$15.00 Minimum Wage

[ddoering]

If you give $15 an hour to the unskilled masses then what do you give those that have worked their way up to $15 an hour?

[gits]

All the more reason to fire all the dirtbags and replacing them with responsible hardworking people. No need to keep the poor performers on the payroll. I would think it would increase the customer service. If the business can survive whatsoever and still make profit.

[Sdiver]

The $15.00 an hour debate equates to nothing more than what we've been seeing with our kids in the education and sports systems now-a-days .... Everyone who participates gets a prize.

There is absolutely NO emphasis to better oneself.

Coupled with the entitlement attitude being pushed, this issue will continue to fester and grow.

[The Reaper]

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

You can see how well that worked out for the Commies.

TR

[Golf1echo]

A discussion that starts with raising minimum wage to correspond to a living wage, is broken. Jobs and wages by necessity start with how the employee will add value plus to the organization they work for. How would a business or organization exist otherwise?
The approach of starting with higher wages leaves out all the fundamental issues that build a more diverse and robust economy in which the participants benefit equitably*.

*ie a robust middle class.

[mark46th]

What these people don't realize is how easily their jobs can go away. A touch screen to order and pay. Food comes on a tray, customer picks it up. Instead of 40 people working at McDonald's, there will be 10. The other 30 will be living underground eating rat burgers. ..

[Pete]

Originally Posted by mark46th

... The other 30 will be living underground eating rat burgers. ..

Most wouldn't get that.

Three shells

Originally Posted by mark46th

What these people don't realize is how easily their jobs can go away. A touch screen to order and pay. Food comes on a tray, customer picks it up. Instead of 40 people working at McDonald's, there will be 10. The other 30 will be living underground eating rat burgers. ..

Sounds like they will be eating McDonald's burgers!!

[(1VB)compforce]

Originally Posted by Pete

Most wouldn't get that.

Three shells

You are an incredibly sensitive man, who inspires joy-joy feelings in all those around you.
...

*I'm* the enemy. Because I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy who would sit in the greasy spoon and think "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the big rack of Barbecued spare ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I *want* high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, butter and buckets of cheese alright? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinatti in a non-smoking section. I wanna run around naked with green jell-o all over my body reading a Playboy magazine. Why? Because maybe I feel the need to okay pal? I've *seen* the future, you know what it is. It's made by a 47 year-old virgin in gray pajamas soaking in a bubble bath, drinking a broccoli milkshake and singing "I'm an Oscar-Meyer Wiener".

Incredibly prophetic movie

[Unique Calling]

Originally Posted by Jakedeep

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it".

Sowell is my go-to guy when people tell me that I only think the way I do because of white privilege.

Sowell is great and I agree... I get so tired of the white privilege argument. It is (yet another) lame default attack used by liberals who cannot make a coherent case for their gripes. I usually have no problem pointing this out to them either, regardless of their race.

[PSM]

(There's video in the link if you don't want to read it.)

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But there may be a hitch in the plan.

Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent.

Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle that several workers want to work less.

“If they cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn’t actually help get them out of poverty, all you’ve done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people,” said Jason Rantz, host of the Jason Rantz show on 97.3 KIRO-FM.

The twist is just one apparent side effect of the controversial -- yet trendsetting -- minimum wage law in Seattle, which is being copied in several other cities despite concerns over prices rising and businesses struggling to keep up.

The notion that employees are intentionally working less to preserve their welfare has been a hot topic on talk radio. While the claims are difficult to track, state stats indeed suggest few are moving off welfare programs under the new wage.

Despite a booming economy throughout western Washington, the state’s welfare caseload has dropped very little since the higher wage phase began in Seattle in April. In March 130,851 people were enrolled in the Basic Food program. In April, the caseload dropped to 130,376.

At the same time, prices appear to be going up on just about everything.

Some restaurants have tacked on a 15 percent surcharge to cover the higher wages. And some managers are no longer encouraging customers to tip, leading to a redistribution of income. Workers in the back of the kitchen, such as dishwashers and cooks, are getting paid more, but servers who rely on tips are seeing a pay cut.

Some long-time Seattle restaurants have closed altogether, though none of the owners publicly blamed the minimum wage law.

“It’s what happens when the government imposes a restriction on the labor market that normally wouldn’t be there, and marginal businesses get hit the hardest, and usually those are small, neighborhood businesses,” said Paul Guppy, of the Washington Policy Center.

<snip>

Already, though, there are unintended consequences in other cities.

Comix Experience, a small book store in downtown San Francisco, has begun selling graphic novel club subscriptions in order to meet payroll. The owner, Brian Hibbs, admits members are not getting all that much for their $25 per month dues, but their “donation” is keeping him in business.

“I was looking at potentially having to close the store down and then how would I make my living?” Hibbs asked.

To date, he’s sold 228 subscriptions. He says he needs 334 to reach his goal of the $80,000 income required to cover higher labor costs. He doesn’t blame San Francisco voters for approving the $15 minimum wage, but he doesn’t think they had all the information needed to make a good decision.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...s-follow-suit/

Dan Springer joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in August 2001 as a Seattle-based correspondent

Perhaps the city leaders should have read Thomas Sowell's book Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One.

Pat

[ddoering]

No, They just need to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. That should fix it.

[Pete]

Stop working to keep benefits?

People getting the Earned Income Tax Credit have known that for years.

They keep close track of their income and stop working when they get near the cut off.

[PSM]

What you get for $15 an hour:

[Pete]

Lost the link but L.A. Unions are fighting to be exempted from the $15 per hour law.