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Title: Minimum Wage Laws Crippling Small Business
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URL Source: http://www.wealthwire.com/news/economy/2459?r=1
Published: Jan 5, 2012
Author: Brittany Stepniak
Post Date: 2012-01-05 07:35:25 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 379
Comments: 30
David Frias, 34, works at a popular movie theatre in San Francisco. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University whose dream is to film documentaries in the future. Right now, he only makes minimum wage; which is pretty darn good, actually. Lucky for him, he just received a pay increase as the minimum wage increased from $9.92 per hour up to $10.24 an hour. That 32 cents extra is a “psychological boost,” according to Mr. Frias: "I know I'm going to have a little extra money in my wallet. San Francisco is a model for low-wage workers - it's full respect, I guess." Surely a psychological boost is just that. It sounds good and feels good, but the actual minimum wage increase won't really be able to do all that much to improve workers' lives. While Mr. Frias may be delighted by the recent change, his employer – along with all other small businesses in the area – will suffer the consequences. An increased minimum wage simply means higher costs for business owners trying to build a successful business... Frias also spends some of his time volunteering with the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition. According to their data, there are approxiamtely 19,999 other minimum wage workers right in the San Francisco vacinity. Job titles of these workers inlude fast food workers, janitors dishwashers at high-end restaurants, store clerks, and security guards. The coalition was among the original backers of the 2003 ballot measure that created a citywide minimum wage in San Francisco, the nation's third city to adopt its own wage after Washington and Santa Fe, N.M. Some small cities have followed suit, though several have a livable wage that applies only to businesses that contract with the city. The coalition calls for a "living wage" when considering what the minimum wage should be. living wage *Image courtesy of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage holds steady at $7.25 and the state minimum is at $8 an hour. In San Francisco, officials look to the previous year's Consumer Price Index for urband workers in order to dictate an appropriate minimum wage. In 2004, the calculated minimum wage was $8.50 per hour in San Francisco. It's been rising exponentially ever since... Bottom line's rise by year, compiled by the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement: 2004 $8.50 2005 $8.62 2006 $8.82 2007 $9.14 2008 $9.36 2009 $9.79 2010 $9.79 2011 $9.92 2012 $10.24 If you look around the country, minimum wage begins at half of San Francisco's rate; $5.15 an hour (Wyoming). On the East Coast, states offer about $7.25 an hour (Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, North Carolina). It's about the same in the Midwest; slightly less in some areas. On the West Coast, wages are closer to the $8 range: $8.00 in California, $8.80 in Oregon and $9.04 in Washington. Still, the coalition argues that the city would have to agree to pay minimum wage workers at least $15 per hour to bring a single individual out of poverty status. Moreover, an employer would have to offer an employee at least $36 per hour in order for a single parent with a child or two to survive above the poverty line. It's simply not feasible to bring individuals out of poverty by increasing the minimum wage and hindering the growth of businesses with great potential; especially not when companies are forced to halt hiring based on absurd minimum wage rates. Employers are angry with the $10.24 wage rate. And the entire community should be concerned too. Keep in mind that the employers are required to provide nine paid sick days, provide health care (if there are over 20 employees), and pay a 1.5 percent payroll tax. These strict stipulations make it tough for them run a sustainable business and greatly hinders the possibility for development. Therefore, this most recent pay increase as another burden of doing business in San Francisco. A couple extra dollars per shift won't make a big difference for the workers at all...but it will deeply impact the expenses of buisness owners. "I hate it," Daniel Scherotter said of the city's highest-in-the-country minimum wage. He's the chef and owner of Palio D'Asti, an Italian restaurant in the Financial District, and a previous president of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. Scherotter said the minimum wage is "plainly unjust" because California is one of a handful of states that prohibit a tip credit, meaning waiters earn the same minimum wage even though they receive tips. Experts say this ultimately puts San Francisco at a competitive disadvantage. Employers are forced to cut staff, reduce the quality of food and products by doing so, and they're hiring less teenagers immigrants and ex convicts. "Who the hell would hire a teenager for $12 an hour?" - Daniel Scherotter, chef and owner of Palio D'Asti, an Italian restaurant in the Financial District and former president of the Golden Gate Restaurant Associate *Indented excerpts courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.
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#1. To: Tatarewicz, *Music Club* (#0)
What Living On $7 An Hour Actually Means Nickel and Dimed from The American Ruling Class! -- Musical operetta starts soon after the 3:50 mark. ------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
Does anyone here know anyone who makes minimum wage? I'm trying to imagine what kind if work would command only $7.25, and then, the type person who would accept that wage. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson Most of the people I know make more -- like $10 an hour. And they are on food cards, medical cards, Section 8 housing. And people want to cut the minimum wage? How about cutting welfare for the superrich? When seconds count, the police are minutes away.
I do. Currently, I make $8.50 an hour but I do not get paid sick leave, no health benefits, no overtime pay, and no paid vacation time. Now when I was out there in California trying to find legal work, I was interviewed by one white woman and she refused to hire me because I had too much education and experience for $7.00 that she was paying. When I looked at her employers, they were all Mexican girls. I looked at her and replied, "Oh I understand quite well". Another interview by some punk smart-assed attorney told me on the phone, "Why would I want to hire somebody who has more knowledge and experience than myself"? After that remark, he hung up. I tried enlisting with 5 employment agencies out there and to no avail, they could only find me work in some telemarketing business. When I did a grammar and computer skills test, I was amazed. My grammar was 85% in passing and I typed 55 wpm. Most of my computer skills were advanced because of my legal background in preparing briefs. When I showed them my legal briefs filed from state superior court to federal court and United States Supreme Court, they told me I was overqualified for the jobs they had in line for me. Mind you that this supposedly California; the land of mint and honey. All they could find for me were telesales jobs. I'm not good at all at bullshitting on the phone. I am a very thorough legal investigator though. And I prefer to work with white collar professional people. I know people who worked in the aerospace industry who were laid off from their jobs because they made too damn much money. They were making at least, $100,000.00 in salary. So, I am not the only one suffering alone from this epidemic. And when they got laid off and applied for unemployment benefits, the people at the unemployment office told them they should go to training school for job skills. Fucking job skills?? This individual had a bachelors degree in Engineering and had 5 patents with the U.S. government and worked for Hughes before Boeing bought it out. When they got laid off, they could not find any other work. As a result they died from anxiety and deep depression. All that schooling they went through amounted to nothing. People go to school to improve their standard of living. That's the American way. If people are unable to find decent jobs after receiving their degrees, then maybe the colleges should go bankrupt too.
Here, fast-food joints are advertising $12/hour for entry level positions. The jobs/economy situation must be all over the board in the country. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson Where I'm at fast food restaurants pay $9 an hour. However, many of the family-owned restaurants have been paying as low as $2.33 an hour. I hear this from some of those who do server jobs in the area. Most employers around here won't hire you if you have college background experience or the equivalent. They want employees who know nothing and just do as they are told. This was told to me by one employer. And so goes the community and nation straight doing the downward spiral. Not a wise thing to start a family on an income below $50,000.00 a year. People need to think about the children's future for God's sake. If you can't afford to feed a child, please dear God, don't start a family!
How about a corresponding increment in pay to those who've worked years to rise above minimum wage, only to get rolled back closer and closer to it every time the minimum wage is increased for cost of living but not their paychecks as well? That arrangement by act of Congress, like Affirmative Action, is Unconstitutional in that it amounts to a Bill of Attainder, having a negative effect on a single person or group -- in this case, the entire group whose payscale is negatively impacted ratiowise by no cost of living compensation to them. Minimum wage is far from what I'd call a fairly livable wage in this country but the real issue as I see it is that the feudalistic monetary system in this country needs to be zoned out of our way, as it is a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibiting the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. ------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
They also want to hire welfare/food stamp recipients as it gives them a taxbreak and such. And some welfare/food stamp recipients are expected to volunteer as unpaid or minimum-wage paid temp-workers, skilled labor or not, in exchange for their remaining on the dole. Such a deal for the participating businesses and the "slave trading" States. ------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
That is also very true! Especially for the non-profit organizations. Out in California, a white female with no children and meets food stamp eligibility requirements, is required to go to a job site where the Social Service Food Stamp office sends her and she must work 20 hours a week (for uncertain amount of time) for her to receive credits (not money) to get those foodstamps.
You got that exactly right considering the fiat dollar is worth about 7 cents. Instead of everybody worrying acbout what others are making per hour, they should only be concerned about their own wages. Nobody seems to be bitching about the prices continually going up. Nobody tells business to stop raising prices and quit goughing the people. They raise prices whenever they want and the minimum worker doesn't have that option.
Amen. My parents waited until they knew what language we'd be speaking during WWII. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson When minimum wage goes up, generally so do their prices to well compensate themselves -- and they get the added "pocket money" advatage of effectively lowering the payscale rates of their non-minimum wage workers back in that direction when those workers aren't allotted a cost of living raise likewise. Businesses are basically tax collection centers where workers with particular skill sets gather to create value. It behooves the business to offer products and services at widely affordable ranges so that it gets a share of the money- value generated by the workers but the workers should be self-employed and companies contracting with them for their services (if the workers so choose) in order to remain in business. Iow, the workers should be the employers of non- human business structures and not the other way around. Don't have good ethics and business practices enough to stay in the market, the workers could then form their own tax collection centers as meeting places to produce value. I also think that children, students, the elderly, and the handicapped should be paid for participating in and contributing to the betterment of our society by all of the jobs their needs generate for the sustenance of others. They should not be viewed as expense burdens but partnerships and employers. There is much that could be done to improve conditions here but preserving a dysfunctional and cruel monetary system of Feudalism out of habit isn't one of them, imo. Edited for spelling. ------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
Out in California, a white female with no children and meets food stamp eligibility requirements, is required to go to a job site where the Social Service Food Stamp office sends her and she must work 20 hours a week (for uncertain amount of time) for her to receive credits (not money) to get those foodstamps. And those slave-labor arrangements drastically impair our electoral process too because it keeps much of the population at poverty level and below as dependents of Big Government. ------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
Your wonderful right to work state of Texas still has a state minimum wage around $4 an hour unless it has been bumped up a little. Your wonderful governor Perry would be happy to see it at $2 an hour. Of course federal minimum wage prevails over state minimum. Forty or 50 years ago businesses paid nearly 3/4 of their earnings as taxes and yet they prospered very well. Go to almost any small town that was built around that business and the biggest most elaborate house belonged to the owner of that business. Now they are paying less taxes than some minimum wage employees and are still bitching and screaming,'woe is us'.
Employers pay what the market requires, minimum wage be damned. It's that simple. Go to craigslist.com in your area and see for yourself. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson In an ideal world it would probably work that way. Too many of the small business owners want total control over their business and hate all the government laws that protect the workers. They feel since they took the risk of starting the business they should be able to run it as they see fit. My mother worked in a shirt factory in Windber, PA as a presser (Ironing shirts) before electric irons and stay pressed fabrics and plastic bags. The pressers got paid 13 cents for every dozen shirts they ironed, pinned, and folded, and put in celophane bags. If you scorched a shirt in a dozen, you lost your 13cents for that dozen. There were about eight pressers and it was a rare happening if one of them made it through a ten hour day without scorching a sirt useing those old irons heated on a stove. If you scorched a shirt, the final inspector, an owners kid or pet, would take away the whole dozen, and you would have to start another dozen all over again. They didn't know what happened to that dozen, but they knew. So much for partnerships with business owners!
I agree they pay what the market requires, but here in small town Pennsylvania with high unemployment there are many people working at minimum wages and not only at the fast food joints. Waitresses and waiters, and bartenders are still working for less than the federal minimum wage. The restaurants are allowed to pay below the federal minimum wage because of tips. This holds true for seasonal workers here in Pennsylvania too. You may have a good day, or a disasterous one depending on the generosity of your customers. You can't hold a gun to the head of the patron I didn't say Texans were working for the State minimum wage , but it is actually still on the books and I'm sure there are loopholes that allow some Texas workers to be paid less than the federal minimum wage, just as there is here in Pennsylvania.
I guess that our economy is doing well enough that workers are paid much more than the minimum wage.
Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson Since a baseline from 1980, Per capita GDP rose about 35%. IOW the productivity of the average American worker produced 35% more in goods and services than in 1980 (My recent data ends at 2004 but I hardly think the data is going to change much). Yet the % of GDP sliced out the the AAWorker has declined, a lot. To Be Clear - that productivity, caused and effected by the daily labor of the vast portion of the American population (notice I did not say citizens)declined for the years since about June 2006. This tremendous amount of wealth, the 35% productivity increase since 1980, has gotten funneled to a very small number of families, or cabals really. But they hate us bc were free What is your take on the minimum wage as it relates to paid wages to get good employees? Do any of your employees make less than $20/hour ? Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson That's where these business owners become subject to federal scrutiny as well as the state. If they are willing to risk starting a business, they must realize they are subject to the employment laws and regulations both federal and state.
1. Work for whatever you can get paid, moving to higher-pay openings as you gain skills but keep expenses to a minimum by living with parents or in shared accommodation so you can invest savings in income-generating securities. 2. Opt for a government of engineers and technocrats who plan, organize and direct people into training and areas of needed production and services where no one gets paid, but housing, food and other necessities of living are a right of all, with "best-responding" workers having first choice in case of shortages. 3. Join the military to fight wars for Israel.
Sorry but post #4 was not mine. I'd rather fight for the United States. Screw Israel.
We pay beginning stocker $9 /h and register clerks $10.50. And we have NO problem finding people who want to work for that amount, the problem is finding people who will not spend their time at work figuring out how to steal from the biz. Gave $500 Christmas bonus to each clerk. ambi posted on 2012-01-05 19:19:25 ET Reply Trace Private Reply Good reminder of what businesses will do if allowed. Wait till we all work for Wall Mart and the Koch bros to see true happiness. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson Fort Hood. I don't. I used to work in the semiconductor field at Texas Instruments. In 1997 I was earning 60 grand a year repairing semiconductor equipment. I have a degree in Physics and math, yet today I do handyman work for about 10 dollars an hour. Luckily I live in a town that was ranked the 5th best cost of living in the United States so I can get by, but just barely. The sad truth is that no money has been shipped to Beta Sentari or Romulus. So based on mathematical law the wealth does not disappear it just gets transferred. Since all of us and that includes the citizens of much of the world are becoming much poorer, that means there is a group that must be getting much richer. This is a huge transfer of wealth to the bankers and their corporations. But the average sheep thinks it's just an "economic downturn". I feel like George Carlin in his video "I've given up on my species" It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire
"When you are born in the world, you are given a ticket the freak show and when you are born in America, you have a front row seat" Other than his animosity towards God, I love George Carlin, one sharp cookie who really sees what going on. It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire
I don't know where you live, but my maintenance guy, and our house-keeper, get $20/hour. I pay decent wages (in cash) and get wonderful service. It works here. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.ChestersonIn this clip, award-winning journalist Barbara Ehrenreich gets to the root of what it means to be nickel and dimed by the 1%. Watch:
#2. To: GreyLmist, Tatz, 4 (#1)
#3. To: Lod (#2)
Does anyone here know anyone who makes minimum wage?
#4. To: Lod (#2)
(Edited)
Does anyone here know anyone who makes minimum wage?
#5. To: purplerose, 4 (#4)
#6. To: Lod (#5)
(Edited)
#7. To: Turtle, All (#3)
Most of the people I know make more -- like $10 an hour. And they are on food cards, medical cards, Section 8 housing. And people want to cut the minimum wage? How about cutting welfare for the superrich?
#8. To: purplerose (#6)
many of the family-owned restaurants have been paying as low as $2.33 an hour. I hear this from some of those who do server jobs in the area. Most employers around here won't hire you if you have college background experience or the equivalent. They want employees who know nothing and just do as they are told. This was told to me by one employer.
#9. To: GreyLmist (#8)
#10. To: GreyLmist (#7)
Minimum wage is far from what I'd call a fairly livable wage in this country but the real issue as I see it is that the feudalistic monetary system in this country needs to be zoned out of our way, as it is a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibiting the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.
#11. To: purplerose, 4 (#6)
People need to think about the children's future for God's sake. If you can't afford to feed a child, please dear God, don't start a family!
#12. To: ambi (#10)
(Edited)
Nobody tells business to stop raising prices and quit goughing the people. They raise prices whenever they want and the minimum worker doesn't have that option.
#13. To: purplerose (#9)
That is also very true! Especially for the non-profit organizations.
#14. To: Lod (#5)
Here, fast-food joints are advertising $12/hour for entry level positions.
#15. To: ambi, 4 (#14)
#16. To: GreyLmist (#12)
They should not be viewed as expense burdens but partnerships and employers. There is much that could be done to improve conditions here but preserving a dysfunctional and cruel monetary system of Feudalism out of habit isn't one of them, imo.
#17. To: Lod (#15)
Employers pay what the market requires, minimum wage be damned.
#18. To: ambi (#17)
#19. To: Turtle (#3)
Most of the people I know make more -- like $10 an hour. And they are on food cards, medical cards, Section 8 housing. And people want to cut the minimum wage? How about cutting welfare for the superrich?
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#20. To: tom007 (#19)
#21. To: ambi (#16)
They feel since they took the risk of starting the business they should be able to run it as they see fit.
#22. To: purplerose (#4)
With so much labor becoming redundant in the industrial and financial sectors because of automation, mass mechanization as in the agricultural industry and lower-cost production abroad there are only three ways of getting an adequate assured "income."
#23. To: Tatarewicz (#22)
(Edited)
#24. To: Lod (#20)
Do any of your employees make less than $20/hour ?
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#25. To: ambi (#16)
My mother worked in a shirt factory in Windber, PA as a presser (Ironing shirts) before electric irons and stay pressed fabrics and plastic bags. The pressers got paid 13 cents for every dozen shirts they ironed, pinned, and folded, and put in celophane bags. If you scorched a shirt in a dozen, you lost your 13cents for that dozen. There were about eight pressers and it was a rare happening if one of them made it through a ten hour day without scorching a sirt useing those old irons heated on a stove. If you scorched a shirt, the final inspector, an owners kid or pet, would take away the whole dozen, and you would have to start another dozen all over again. They didn't know what happened to that dozen, but they knew. So much for partnerships with business owners!
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#26. To: Lod (#18)
I guess that our economy is doing well enough that workers are paid much more than the minimum wage.
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#27. To: Lod (#2)
Does anyone here know anyone who makes minimum wage?
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#28. To: purplerose, tom007, Tatarewicz, Lod, GreyLmist, Turtle, (#4)
#29. To: All (#28)
#30. To: intotheabyss, 4 (#28)
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