Seattle and the Minimum Wage

#1

therealUT

Rational Thought Allowed?
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#1
The minimum wage was raised to $11 in April. 1,000 restaurant jobs were lost in May.

The "Fight for $15" is great.
 
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#4
#4
The minimum wage was raised to $11 in April. 1,000 restaurant jobs were lost in May.

The "Fight for $15" is great.

$15 is just some arbitrary number some nut job came up with with literally zero thought about cost of living or financial consequences.

Basic business practice dictates that as costs rise one doesn't seek to absorb them but find avenues to counter them. In these cases it's going to be employees taking the heat either through less hours, less staff, or both. Do more with less!


Seattle is a great example of social justice warriors knee jerk reactions to everything. Chik Fil A is having trouble getting a store open in the Denver airport because a gay city council member is having to investigate the company because of their gay marriage stance. That is absolutely dumbfounding! Chik Fil A doesn't have a gay marriage stance.
 
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#6
#6
Business owners can't afford to pay themselves and their employees.

Didn't you get the memo? All business owners in this country are evil giant CEO's at corporations who just "steal wages" from their employees and violate their privilege to work....



:crazy:
 
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#7
#7

:lolabove:

Aw LG..have some coffee.

I have ten employees. I get rid of 5. I raise the pay of the other five a little bit. They now each do the job of 2 employees. Production is up because I am doing more with less payroll. Profits! Huge success!!


Except you know, for the 5 people I laid off standing in line with the other 995 waiting for unemployment..

I kind of like it! Liberals think they are winning but are actually following the evil Corporation game plan.

edit

Brett Richards, a 50-year-old singer and guitarist, has worked 25 years in food service, including the past eight at Ivar's. Before, he made minimum wage, plus tips. Now, he gets $15 an hour, plus a share of the 21 percent menu price increase and any additional tips customers leave.

He expects to make almost $7,000 more this year

Wow so much fail in one paragraph. And who the F is leaving these people tips? Silly libs
 
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#9
#9
:lolabove:

Aw LG..have some coffee.

I have ten employees. I get rid of 5. I raise the pay of the other five a little bit. They now each do the job of 2 employees. Production is up because I am doing more with less payroll. Profits! Huge success!!


Except you know, for the 5 people I laid off standing in line with the other 995 waiting for unemployment..

I kind of like it! Liberals think they are winning but are actually following the evil Corporation game plan.

edit



Wow so much fail in one paragraph. And who the F is leaving these people tips? Silly libs


You should have only hired 5 employees and paid them a little more to begin with. Your profits would have been up the entire time. You then could grow your business, open a new location and hire more people.
 
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#11
#11
You should have only hired 5 employees and paid them a little more to begin with. Your profits would have been up the entire time. You then could grow your business, open a new location and hire more people.

I should have bought robots.

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#13
#13

Ivar's is a tourist spot, distinct from most restaurants in Seattle. Go to the Cheers bar in Boston and you'll pay above average prices for below average food. Places like that can get away with price hikes because the regular clientele wants to say they've been there and is ignorant of the average prices in the area.

In other words, Ivar's is an outlier and we can easily explain why this is so.

Basic principles of economics are clear on the fact that if costs rise in a competitive market (restaurants as restaurants and not tourist spots are in a competitive market), prices rise. In order to keep costs low and gain a competitive advantage, successful businesses will replace human labor with lower cost technology.

Now, the cost of technology replacing labor is not always simple because capital assets depreciate and they are paid for over time. Thus, a business may find it more cost efficient to keep their labor force at the new wage until they have paid off their old capital assets, at which point they will then reduce the labor force and move toward more technology.

The thing is, though, technology is now becoming so cheap and many restaurants don't have capital assets they are paying off (as opposed to large manufacturing centers), that this rise combined with the guarantee of further increases to $15, is enough to push those who can invest in technological replacements for labor to do so, and those who cannot are stuck with higher prices for a comparable product, which forces them out of the market (thus reducing the labor force even more).
 
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#14
#14
You should have only hired 5 employees and paid them a little more to begin with. Your profits would have been up the entire time. You then could grow your business, open a new location and hire more people.

This is absurd. Entrepreneurial enterprise is incredibly risky and takes much up front investment. Persons lending capital are, for the most part, scrupulous in ensuring the venture has a chance to succeed. This means market research and business plans.

No potential investor is going to just think, "Hey, you could make us more money by reducing your workforce and paying out more" and keep that to him/herself.

Successful businesses offer the lowest price for the comparable market product. To do this, they must be more cost efficient than their competitors.
 
#15
#15
You should have only hired 5 employees and paid them a little more to begin with. Your profits would have been up the entire time. You then could grow your business, open a new location and hire more people.

^This strategy will fix the job shortage in this country :crazy:

The other 5 can get federal jobs
 
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#16
#16
I've been there before. Lol at this review on Yelp. There are others like it. Higher prices and worse service

Did you know Ivar's has Happy Hour from 3PM to close?! I have spent many date nights with my husband there and enjoyed the menu selection thoroughly.

However, last night a few girlfriends and I went to the newly reopened, remodeled Ivar's for Happy Hour and instead of being left satisfied, we were left feeling disappointed and ignored.

Not only has the menu changed - it appears they've tried to create a more up-scale dining experience - but it really misses the mark entirely. We ordered prawns, chowder, 'build-your-own-tacos,' and empanadas.

The chowder had a thick, gooey layer of coagulated cream, as did the sauce on the prawns. The 'build-your-own-tacos' came already built; while the empanadas were nearly translucent and doughy.

Top that off with a waitress that was so incompetent, after ordering a side salad with blue cheese, it took her 10 minutes to come back and tell us they didn't have a side salad; instead we ordered a Caesar salad with blue cheese instead of Caesar dressing. Took her another 10 to come back and say they didn't have blue cheese dressing. Wouldn't it have been helpful to know that in the beginning?! Our waters were never refilled and we were rarely checked on.

I don't know if it's the new $15 an hour rule for restaurant employees, but tips are automatically included in the cost of the food, which means that you are also no longer able to tip accordingly. So even though we had terrible service and sub-par food, at the end it didn't matter...

I used to love Ivar's Happy Hour - at one point I would have said it was the best in the city.

Sadly, this is no longer true.
 
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#18
#18
This is absurd. Entrepreneurial enterprise is incredibly risky and takes much up front investment. Persons lending capital are, for the most part, scrupulous in ensuring the venture has a chance to succeed. This means market research and business plans.

No potential investor is going to just think, "Hey, you could make us more money by reducing your workforce and paying out more" and keep that to him/herself.

Successful businesses offer the lowest price for the comparable market product. To do this, they must be more cost efficient than their competitors.

You should be directing that to the man that suggested it instead of me.

:hi:

:lolabove:

Aw LG..have some coffee.

I have ten employees. I get rid of 5. I raise the pay of the other five a little bit. They now each do the job of 2 employees. Production is up because I am doing more with less payroll. Profits! Huge succes.
 
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Reactions: 4 people

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