So How's That Whole $15 Minimum Wage Thing Working Out?

[Ruskiegunlover]

Unreal. He really thinks that if we just pay them more, they'll be able to afford more. Whats mcdonalds going to have to do if they raise the wage to 15 lagsocialist? Tell me. Can they stay profitable? The fatal conciet: not knowing what you do not know.

Can they stay profitable? Or will they have to raise the price on their products to stay afloat? WHEN they do that (not if), are you going to keep buying a quarter pounder when it costs 8 or 9 bucks, or are you just going to go to a better place to eat? Lets see.....I can pay 10 bucks for a much higher end burger at an Applebees, or I can pay ALMOST THE SAME AMOUNT for a shitty, low quality quarter pounder at a mcdonalds....Tough choice. OH! And, the added attraction of being treated like shit by the miserable, low education, over paid, lazy mcdonalds workers who probably STILL won't get my order right......Gee, where to eat?

[Ruskiegunlover]

I also have to add socialist that you are a greedy capitalist bastard for not wanting to raise the wage to $100/hour. Why not? You believe mcdonalds is rich, and can afford these higher wages. Why not just raise the wage to 50 or 100?

[LAGC]

Can they stay profitable? Or will they have to raise the price on their products to stay afloat? WHEN they do that (not if), are you going to keep buying a quarter pounder when it costs 8 or 9 bucks

Except that a quarter pounder isn't going to cost 8 or 9 bucks. Try maybe $1 more for that combo meal. You have to keep in mind that labor costs are only one part of the equation. Food costs and property costs make up the bulk of a fast-food franchise's budget, and those aren't changing under such a scenario.

Tough choice. OH! And, the added attraction of being treated like shit by the miserable, low education, over paid, lazy mcdonalds workers who probably STILL won't get my order right......Gee, where to eat?

You must live in a really shitty area. All the fast-food workers around here are more than polite.

[Goodman]

@LAGC:
You fail to realize food and overhead include labor costs which will also face upward price pressure from a higher minimum wage. Who's gonna run the packing plants and landscape those restaurant properties? In many cases it is minimum wage labor doing those jobs.

[Ruskiegunlover]

Jesus socialist, GET AN EDUCATION! You really think mcdonalds gets a HUGE profit margin on each burger they sell? My GOD you are stupid. Their entire business is modeled on LARGE sales at SMALLER profit. DOUBLE the wage of each worker, and you will cause them to substantially raise the cost of everything they sell. I bet, after paying wages, production of the food, shipping, warehousing, energy, taxes, etc, that they barely turn a .50 cent profit on each burger. I don't know, MAYBE $1.00? You dumb shit socialists actually think they sell a double quarter pounder for $3.00, and keep $2.99 in profits? Seriously, go get an education in something besides psychology, biology, and art, and then go get real world experience in something OTHER THAN crime.

No, that all requires work. Which the left doesn't understand.

[LAGC]

@LAGC:
You fail to realize food and overhead include labor costs which will also face upward price pressure from a higher minimum wage. Who's gonna run the packing plants and landscape those restaurant properties? In many cases it is minimum wage labor doing those jobs.

I won't deny that there would be some inflation involved. I just don't think it would be as dramatic as some are making it out to be, that the boost in real wages would more than make up for the slight increase in the price of goods. (Again, assuming it was only a gradual rise to $10-15/hour and not $50 or $100/hour or whatever wild scenario one can come up with.)

And usually, speaking from a macroeconomic perspective, a little bit of inflation tends to keep overall unemployment down as well.

[Goodman]

....to elaborate Ruskie's post- at the slow point in the afternoon say there are 4 employees working. Assume $1 profit per combo meal. Raise each employee by $3 per hour. Payroll costs effectively double the employer cost of that raise (yes, really). To get through the slow hours of the day the business now has to sell an extra 24 combo meals PER HOUR just to cover the new labor costs....and we haven't even touched food cost and overhead increases yet.

[Richard Simmons]

IMHO the majority of individuals that support a $15 minimum wage are primarily those that currently make less than that amount and or make much more than that but aren't am employer so don't see where it can effect them. IIRC LAGC don't you only work part time? I'm also betting you make less than $15 an hour. In the interest of full disclosure I make significantly more than $15 an hour but then again I have a skillset that took 25 years to develop to it's current level and to which I am still adding to and improving on a daily basis. I've come a long way from my first day in this industry at $7 an hour and none of it was because the government told my employers how much to pay me.


If you can force employers to pay a "living wage" based on some arbitrary figure that the government comes up with rather than paying based on the market, employee skillset, etc., then you are in effect expanding dependency on government. High school graduation rates would decrease across the board and mostly minority schools in urban area would shut down completely. With the ability to make a "living wage" no longer dependent on even the most basic education and job skills why bother going to school?


We will never be a better people or a greater nation because of our government but rather in spite of it.

[sevlex]

We are seeing folks like Ruskiegunlover express the reality of a plan to frustrate and reduce the expectations of the middle class. We are seeing the slackers learning to be content living with their low wages, high density housing, and government subsidies. The later of which is paid for by the likes of Ruskiegunlover who sees his education and honest effort go for nothing. And then we have LACG coming in as a mouthpiece for the plan. He tells us we need not fear a few degrees hotter here on the stove, in the pot...he tells us it's no big deal as long it is done incrementally. Unfortunately, he is too ignorant to see he will be boiled right along with the rest of us.

LAGC apparently missed this part:

Over the last few months, a few things have happened:
◾Managers have taken more responsibilities on themselves, instead of hiring more workers.
◾Businesses have laid off workers, or eliminated their plans to hire more.
◾Area parking now comes with an added “living-wage surcharge.”
◾Hotels have cut employee benefits, free food, and overtime.

This sort of thing promotes hiring illegals who get paid under the table.

Another ripple-effect that has not been covered much is union contracts where wages are tied to the minimum wage. Double that and union workers get a huge pay increase. Cost of Goods will "necessarily" skyrocket.

[Ruskiegunlover]

You are right that it frustrates me. More, it enrages me. I see this country COLLAPSING in just years. And frankly, thats the BEST case scenario. Because without outright collapse, we will just have a slow, gradual slide into misery. And those of us who saw it coming will stew in it, angry to our deaths while those who either were too stupid to see it coming (lagsocialist) or had evil intentions (more likely lagsocialist) will rejoice in the fact that NOONE any longer has more than anyone else. The jelousy and anger felt by the lagsocialist types will be what destroys us. Its not fact or logic that drives them. It is not altruism. It is jelousy, anger, hatred. The feeling that it is not fair that some have more than others. Not fair that some people have more than them. Forget their own bad choices, bad decision. Forget that MANY of them pissed on their free high school education. Forget that many are in reality just too damned lazy to even BREATH.....It will be just not FAIR.....

[Silentkilla01]

These people need to be made to bust there ass to earn a living for a bit and see how it is to really work to get what you want instead of sitting on there PC or XBox or phone all damn day while mom and dad pay there way or better yet we pay there way. That part makes me sick.....

[Silentkilla01]

Being a fucking fry cook is not work. It's a high schoolers job or a part time job while someone is in collage trying to make something of them selves

[Ruskiegunlover]

For a 12 hour day, the average fastfood place has anywhere from 10-18 people working. Sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less. For the sake of this, we'll say a Wendys works 15 minimum wage people. Each makes, say, 7.25 per hour. Each works an 8 hour shift. That amounts to:

15 workers X 8 hour shifts X 7.25 per hour = $870.00 for wages every day.

NOW, pay each of those people an extra $7.75 per hour, and see what it does. I actually don't even have to do the math: it doubles it. MORE than doubles it. They now have to pay about $2,000 a day in wages, give or take.

But what if their business doesn't go up along with the wages? What then? Wouldn't they have to sell twice as much food to maintain what had been their level of profit? Over double your wages, and it stands to reason that you have to over double your profits to stay at your current level of profit.

OH, thats right. They just shouldn't be allowed to be as profitable. Right lagsocialist?

How the hell does any of this work to you?

Honestly and simply: are you a moron, or just evil?

[weevil]

Does make you wonder if somebody could really be that stupid or he's fucking with us.



But then again there is no shortage of dumbasses in this country, who really do believe the insanity they're being spoon-fed.

They elected Obama didn't they?

[Ruskiegunlover]

Well, I think I laid it out fairly clearly there. He has GOT to see how the math doesn't add up. And, as they raise the wage, even if over 2-3 years, we WILL be paying 1/3rd to 3/4 more for the food we buy at these places. They will almost have to take a hit in profits, but they will also have to raise the price of their products.

And, as has been pointed out on this forum before, many of these jobs will soon be automated to save them even more money. And, those who said they DESERVE $15 hour will be the ones at fault. And I will gladly go to mcdonalds to buy food from them then.

[Silentkilla01]

Another thing... It will make a happy meal that is now 3.00 a little over 6 or 7 dollars. When they start charging this no one is going to be ordering happy meals at the price that you can go to Logan's or long horns for and get a steak. Then they will have over paid employees with no business. Then they fold and go bankrupt. So how's this suppose to help on the long run??

[l921428x]

Does make you wonder if somebody could really be that stupid or he's fucking with us.



But then again there is no shortage of dumbasses in this country, who really do believe the insanity they're being spoon-fed.

They elected Obama didn't they?

Elected him twice. Or you can cut the number of employees in half, raise the cost of the food only 10% and viola. oh but maybe the wait times will change. I solved that! 1 hour lunches.

[Oswald Bastable]

This will be the WA answer to the new minimum wage:

Momentum Machines – a San Francisco-based robotics company has unveiled the ‘Smart Restaurants’ machine which is capable of making ~360 ‘customized’ gourmet burgers per hour without the aid of a human.

http://youngcons.com/this-robotics-c...-minimum-wage/

How's that going to work for all those poor oppressed low income people, just trying to earn a living, LAGC?

[LAGC]

And, as has been pointed out on this forum before, many of these jobs will soon be automated to save them even more money. And, those who said they DESERVE $15 hour will be the ones at fault. And I will gladly go to mcdonalds to buy food from them then.

I think you and Oswald are on to something here. I have no problem with automated technology taking over various aspects of menial labor.

For what jobs might be lost in flipping burgers, more will be made-up in jobs designing, building, and maintaining such food-dispensing machines.

Again, to me the issue isn't so much about providing more pay to low-skill workers, but rather all the college grads right now who can't find work, and are trying to pay off student loans.

In that sense, raising the minimum wage could very well spur some serious innovation. And that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing at all.

It could also open up opportunities for many of these low-skilled workers to enter into trades schools to learn how to service the machines.

There are many aspects to consider here...

[Aggressive Perfector]

The problem is, many of the people taking these types of jobs are college grads who can't find work in their field. We're talking about people with several tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, so naturally they are going to fight for a living wage.

That's why the unemployment rate is so high amongst teenagers (15-17) right now, because adults are taking many of those jobs as a last resort.

My wife is one of them. We get by just fine, I see no reason to up the wages. But just think also just how many fuckers choose that line of work because drugs more important to them than a decent paying job? When I worked at KFC that made up roughly 60% of the adult staff. Where my wife is working it's about the same.

I think you answered your own question. I sure as fuck would rather work as a teacher than toiling day after day in a hot, sweaty environment, doing a monotonous, stressful job. Far fewer people respect fast-food workers than teachers, that's for sure.

I've worked fast food. I've also done roofing, drywall, carpentry, and die casting. I'm telling you now, fast food pays shit because it's gravy compared to a real job. Wanna talk about a monotonous, stressful job in a hot and sweaty environment? Why don't you take a trip to Harrison, Arkansas and Visit Pace Industries on a hot summer day. Hell, try pulling some castings out of the machine that just 30 seconds earlier were molten aluminum. Then quickly beat all the excess material off the casting, and turn around to do it again. $50 says your ass, along with most of these fast food workers, would getting sick from heat exhaustion and quitting before the 12 hour shift is up. I bet you wouldn't last 4 hours in that place. You run a DCM in a sheet metal building with no insulation, no temperature control, and a hot die just a few feet away, hot parts constantly in hand, and a huge melting pot full of 1300 degree molten aluminum across the room. Then you tell me these dick heads deserve the same money I was making.