Poll: Solid majority (71%) of Americans support Obama’s increase of the minimum wage

[Oldstyle]

And my customer base is NOT minimum wage earners, Dubya! People making minimum wage cannot afford to dine out in nice restaurants. When you're on a limited budget you buy inexpensive foods and you cook at home.

Your restaurant can't be that fine if you pay $7 instead of $7.25 for a dishwasher. You still haven't shown how much an increase in minimum wage changes the overall increase in the cost of you doing business. I would guess a minimum wage increase to $9 per hours might add 2% to your cost of doing business, so that $20 steak will now cost $20.40. Big fucking deal!

You're just cheap and one way in your economic views. We don't build an economic system around your restaurant business.

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

 

[t_polkow]

And my customer base is NOT minimum wage earners, Dubya! People making minimum wage cannot afford to dine out in nice restaurants. When you're on a limited budget you buy inexpensive foods and you cook at home.

Your restaurant can't be that fine if you pay $7 instead of $7.25 for a dishwasher. You still haven't shown how much an increase in minimum wage changes the overall increase in the cost of you doing business. I would guess a minimum wage increase to $9 per hours might add 2% to your cost of doing business, so that $20 steak will now cost $20.40. Big fucking deal!

You're just cheap and one way in your economic views. We don't build an economic system around your restaurant business.

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

So by your logic it would be better if you could pay your employees even less. By not paying a good wage everyone else subsidizes your business with food stamps and medical care for your employees . Fine dining? raise your prices to cover the costs (if the food and atmosphere is that good) since the people who frequent your establishment have the means. Strange how people want everyone else to subsidize their business instead of taking care of their employees.

Since 1966, a sub-section of the minimum wage has existed for people who work for gratuities, known as the "tipped minimum wage," which Congress last bumped to $2.13 per hour in 1991. Some states have increased the tipped minimum wage on their own as well. 2.13 an hour plus tips!!!!

 

[Dragonlady]

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

No, I think you're the one who's wrong here. Your prices are being subsidized by the low wages you pay your employees. The numbers look large when you post them the way you did, but you purposefully slanted your numbers to to that. And you avoided mentioning what your total sales are, but extrapolating your figures, I would put your total sales at approximately $600,000 per year. Weekly sales are about $11,600 versus payroll of $2,900. Your prices wouldn't have to rise that much to raise the MW by $2.

Food costs in the fine dining business are about 40% of your prime costs, which, based on your figures means your labor costs is approximately 25% of total sales, if your prime costs are 65%. Raising the minimum wage by $2.00 would raise your labour costs by 28%, if your are currently paying $7.25 per hour. That would raise your total prime costs a total by 4%. Are you saying your well-heeled customers can't afford to pay $4 more on a $100 tab so your workers can have a decent wage?

That's the problem with all of the stern und drag about raising the minimum wage. It's such a small component of the price we pay for our goods and services, that to raise it, will genuinely have little impact on sales.

 

[Darkwind]

Do any of you even understand what a business is? It does not exist to provide wages. The fallacy of your arguments are that the customers can afford the higher prices that come with the wages. Then you become blinded to the forest because of the trees.

If every restauranteur raises prices, and every business is forced to raise prices, then the cost of living has increased in proportion to the increase of wage. Wage = Zero gain. However, some people won't be able to afford it where they could before, or they simply will become fed up with the increase in prices and refuse to barter with the business anymore. Thus the business has a higher net loss, resulting in more increase, resulting in more losses.

You cannot simply say that your 'customers' are going to have to just bite the bullet and deal with it just so you can feel good about yourselves.

Businesses exist to generate a profit for the proprietor so that they can earn a living. They take all the risk for the reward, and you just want to blithely come along and denigrate them because you think they should eat your imposed losses.

My wife is already stating that if MW goes up, people are going to lose jobs and hours are going to be cut back to deal with the narrowing of an already razor thin profit margin.

That will be the legacy of this.

 

[Dragonlady]

Do any of you even understand what a business is? It does not exist to provide wages. The fallacy of your arguments are that the customers can afford the higher prices that come with the wages. Then you become blinded to the forest because of the trees.

A business exists to make money but if that cannot function in any way without it's workers. If those people don't show up at the restaurant every day, the business is nothing. It has no products, no goods and no services to sell. The owner is making money off the backs of every person who works for him, so his first obligation is to pay his employees a fair wage. If he can't pay his employees a fair wage, then he shouldn't be in business.

This is a mutually beneficial arrangement, not the unilateral one you right wingers seem to think it is. The employer can't make money without his employees, because he's not doing the actual work, he's managing the business.

 

[Pogo]

Do any of you even understand what a business is? It does not exist to provide wages. The fallacy of your arguments are that the customers can afford the higher prices that come with the wages. Then you become blinded to the forest because of the trees.

If every restauranteur raises prices, and every business is forced to raise prices, then the cost of living has increased in proportion to the increase of wage. Wage = Zero gain. However, some people won't be able to afford it where they could before, or they simply will become fed up with the increase in prices and refuse to barter with the business anymore. Thus the business has a higher net loss, resulting in more increase, resulting in more losses.

You cannot simply say that your 'customers' are going to have to just bite the bullet and deal with it just so you can feel good about yourselves.

Businesses exist to generate a profit for the proprietor so that they can earn a living. They take all the risk for the reward, and you just want to blithely come along and denigrate them because you think they should eat your imposed losses.

My wife is already stating that if MW goes up, people are going to lose jobs and hours are going to be cut back to deal with the narrowing of an already razor thin profit margin.

That will be the legacy of this.

Of course it will. It always is. We've heard that every time this has come up for the 75 years we've had MW. Dear me, the sky is falling.

 

[Noomi]

WOW! 9 dollars an hour x 40 hours a work week = $360. dollars a week. Multiply that by 4 weeks a month = at least $1440. a month. Hmmm, now many Americans would thank God for that liveable, decent wage.




Strong support continues for minimum wage - First Read

A solid majority of Americans support President Obama’s proposal in his most recent State of the Union to increase the minimum wage.

Some 71 percent of those surveyed said they supported raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour from $7.25, while 27 percent opposed it, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday.

The results attest to the popularity of Obama’s plan, wrote Gallup’s Lydia Saad in the poll’s release...

$360 a week isn't a lot, but at least it would enable the poor to live a little more comfortably than they currently are.

 

[hunarcy]

You're obviously on drugs, for nothing you posted has any relationship to anything I said. Come back when you find out what "marketable skills" are...but, here's a hint. The more knowledge or skills you have, the more marketable you are and the more money you're able to attract. If it's a job anyone can do, you won't command much money and will be stuck at minimum wage. However, as you work and gain knowledge and skills, you get raises and command more money.

Marketable skills are the ability to do work well enough that someone wants to pay you to do it. There are plenty of jobs you idiots call unskilled that you wouldn't be able to do. That means you don't have the marketable skills in those jobs.[/QUOTE]

*Yawn* You're not advancing your argument, you're merely confirming that I was correct when I said you were done and nothing to offer on this subject. As I said, if you are stuck at minimum wage after a year, the problem is NOT with the minimum wage.

 

[hunarcy]

$360 a week isn't a lot, but at least it would enable the poor to live a little more comfortably than they currently are.

No, because an across the board minimum wage hike increases cost, driving up prices and making life WORSE for those you seek to help. It's always been that way and won't change just because you don't like it.

 

[hunarcy]

Do any of you even understand what a business is? It does not exist to provide wages. The fallacy of your arguments are that the customers can afford the higher prices that come with the wages. Then you become blinded to the forest because of the trees.

If every restauranteur raises prices, and every business is forced to raise prices, then the cost of living has increased in proportion to the increase of wage. Wage = Zero gain. However, some people won't be able to afford it where they could before, or they simply will become fed up with the increase in prices and refuse to barter with the business anymore. Thus the business has a higher net loss, resulting in more increase, resulting in more losses.

You cannot simply say that your 'customers' are going to have to just bite the bullet and deal with it just so you can feel good about yourselves.

Businesses exist to generate a profit for the proprietor so that they can earn a living. They take all the risk for the reward, and you just want to blithely come along and denigrate them because you think they should eat your imposed losses.

My wife is already stating that if MW goes up, people are going to lose jobs and hours are going to be cut back to deal with the narrowing of an already razor thin profit margin.

That will be the legacy of this.

Of course it will. It always is. We've heard that every time this has come up for the 75 years we've had MW. Dear me, the sky is falling.

Of course you've heard it every time it's come up for 75 years. And, while the sky's not falling, the minimum wage has pushed costs up and, while not the only reason, helped cause inflation to the point that things that cost twenty-five cents when I was a child now costs $1.50.

 

[Dubya]

And my customer base is NOT minimum wage earners, Dubya! People making minimum wage cannot afford to dine out in nice restaurants. When you're on a limited budget you buy inexpensive foods and you cook at home.

Your restaurant can't be that fine if you pay $7 instead of $7.25 for a dishwasher. You still haven't shown how much an increase in minimum wage changes the overall increase in the cost of you doing business. I would guess a minimum wage increase to $9 per hours might add 2% to your cost of doing business, so that $20 steak will now cost $20.40. Big fucking deal!

You're just cheap and one way in your economic views. We don't build an economic system around your restaurant business.

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

You claim to have 10 employees making minimum wage in a restaurant and say they are working 2000 hours per year. I've been connected to many restaurants and they don't operate like that. People who work in restaurants don't work 8 hours, 5 days a week. I take it this is just one example of your restaurants you claim to own.

Your 35% figure is operating expenses, but that isn't all the expenses in the cost of doing business, is it? I notice you can't calculate a percentage increase in the cost of doing business or even calculate the percentage increase in the cost of labor.

As far as talking about increasing the minimum wage, that is just as much my business as yours. If you don't like the rules in this country, take your restaurant somewhere else! Do you think it's going to be missed?

Are you sure you are smart enough to own a restaurant?

 

[JoeNormal]

What part are you missing here? My turn to give you a hint....

I'll simply go back to my owm example: when I entered the workforce in 1968 the minimum wage was $1.25. Would you pay $1.25 now? Of course not, nobody would work for that even if it was legal. But that $1.25 in 1968 dollars is the equivalent of $8.27 in 2013 dollars. Yet the current minimum wage is only $7.25 -- more than a dollar below that. In other words if I were a high school kid taking your job now at $7.25 I'd be making less than I did at $1.25 in 1968.

That means raising the minimum wage wouldn't be increasing your costs; it would be bringing your costs back into line after the free ride you're getting now. In other words, party's over for your corporate welfare. Until of course the next COL adjustment has to be made, which will again lag behind the realities of everyday COL -- as it always does. The first to profit from increased COL is the employer and the last is the worker. And somehow there are still the 29% whining "yes master may I not have another (raise)".

THAT is what I mean by posting against one's own interests. That assumes of course that you're on the side of the American worker, not the side against him. Time moves on; calling a simple COLA an "increase in labor costs" is just flat out dishonest. It's pointing to one side of the equation (absolute cost of labor) while completely ignoring the economic context (value of currency).

Nice red herring. What does this post have to do with anything? That's right. Nothing. You didn't even attempt to address the central issue of my post. Instead, you sidestepped it (not merely once, but twice).

Horseshit. I directly deconstructed your fallacy that a COLA is an "increased cost". Let's watch it again in slow motion:

I'm not going to lie. I'm saddened at the fact that the majority of Americans don't understand the fact that, all else being equal, when the cost of labor rises, companies demand less of it (or they raise the cost of good and services to compensate). .

I made it big and bold so that even you could find it.

Apparently I pointed out a simple everyday observation that you didn't think of, and you can't just admit you were wrong. Lot of that going around though.

Dude, you have the patience of a saint. I admire that but at some point, you might have to concede that some people are just too fucking stupid to argue with.

 

[editec]

Perhaps my understanding of the FEDERAL MINiMUMWAGES laws are outdated?

But unless they have changed, they ONLY apply to businesses doing INTERSTATE business.

So a local resturant does NOT apply.

Am I misinformed? I don't think so.

The Act applies to enterprises with employees who engage in interstate commerce, produce goods for interstate commerce, or handle, sell, or work on goods or materials that have been moved in or produced for interstate commerce.


For most firms, a test of not less than $500,000 in annual dollar volume of business applies (i.e., the Act does not cover enterprises with less than this amount of business).

However, the Act does cover the following regardless of their dollar volume of business: hospitals; institutions primarily engaged in the care of the sick, aged, mentally ill, or disabled who reside on the premises; schools for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted; preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education; and federal, state, and local government agencies.

source

So once again, we find that the right wingers who INSIST that such and such particular law will hurt MOM AND POP small businesses is what?

WRONG PER USUAL​

 

[Dubya]

Perhaps my understanding of the FEDERAL MINiMUMWAGES laws are outdated?

But unless they have changed, they ONLY apply to businesses doing INTERSTATE business.

So a local resturant does NOT apply.

Am I misinformed? I don't think so.

The Act applies to enterprises with employees who engage in interstate commerce, produce goods for interstate commerce, or handle, sell, or work on goods or materials that have been moved in or produced for interstate commerce.


For most firms, a test of not less than $500,000 in annual dollar volume of business applies (i.e., the Act does not cover enterprises with less than this amount of business).

However, the Act does cover the following regardless of their dollar volume of business: hospitals; institutions primarily engaged in the care of the sick, aged, mentally ill, or disabled who reside on the premises; schools for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted; preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education; and federal, state, and local government agencies.

source

So once again, we find that the right wingers who INSIST that such and such particular law will hurt MOM AND POP small businesses is what?

WRONG PER USUAL​

That is misinformed, because what consitutes things covered by the commerce clause involves more than just the commerce of the business, such as the products they use in the business. There is also an amount of revenue the business makes for it to be exempt from federal minimum wage requirements.

It doesn't hurt a Mom and Pop business and actually helps.

 

[Oldstyle]

Your restaurant can't be that fine if you pay $7 instead of $7.25 for a dishwasher. You still haven't shown how much an increase in minimum wage changes the overall increase in the cost of you doing business. I would guess a minimum wage increase to $9 per hours might add 2% to your cost of doing business, so that $20 steak will now cost $20.40. Big fucking deal!

You're just cheap and one way in your economic views. We don't build an economic system around your restaurant business.

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

So by your logic it would be better if you could pay your employees even less. By not paying a good wage everyone else subsidizes your business with food stamps and medical care for your employees . Fine dining? raise your prices to cover the costs (if the food and atmosphere is that good) since the people who frequent your establishment have the means. Strange how people want everyone else to subsidize their business instead of taking care of their employees.

Since 1966, a sub-section of the minimum wage has existed for people who work for gratuities, known as the "tipped minimum wage," which Congress last bumped to $2.13 per hour in 1991. Some states have increased the tipped minimum wage on their own as well. 2.13 an hour plus tips!!!!

The ten people who are employed by me at minimum wage are all teenagers. For most of them this is their first job...a job to which they came with very few job skills...and for which they had to be trained. The jobs that they are doing are typically not something any of them will be doing for long. They are "bridge" jobs to other positions or other jobs. It allows them to show a reliable work history and gives them a reference to be used when applying for other work. I don't believe ANY of them are on food stamps or goverment subsidized medical care because most of them live at home or are attending college.

As for raising my prices? That would be the result of raising the minimum wage. My prices would go up as would the prices for most businesses providing goods and services. I guess anyone on a fixed income would just be shit outta luck, huh? We'll just jack up prices on them and they'll have to deal with it?

 

[Dubya]

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

So by your logic it would be better if you could pay your employees even less. By not paying a good wage everyone else subsidizes your business with food stamps and medical care for your employees . Fine dining? raise your prices to cover the costs (if the food and atmosphere is that good) since the people who frequent your establishment have the means. Strange how people want everyone else to subsidize their business instead of taking care of their employees.

Since 1966, a sub-section of the minimum wage has existed for people who work for gratuities, known as the "tipped minimum wage," which Congress last bumped to $2.13 per hour in 1991. Some states have increased the tipped minimum wage on their own as well. 2.13 an hour plus tips!!!!

The ten people who are employed by me at minimum wage are all teenagers. For most of them this is their first job...a job to which they came with very few job skills...and for which they had to be trained. The jobs that they are doing are typically not something any of them will be doing for long. They are "bridge" jobs to other positions or other jobs. It allows them to show a reliable work history and gives them a reference to be used when applying for other work. I don't believe ANY of them are on food stamps or goverment subsidized medical care because most of them live at home or are attending college.

As for raising my prices? That would be the result of raising the minimum wage. My prices would go up as would the prices for most businesses providing goods and services. I guess anyone on a fixed income would just be shit outta luck, huh? We'll just jack up prices on them and they'll have to deal with it?

This is what you said:

Gee, does my pointing out that businesses pay other taxes than on profits throw a monkey wrench into your "accounting", Dubya?

Here's another dose of reality for you...

In order for me as a small business to maintain the same profit after my labor costs have been increased substantially, I need to either increase my sales substantially or increase my prices substantially. Understand that up front before you call for higher minimum wages...that cost cannot be absorbed by businesses...it either has to be made up for by an increase in volume or an increase in prices.

That's simple math, so use the math and stop hiding behind generalities!

Prove how minimum wage increases increase your business costs substantially! Prove it with numbers and not mouth!

How could it not?

I run restaurants. I pay a competitive wage that is loosely established by the going rate of the locale I'm in. A diswasher makes $7 an hour...one step up the employee chain are prep cooks that make $9 an hour...one step up from them are line cooks that make $11 an hour.

So what do you think happens when I give that low end employee a "raise" to $9 an hour? It's a pretty simple concept! The prep cook isn't going to be happy making the same amount as the disher because they know they're more skilled than the disher so they're going to demand a raise to $11 an hour. Then the same thing happens with the line cooks being unhappy that they are making the same as a prep cook. So in order to maintain a balance in wages...I have to give EVERYONE a raise!

Now, these 10 people at one restaurant are teenagers and you say they work 2,000 hours per year and some are in college. That isn't like any restaurant or reality I've ever heard of.

 

[Oldstyle]

Your restaurant can't be that fine if you pay $7 instead of $7.25 for a dishwasher. You still haven't shown how much an increase in minimum wage changes the overall increase in the cost of you doing business. I would guess a minimum wage increase to $9 per hours might add 2% to your cost of doing business, so that $20 steak will now cost $20.40. Big fucking deal!

You're just cheap and one way in your economic views. We don't build an economic system around your restaurant business.

My labor costs run about 35% because we are a fine dining restaurant. The general rule of thumb is that your prime costs (food cost & labor cost) should add up to somewhere in the 60 to 65% range in order to be profitable. If you have 10 employees being paid minimum wage (which is about what we do have) an increase of $1 an hour would mean an increase to our annual labor cost of approximately $20,000...and an increase of the magnitude that you are suggesting, $2 an hour, would cost me around $40,000 per year. That ISN'T small money. It's a lot of money in an industry where the typical profit margin for a fine dining restaurant is in the 4% range.

Do yourself a favor, Dubya...don't try to tell others how THEIR businesses should run when you REALLY don't understand the first thing about the industry that they are in!

You claim to have 10 employees making minimum wage in a restaurant and say they are working 2000 hours per year. I've been connected to many restaurants and they don't operate like that. People who work in restaurants don't work 8 hours, 5 days a week. I take it this is just one example of your restaurants you claim to own.

Your 35% figure is operating expenses, but that isn't all the expenses in the cost of doing business, is it? I notice you can't calculate a percentage increase in the cost of doing business or even calculate the percentage increase in the cost of labor.

As far as talking about increasing the minimum wage, that is just as much my business as yours. If you don't like the rules in this country, take your restaurant somewhere else! Do you think it's going to be missed?

Are you sure you are smart enough to own a restaurant?

Your word comprehension skills are rather lacking, Dubya. I SAID that my labor costs were in the area of 35% and that my prime costs (labor, food and alcohol) were in the 60 to 65% range. I have many other operating expenses. As I stated before, my profit margin is typically in the 4% range. Raising labor costs over 30% is going to mean that I'm going to have to raise my prices accordingly which means I run the risk of pricing myself out of the market for many people who are on fixed incomes...which here in the State of Florida is quite a few folks.

Are YOU sure you know enough about the restaurant business to try to tell someone who's made a career in the hospitality industy how they should be running theirs? I don't think you do, Dubya. I think you're pretty clueless about what the owners of MOST small businesses face these days because I don't think you've ever owned a business, let alone a restaurant.

 

[Oldstyle]

So by your logic it would be better if you could pay your employees even less. By not paying a good wage everyone else subsidizes your business with food stamps and medical care for your employees . Fine dining? raise your prices to cover the costs (if the food and atmosphere is that good) since the people who frequent your establishment have the means. Strange how people want everyone else to subsidize their business instead of taking care of their employees.

Since 1966, a sub-section of the minimum wage has existed for people who work for gratuities, known as the "tipped minimum wage," which Congress last bumped to $2.13 per hour in 1991. Some states have increased the tipped minimum wage on their own as well. 2.13 an hour plus tips!!!!

The ten people who are employed by me at minimum wage are all teenagers. For most of them this is their first job...a job to which they came with very few job skills...and for which they had to be trained. The jobs that they are doing are typically not something any of them will be doing for long. They are "bridge" jobs to other positions or other jobs. It allows them to show a reliable work history and gives them a reference to be used when applying for other work. I don't believe ANY of them are on food stamps or goverment subsidized medical care because most of them live at home or are attending college.

As for raising my prices? That would be the result of raising the minimum wage. My prices would go up as would the prices for most businesses providing goods and services. I guess anyone on a fixed income would just be shit outta luck, huh? We'll just jack up prices on them and they'll have to deal with it?

This is what you said:

That's simple math, so use the math and stop hiding behind generalities!

Prove how minimum wage increases increase your business costs substantially! Prove it with numbers and not mouth!

How could it not?

I run restaurants. I pay a competitive wage that is loosely established by the going rate of the locale I'm in. A diswasher makes $7 an hour...one step up the employee chain are prep cooks that make $9 an hour...one step up from them are line cooks that make $11 an hour.

So what do you think happens when I give that low end employee a "raise" to $9 an hour? It's a pretty simple concept! The prep cook isn't going to be happy making the same amount as the disher because they know they're more skilled than the disher so they're going to demand a raise to $11 an hour. Then the same thing happens with the line cooks being unhappy that they are making the same as a prep cook. So in order to maintain a balance in wages...I have to give EVERYONE a raise!

Now, these 10 people at one restaurant are teenagers and you say they work 2,000 hours per year and some are in college. That isn't like any restaurant or reality I've ever heard of.

My dishwashers and bussers are teens. What do you find to be so strange about that? It's the typical starting job for many young people and EXACTLY how I got started many years ago.

 

[hunarcy]

The ten people who are employed by me at minimum wage are all teenagers. For most of them this is their first job...a job to which they came with very few job skills...and for which they had to be trained. The jobs that they are doing are typically not something any of them will be doing for long. They are "bridge" jobs to other positions or other jobs. It allows them to show a reliable work history and gives them a reference to be used when applying for other work. I don't believe ANY of them are on food stamps or goverment subsidized medical care because most of them live at home or are attending college.

As for raising my prices? That would be the result of raising the minimum wage. My prices would go up as would the prices for most businesses providing goods and services. I guess anyone on a fixed income would just be shit outta luck, huh? We'll just jack up prices on them and they'll have to deal with it?

This is what you said:

How could it not?

I run restaurants. I pay a competitive wage that is loosely established by the going rate of the locale I'm in. A diswasher makes $7 an hour...one step up the employee chain are prep cooks that make $9 an hour...one step up from them are line cooks that make $11 an hour.

So what do you think happens when I give that low end employee a "raise" to $9 an hour? It's a pretty simple concept! The prep cook isn't going to be happy making the same amount as the disher because they know they're more skilled than the disher so they're going to demand a raise to $11 an hour. Then the same thing happens with the line cooks being unhappy that they are making the same as a prep cook. So in order to maintain a balance in wages...I have to give EVERYONE a raise!

Now, these 10 people at one restaurant are teenagers and you say they work 2,000 hours per year and some are in college. That isn't like any restaurant or reality I've ever heard of.

My dishwashers and bussers are teens. What do you find to be so strange about that? It's the typical starting job for many young people and EXACTLY how I got started many years ago.

He obviously knows he has lost the argument and is reduced to playing word games to try to distract from his poor performance in this thread.

 

[Ava]

A solid majority of Americans support President Obama’s proposal ...

so where is the legislation ? Rather than have dinner with Republicans its about time for Obama to insist on something for those who put him in office.

Yes, all those informed voters who reelected him, want some more free stuff.


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3gXOV_XWJck]Confusing Question of the Day - Obama Pardons The Sequester - YouTube[/ame]