there are too many Starbucks, and their coffee is overpriced and overcooked anyway”, but the same situation applies to all of the smaller mom-and-pop shops, too. Starbucks might be able to hang on longer than the rest, but they’ll eventually skip town or find loopholes to move beyond the reach of the Council.
And I really only bring up Starbucks as an example because even though I’m sure they don’t currently pay $15/hr, they are probably closer than most from a wage perspective. They also made the news when they began to offer tuition assistance (up to 100%), and usually lead the way when it comes to employing students. To qualify? One need only work 240 hours in a 3 month period, just under 20 hours/week.
So, 20 hours a week to qualify for full eCourse tuition through Arizona State? Not too shabby, if you ask me. Will they be able to continue to offer such benefits if they’re forced to increase wages 30% Depends on how many stores are required to make the increase, and how much it actually affects their profitability, but I would venture to guess it would be one of those perks that “phases out” as the minimum wage hikes “phases in”.
Because, you know, evil corporations only keep their extravagant profits and all that…
I started working part-time at age 14 during the school year and full-time over the summer during high school, walking dogs at a boarding kennel. I received multiple pay increases and promotions in the 7 years I stuck around, eventually working my way up to site manager. By the time I left the company, our minimum hiring age had gone up from 14 to 16, and then again to 18, mostly due to liability concerns, but also due to an increase in problems getting those under 18 to show up to work with any sort of reliability.
The increased minimum wages and age limits on workers (older than the state minimum age) eventually snowball into less reliable workers as kids get into or out of college. Oftentimes there is a noticable difference in quality of work and reliability between someone whose first job out of college is their first job ever and someone whose first job out of college is their third or fourth job, or at least their third or fourth year of employment experience.
Some of the comments over on that article are priceless, especially the automated McDonald’s order kiosk. The fry machine and soda machine are already automated at most McDonald’s I’ve been to; it’s only a matter of time before minimum wage laws and other encumbrances on employers cause the whole operation to be automated.
The most amazing of ironies …
http://www.punkrocklibertarians.com/socialist-group-endorsing-20-minimum-wage-posts-13-per-hour-job-listing/
When I was 12, 13, 14, I cut grass in the summer for about 1/2 minimum wage. When I was 15, I got a job as a stock boy at a chain drug store for about 2/3 minimum wage. I was still cutting the grass at the local radio station, but learned that if I got a first class FCC Radiotelephone license, I could work inside where it was air conditioned. (First class licenses were tough to get in 1968). I got that license that allowed me to operate any broadcast radio or TV station in the country. I also asked for – and got – minimum wage at that time. Back then, the employers were not legally required to pay minimum wage, unlike now. The smartest thing I ever did was to turn down the offer of Chief Engineer when I graduated from High School to go to college, where I had 2 part-time jobs, each paying approximately minimum wage.
And yes, it really was like WKRP in Cincinnati except we didn’t have a receptionist like Loni Anderson.
Speaking for Jim, Gerrib, and Bob-1, I can (as a newly-minted far Left Progressive) positively state that raising the minimum wage has never, ever had a negative effect on employment.
Study after study has proven this.
You all are just hate speeching. How can you hate so much? And be so racist?
Perhaps they should not expect to continue operating a business which cannot pay its employees a living wage
Business competes for workers. Workers compete for jobs. How do you not understand this, Godzilla?
Your answer is to destroy jobs and you think more workers competing for fewer jobs will somehow raise wages? That’s pure stupidity.
Washington already has a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum and most jobs here pay more than Washington’s minimum wage. If anything, minimum wage would just be where you start out at. Jacking up the minimum wage will hurt a lot of people who currently make $10-14 an hour when they lose their jobs. I am not sure how you would quantify that. With three people making $10/hour, one of them might have to lose their job so the other two can get a raise.
Perhaps people getting fired and being forced to move out of Seattle is part of the plan. Gets rid of the riffraff.
He thinks the purpose of a business is to provide a living wage to its employees — rather than to make a profit for its equityholders by providing a desired good or service at a price the customer is willing to pay.
“Living wage” is just to confuse. The economic argument is simple. If you really want a living wage, the stupidest thing you can do is demand it. Wages go up because job creators demand workers. Killing jobs kills that demand.
This denial of reality is no different than those that would legislate the value of pi to be equal to three.