Small Businesses in NYC Struggling with $15 Minimum Wage

[Harpy Eagle]

Small Businesses Struggle With $15 Minimum Wage Hike in NY: 'They're Shutting Down'

EXCERPT: According to a report published Monday by the Wall Street Journal, many business leaders and owners in the Big Apple have said that they are having to cut hours, raise prices, and reduce staff in their businesses due to the rising labor costs that they say come from the recent city law bumping up the minimum wage. . . .

The president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, told the Wall Street Journal that he has seen an increased number of small businesses closing in the last six to nine months. He believes the rising closures are due to the minimum wage legislation.

“They’re cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down,” Grech said. “It’s not just the rent.”

Why no concern over workers struggling with a $7.25 wage?

If they want more, they should make themselves more valuable

 

[rightwinger]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

If a small business is operating on the edge in terms of profitability, there are many factors that can push them off the edge..

Competition, rise in the cost of supplies, taxes, rent

An increase in the cost of any could put them out of business


No reason the most poorly paid workers need to sacrifice to save them

 

[pknopp]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

If I was told my entire life to put away money to live on in retirement and Wall Street keeps on chipping away at my savings something has to give. One either fills their prescription or eats.

 

[Dragonlady]

Well that's shocking.

That it is.

Only a moron wouldn't see small businesses closing because of that ridiculous $15 dollar an hour minimum wage.

Minimum wage was never meant to support anyone. It was meant for high school kids to make a little cash at night and on summer vacation.

Only idiots would demand a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage. Prices will go up to cover it. Hours will be cut, workers let go and small businesses will just close.

Not to smart.

What they fail to understand is when an employer gives a dollar an hour raise, it costs the employer more than that dollar. Other things increase in cost as well, such as vacation time where you are getting paid to not work. Social Security and Medicare contributions since your employer has to match those contributions and you will be paying more into them. Insurances increase as well because if something happens to you like getting laid off or getting hurt on the job, the payout is based on how much you make per month.

When you take a huge pay increase like this, the employer has to take huge other losses on top of it.

What YOU fail to realize is that the small business owner can deduct ALL of those costs from their gross income and reduce their tax liability accordingly. Every dollar an employer spends on wages, only costs the business owner 78 cents because they would pay income tax of 22% on that additional profit, so the business owner is only out of pocket 78 cents, not one dollar.

On the other hand, earned income credits cost taxpayers $3 billion per year just for administration of this program. That's over and above the costs of the benefits paid to low income workers.

Earned Income Tax Credit: Small Benefits, Large Costs

By shifting the burden for employee wages back to the employer, the economy will save all of the costs of running this program, as well as the costs of the benefits paid. Employers are only paying 78 cents on the dollar for every dollar of wage increases they pay.

You're picking up the peanuts while being trampled by the elephants, Ray. The Waltons don't need more dividends, stop paying their workers for them.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

If a small business is operating on the edge in terms of profitability, there are many factors that can push them off the edge..

Competition, rise in the cost of supplies, taxes, rent

An increase in the cost of any could put them out of business


No reason the most poorly paid workers need to sacrifice to save them

Labor is one of the few expenses you have much control over, thus it is the one they will make changes to. Of the things you listed the owner has very little to any control over.

 

[Dragonlady]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

The problem is that companies have been increasing profits for the past 30 years, without increasing wages. Wages as a percentage of costs, have been steadily decreasing while profits have been steadily rising. Employers have managed to absorb increases in every other expense category - real estate, equipment, utilities, transportation and supplies, but have steadfastly resisted increases in wages, even as GDP rose. The excuse given was that productivity increases were due to automation, not worker performance.

Wages are now at the same level, as a percentage of costs, as they were in the Guilded Age, and that level of pay inequity, lead to the rise of the union movement in the USA. Reagan promised all American workers a raise when they got rid of the unions. The opposite happened. The American worker hasn't had a meaningful increase in pay since the union movement was destroyed by Republican policies and lies.

Republicans promised that W's tax cuts would trickle down to the workers, even though "trickle down" economics was discredited when Reagan was President. W's tax cut simply accelerated the transfer of wealth from othe middle class to the wealthy, while earned income credits were raised to compensate for a lack of wage increases.

Corporations were awash in cash BEFORE Trump cut taxes to the corporations. He promised that workers would get a $4000 raise from those corporate tax cuts, and that didn't happen. Instead a mere 5% got a one time bonus, and corporations launched the biggest stock buy-back in American history, increasing the equity value of their own shares, enriching their shareholders with no tax implications whatsoever, and giving their workers nothing.

So stop with the gloom and doom and tears for the corporate sector. Maybe those CEO's making $20 million per year on the backs of workers making minimum wage, can forego further increases to THEIR salaries for a while.

 

[danielpalos]

Small Businesses Struggle With $15 Minimum Wage Hike in NY: 'They're Shutting Down'

EXCERPT: According to a report published Monday by the Wall Street Journal, many business leaders and owners in the Big Apple have said that they are having to cut hours, raise prices, and reduce staff in their businesses due to the rising labor costs that they say come from the recent city law bumping up the minimum wage. . . .

The president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, told the Wall Street Journal that he has seen an increased number of small businesses closing in the last six to nine months. He believes the rising closures are due to the minimum wage legislation.

“They’re cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down,” Grech said. “It’s not just the rent.”

Jesus dude...your own article refutes your bullshit.'

The only two businesses cited admit they have not even had to cut anyone and that all their employees are doing 40 hour weeks

Jesus what a lame thread

You can't write a thirty page article detailing every single business in a city that size. The people they interviewed are just examples, not the only ones affected.

You on the left believe that if somebody owns a business, they have unlimited money to spend. If they are attacked by taxes or other government regulations that cost their business more money, they will just have to dig a little deeper into their pockets; have to do with one less SUV or boat.

The truth of the matter is most small businesses fail within the first five years. Many more struggle if they make it that far. So in the future if they want to survive, they will follow the path of big restaurant chains like McDonald's and Burger King, and invest in automation to replace those workers they can't afford to pay.

Labor is a cost that can be expensed. The greater the Cost the greater the amount Expensed.

 

[danielpalos]

Well that's shocking.

That it is.

Only a moron wouldn't see small businesses closing because of that ridiculous $15 dollar an hour minimum wage.

Minimum wage was never meant to support anyone. It was meant for high school kids to make a little cash at night and on summer vacation.

Only idiots would demand a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage. Prices will go up to cover it. Hours will be cut, workers let go and small businesses will just close.

Not to smart.

What they fail to understand is when an employer gives a dollar an hour raise, it costs the employer more than that dollar. Other things increase in cost as well, such as vacation time where you are getting paid to not work. Social Security and Medicare contributions since your employer has to match those contributions and you will be paying more into them. Insurances increase as well because if something happens to you like getting laid off or getting hurt on the job, the payout is based on how much you make per month.

When you take a huge pay increase like this, the employer has to take huge other losses on top of it.

Higher paid labor pays more in taxes and creates more in demand.

And, Costs are Expensed.

 

[Brain357]

I love how repubs take credit for low income wage gains thanks to minimum wage increases, then bitch about minimum wage....

 

[danielpalos]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

Higher pay labor creates more in demand and pays more in taxes.

 

[rightwinger]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

If a small business is operating on the edge in terms of profitability, there are many factors that can push them off the edge..

Competition, rise in the cost of supplies, taxes, rent

An increase in the cost of any could put them out of business


No reason the most poorly paid workers need to sacrifice to save them

Labor is one of the few expenses you have much control over, thus it is the one they will make changes to. Of the things you listed the owner has very little to any control over.

Lets say that struggling small business has a competitor move in down the street. We do not go to the new business and explain that the existing business is a struggling small business and you moving here will put him out of business

But we have no problem telling a struggling minimum wage college student that he needs to take student loans in order to keep a struggling small business in business

 

[danielpalos]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

If I was told my entire life to put away money to live on in retirement and Wall Street keeps on chipping away at my savings something has to give. One either fills their prescription or eats.

I would rather learn to invest in gold and silver, including gold coins, or watches, before bitcoin.

 

[Dragonlady]

Small Businesses Struggle With $15 Minimum Wage Hike in NY: 'They're Shutting Down'

EXCERPT: According to a report published Monday by the Wall Street Journal, many business leaders and owners in the Big Apple have said that they are having to cut hours, raise prices, and reduce staff in their businesses due to the rising labor costs that they say come from the recent city law bumping up the minimum wage. . . .

The president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, told the Wall Street Journal that he has seen an increased number of small businesses closing in the last six to nine months. He believes the rising closures are due to the minimum wage legislation.

“They’re cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down,” Grech said. “It’s not just the rent.”

Why no concern over workers struggling with a $7.25 wage?

If they want more, they should make themselves more valuable

Gator, even if every worker in America made themselves "more valuable", you would still need people to clean hotel rooms, deliver pizzas, and pick up the garbage. Those people should receive a living wage too. They're working every day just as hard as I did when I was working, and they should at least be able to put a roof over their head and food on the table for working a 40 hour week.

Earned income credits, food stamps, Section 8 and other income supports should not required to augment the wages of workers for the most profitable corporations in America. Make McDonalds pay their own damn workers, and lower their franchise fees to do it, if necessary. The workers who are serving the customers and making the burgers are the people who are actually generating all of that income for the company. They should be paid FIRST and foremost. If you're one of the most profitable corporations in America and your workers need social assistance to eat, this is WRONG. Both economically and morally.

 

[rightwinger]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

The problem is that companies have been increasing profits for the past 30 years, without increasing wages. Wages as a percentage of costs, have been steadily decreasing while profits have been steadily rising. Employers have managed to absorb increases in every other expense category - real estate, equipment, utilities, transportation and supplies, but have steadfastly resisted increases in wages, even as GDP rose. The excuse given was that productivity increases were due to automation, not worker performance.

Wages are now at the same level, as a percentage of costs, as they were in the Guilded Age, and that level of pay inequity, lead to the rise of the union movement in the USA. Reagan promised all American workers a raise when they got rid of the unions. The opposite happened. The American worker hasn't had a meaningful increase in pay since the union movement was destroyed by Republican policies and lies.

Republicans promised that W's tax cuts would trickle down to the workers, even though "trickle down" economics was discredited when Reagan was President. W's tax cut simply accelerated the transfer of wealth from othe middle class to the wealthy, while earned income credits were raised to compensate for a lack of wage increases.

Corporations were awash in cash BEFORE Trump cut taxes to the corporations. He promised that workers would get a $4000 raise from those corporate tax cuts, and that didn't happen. Instead a mere 5% got a one time bonus, and corporations launched the biggest stock buy-back in American history, increasing the equity value of their own shares, enriching their shareholders with no tax implications whatsoever, and giving their workers nothing.

So stop with the gloom and doom and tears for the corporate sector. Maybe those CEO's making $20 million per year on the backs of workers making minimum wage, can forego further increases to THEIR salaries for a while.

We went through the last 12 years telling low wage workers that we can’t increase wages because the economy is struggling

Now, with a booming economy and below 4 percent unemployment, we tell them we still can’t afford to raise our lowest wage.

If not now.......when is a good time to raise minimum wage?

 

[Dekster]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

The problem is that companies have been increasing profits for the past 30 years, without increasing wages. Wages as a percentage of costs, have been steadily decreasing while profits have been steadily rising. Employers have managed to absorb increases in every other expense category - real estate, equipment, utilities, transportation and supplies, but have steadfastly resisted increases in wages, even as GDP rose. The excuse given was that productivity increases were due to automation, not worker performance.

Wages are now at the same level, as a percentage of costs, as they were in the Guilded Age, and that level of pay inequity, lead to the rise of the union movement in the USA. Reagan promised all American workers a raise when they got rid of the unions. The opposite happened. The American worker hasn't had a meaningful increase in pay since the union movement was destroyed by Republican policies and lies.

Republicans promised that W's tax cuts would trickle down to the workers, even though "trickle down" economics was discredited when Reagan was President. W's tax cut simply accelerated the transfer of wealth from othe middle class to the wealthy, while earned income credits were raised to compensate for a lack of wage increases.

Corporations were awash in cash BEFORE Trump cut taxes to the corporations. He promised that workers would get a $4000 raise from those corporate tax cuts, and that didn't happen. Instead a mere 5% got a one time bonus, and corporations launched the biggest stock buy-back in American history, increasing the equity value of their own shares, enriching their shareholders with no tax implications whatsoever, and giving their workers nothing.

So stop with the gloom and doom and tears for the corporate sector. Maybe those CEO's making $20 million per year on the backs of workers making minimum wage, can forego further increases to THEIR salaries for a while.

The minimum wage has increased in the last 30 years or so as well. % of profits does not matter. You just dismiss out of hand automation and you ignore that it is not just automation, but it is overall efficiency of operations. Landscapers can use round up instead of somebody standing there with a weedeater. Restaurants can use microwaves and pre-packaged food like bagged lettuces. You can pay bills on the phone or internet reducing the need to have people standing at counters or processing payments by mail. Stores no longer need people to put the price on every good on their shelves. The list goes on and on and on as to how technology beyond just automation has changed the fundamentals of most workplaces in the same period of time. Of course labor's share is going down because labor, particularly no/low skill labor is an increasingly minuscule part of most business costs.

Your class warfare at the end of your post is a red-herring. To make labor more profitable, then the laborer needs to offer something better than low/no skill to an employer. Having two legs, two arms and a heart beat is no longer enough to guarantee you a job, particularly when most of those jobs have been sent overseas thanks to William Jefferson Clinton's 300+ Trade deals while he was in office.

 

[Dragonlady]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

The problem is that companies have been increasing profits for the past 30 years, without increasing wages. Wages as a percentage of costs, have been steadily decreasing while profits have been steadily rising. Employers have managed to absorb increases in every other expense category - real estate, equipment, utilities, transportation and supplies, but have steadfastly resisted increases in wages, even as GDP rose. The excuse given was that productivity increases were due to automation, not worker performance.

Wages are now at the same level, as a percentage of costs, as they were in the Guilded Age, and that level of pay inequity, lead to the rise of the union movement in the USA. Reagan promised all American workers a raise when they got rid of the unions. The opposite happened. The American worker hasn't had a meaningful increase in pay since the union movement was destroyed by Republican policies and lies.

Republicans promised that W's tax cuts would trickle down to the workers, even though "trickle down" economics was discredited when Reagan was President. W's tax cut simply accelerated the transfer of wealth from othe middle class to the wealthy, while earned income credits were raised to compensate for a lack of wage increases.

Corporations were awash in cash BEFORE Trump cut taxes to the corporations. He promised that workers would get a $4000 raise from those corporate tax cuts, and that didn't happen. Instead a mere 5% got a one time bonus, and corporations launched the biggest stock buy-back in American history, increasing the equity value of their own shares, enriching their shareholders with no tax implications whatsoever, and giving their workers nothing.

So stop with the gloom and doom and tears for the corporate sector. Maybe those CEO's making $20 million per year on the backs of workers making minimum wage, can forego further increases to THEIR salaries for a while.

We went through the last 12 years telling low wage workers that we can’t increase wages because the economy is struggling

Now, with a booming economy and below 4 percent unemployment, we tell them we still can’t afford to raise our lowest wage.

If not now.......when is a good time to raise minimum wage?

Reagan told workers that Unions were preventing them from getting raises. Get rid of the unions and you'll get raises.

When W was President, the companies said yes, we've increased GDP, but that's not because of the workers, it's because of automation, and we have to pay for that equipment - no raises for you.

I worked in an industry that saw my productivity double and double again, because of automation, as we switched from electric typewriters to word processors, and from manual title searching to online searches and registrations, during which time my income went up proportionally. When I retired as a law clerk, I was making more than three times what I was making when I started, and was receiving profit sharing bonuses from my employer. One lawyer I worked for saw his billings increase by more than 30% from previous year when I started working for him, without him working longer hours, or pulling in any new clients. Damn skippy I deserved to benefit from that increase, and I did.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

Higher pay labor creates more in demand and pays more in taxes.

Not when fewer people are getting paid overall

 

[Thinker101]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

Higher pay labor creates more in demand and pays more in taxes.

Sure, it also creates fewer jobs which results in less taxes....get a clue.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Small Businesses Struggle With $15 Minimum Wage Hike in NY: 'They're Shutting Down'

EXCERPT: According to a report published Monday by the Wall Street Journal, many business leaders and owners in the Big Apple have said that they are having to cut hours, raise prices, and reduce staff in their businesses due to the rising labor costs that they say come from the recent city law bumping up the minimum wage. . . .

The president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, told the Wall Street Journal that he has seen an increased number of small businesses closing in the last six to nine months. He believes the rising closures are due to the minimum wage legislation.

“They’re cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down,” Grech said. “It’s not just the rent.”

Gee, that's too bad. Maybe we ought to go back in time and return to slavery. We can send our troops to the shit holes Trump has identified, bring back the people who reside there, and bring them to America. We can lock them up for time, time enough to teach them a trade and learn enough English to follow the directions of their future owner.

The Government can then sell them on a free market, by silent bidding, and soon enough the products being sold by small business can be much more profitable. Problem solved.

 

[rightwinger]

It isn't just small businesses and it has nothing to do with the Minimum Wage.

Eventually common sense needs to break through your partisan wall.

If a company has X amount of money to spend on labor and the cost of that labor suddenly goes up without a corresponding rise in revenue then something has to give.

Higher pay labor creates more in demand and pays more in taxes.

Sure, it also creates fewer jobs which results in less taxes....get a clue.

We have 3.7 percent unemployment