Sleepless and Broke in Seattle
Illinois democrats want to jack up the minimum wage. Rahm wants something along the lines of $10-per-hour, some of the more ambitious socialists want $15-per-hour. You'd think that one of more of them might have actually taken an Econ 101 course and had a basic understanding of cause-and-effect. You'd be mistaken.
But luckily for them, there's a real world example that they can draw a lesson from - SeaTac, Washington:
But luckily for them, there's a real world example that they can draw a lesson from - SeaTac, Washington:
- The Emerald City may witness the economic dangers of hiking the minimum wage to $15/hour sooner rather than later. SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, hiked the minimum wage for certain service industry employees to $15 at the beginning of the year, and there are already signs that the sudden increase is having a negative impact.
- At the Clarion Hotel off International Boulevard, a sit-down restaurant has been shuttered, though it might soon be replaced by a less-labor-intensive cafe… Other businesses have adjusted in ways that run the gamut from putting more work in the hands of managers, to instituting a small “living-wage surcharge” for a daily parking space near the airport.
[...] “Are you happy with the $15 wage?” I asked the full-time cleaning lady.
“It sounds good, but it’s not good,” the woman said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I lost my 401k, health insurance, paid holiday, and vacation,” she responded. “No more free food,” she added. The hotel used to feed her. Now, she has to bring her own food. Also, no overtime, she said. She used to work extra hours and received overtime pay.
What else? I asked.
“I have to pay for parking,” she said.
I then asked the part-time waitress, who was part of the catering staff.
“Yes, I’ve got $15 an hour, but all my tips are now much less,” she said. Before the new wage law was implemented, her hourly wage was $7. But her tips added to more than $15 an hour. Yes, she used to receive free food and parking. Now, she has to bring her own food and pay for parking.
So this "miracle" of jacking up the minimum wage actually hurt the people it was supposed to help. And guess what the end result has been in this actual real-world scenario?
- The minimum wage hike, coupled with other anti-business regulations and red tape, are causing headaches for Seattle’s job creators. And unfortunately for those entrepreneurs in Seattle and other major cities, liberal policies like minimum wage hikes and high taxes are constantly threatening economic prosperity, giving entrepreneurs reasons to move their jobs to suburbs or completely shutter their businesses altogether.
Gee, it's almost like we've taken courses in Economics or something and posted any number of articles about the end result of shortsighted policy rooted in some fantasy land that democrats inhabit where money grows on trees. We'd probably get good odds on the likelihood of this exact same crap passing in Springfield, Cook County or Chicago shortly, despite this failing experiment.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:02 AM
35 Comments:
Other. People's. Money...
Why do you think the nanny statist neo-corporatists are so hot and bothered about crashing muni employee pensions for starters?
Gotta pay for this shit somehow...
They wanna get the hyper-inflation going soooo bad to save society.
In order to collapse the system wages have to be raised beyond the level of the value of labor, unemployment will increase. The result will be fewer people working and looking to government for handouts; coupled with an increase in the price of products to offset the increase in wages. And the cycle repeats itself when fewer goods are bought due to the increase in prices and layoffs occur to offset lost sales. Soon businesses close down or outsource overseas, more Americans laid off.
Rahm never owned his own business, and neither did Obummer.
Run your own business and then well talk.
Say no to Socialism, say no to Rahm.
I have to say... if you think this is about helping people you are wrong. Way wrong. If you think these liberal democRATS don't know that this will hurt businesses or workers than you're naive. This is about votes! These liberals demoRATS had control of the White House Congress and Senate. They could've passed anything. Minimum wage? Now? Ask why. Because its election time. This is no different than the fake war on women. This forces republicans to vote no for a hike. Than the liberal rats can say see... Republicans don't want to help the poor and help them get out of poverty. Bad racists republicans. If they pass the wage hike and people lose their jobs. Great then they become dependent on government. This is their plan!
As the owner of a small restaurant I can tell you right now that if the minimum wage is raised to $15 per hour I will close the doors the next day and put 20 some people out of work. My biggest expense is employee wages and to almost double it will immediately put me under water. But thats okay because after I close the doors I will appeal my property taxes on a vacancy factor resulting in less money to the city and county. And after a while I will sell the property to some storefront church, who won't pay any income tax to the state or feds, then I'll take the cash and move the fuck out of this shithole state!
This is pure insanity. Whatever the Democrats wish for, they get it, even if it destroys the very thing that they're trying to "help". And the more they destroy, the more they push their agenda, and the more traction it gets, because obviously, if their dream strategy isn't working, it's because it hasn't been implemented with enough gusto. This is why we're doomed. The few Democrat friends I'm able to tolerate inform me frequently that I'm paranoid. "I told you so" is what I'll say to them, while we're standing in line to buy the last stale loaf of bread. And they'll remind me that it's the fault of conservatives.
Communist Liberal Democrat politicians are try to pander to minorities with their BS concern for their welfare. All they are trying to do is get votes. Raise the minimum wage and jobs will freeze and employees will get no benefits. Just the way it is.
Economics in college??!!!! that would give us less time to study Social Justice and other important community organizing issues.
Read once that only bout 15% of tenured professors consider themselves (or admit to) being conservative. I would guess they are Economics professors.
Mayor Rahm and Governor Quinn must have failed Economics 101. Hell I don't these two bozos ever balanced their checkbooks!
This isn't Economics it's Politics. Who is the minimum wage worker going to vote for, the Democrats that are touting to raise the wage. They don't have to raise it just talk as if they will, the election isn't that far off. After the lemmings vote then 'Blame Bush' I mean the Republicans for stopping it from going through, or even pass it and fuck up this state even more.
You have to wonder how many small business owners are themselves making less then $15 an hour when you factor in they're working 60-70 hours a week.
I'm a small business owner and pay some really good high school kids $8.25 an hour - good kids, smart , go to school , good grades , never been arrested . Imagine my shock when I learned some of the summer job programs for at risk youth ( convicted delinquents , don't go to school, etc ) are paying $10 an hour. And most of those jobs are made up play jobs .
In the past I tried to give some of those at risk youths jobs - never quite worked out.
But the assholes who run this city and state and know what's best for everyone will approve it and watch more business close or move....
These socialist assholes pushing these ridiculous minimum wages all have one thing in common: they have NEVER run or managed a business that had to meet a payroll. They are life-long "public servants" who have never held real jobs.
Libs will always want to try policies that failed elsewhere because they feel that they are smarter than others and that their idea of "good" will prevail. They denigrate life experience if it doesn't mesh with their ideology. All because they feel rather than think.
Democrats don't understand money because they never have to work to get some. They just tax the "millionaires" (that is, people with jobs), and spend other people's money like drunk sailors.
Then they look dumbfounded when all the wage-earners and businesses flee and the cash spigots are shut off.
Blame it on all the Starbucks coffee. It makes your judgment go haywire. Soon, zombie-like creatures with their double fraps in their hands will roam Seattle streets, creating mayhem wherever they go.
I refer you to what Starbucks has done to our north side. Proof in hand.
Bwwaaahahaha!...this is from the link, it's friggen priceless: .......
----> 'But not everyone is getting a pay hike. ~~~snip~~~ .... a judge ruled employees at SeaTac airport are not eligible for raises, because the airport is operated by the Port of Seattle. It was a lot of airport workers who pushed for Proposition 1 in the first place.' <----
Rotflmao!!....whack....take that, you assholes. (LOL)
Honestly, just leave it up to the Libtards, those morons could fuck up a two car funeral.
Raise the minimum wage and the employers will or at least should raise the standards for those employees and probably cut down the number of employees. Expect them to be held to a higher standard and be expected to work harder, longer etc. Altogether not a bad thing if it forces minimum wage employees to better themselves in order to earn that wage.
If I had to pay a higher minimum wage it would not be a gift. I would not pay $15 an hour to some slack jawed mope high school drop out who has trouble finding the picture of a hamburger on a row of cash register buttons.
Wage goes up, so do standards.
Don't you remember? People with money should have to share their money with the non-contributing members of society because it isn't fare if they don't wah wah wah!
I won't be the least bit surprised if Chicago is soon to follow. Illinois is already extremely anti-business. I can't wait to leave and hope more do!
Awhile back when Boeing moved its HQ to Chicago, the stories were that Boeing was fed up with Seattle and its anti-business climate.
Chicago still paid a ton to bring Boeing and its 75 or so HQ jobs. That doesn't seem like very good governance either.
Boeing has tons of jobs in Virginia outside of DC. Tons as in thousands. All for the war on this or that. There's always some war, and the Federal government is always hiring or contracting with someone connected to fight em. Thats not very good governance either.
Texas is supposed to be pretty good, but they have a drought and their public schools are complete dogshit statewide.
All in all, if Seattle can find a way to put out the people who aren't earning anything (aka welfare recipients), that minimum wage thing might not be the worst thing ever. Just might be hard to find fast food, or most other kinds of food too.
The same idiots who were so pro-Bama, now they need higher wages to pay ObamaCare® premiums and then pay off their high deductibles. Higher wages will diminish those subsidies too. So civil disruption is forthcoming.
None of those unintended consequences are of interest to the kindergarten mind of a liberal. Their motivations are the same as a five-year-old. They only want to feel good about themselves and they don’t care what it cost others.
I live in Bellevue, WA. It's across the lake from Seattle. The madness hasn't hit here yet. If you don't think we're doomed, the prime pusher for the $15 wage is a teacher of economics at Seattle Central College.
I won't tip if I ever step in that neck of the woods...$15/hr is what some college grads make coming out of school....I say make more money, more power to you, but not by force....these people don't realize that they will be forced into a higher tax bracket and may loose key components like earned income credit, etc.......the joke is on them....personally, I'm a very good tipper....they just lost out...and now they'll have to pay taxes on what would have been their tip....
Minimum wage is not meant to be household breadwinners wages. It's min wage due to the entry level job.
Bunch of made up lies & Bullshit.
Or as it's better known, the Daily Conversation @ The SCC Family Dinner table.
You need to make $22.00 an hour to get by in most parts of the country.Thats a low middle income.Try living in Chicago or NYC on that or less.
Really nice city at one time.
Chicago is going to be the next city to go
First off, "it's not fair" as in not equitable, not fare, as in bus fare.
Second off, is it written that for some reason you have the "right" to live in NYC or Chicago? I want to live in Kenilworth or Northfield, I can't swing it, if you can't afford Chicago, live elsewhere, but you can live in Chicago, Englewood or Gresham might be in your price range.
Thirdly, yes, your employer can cancel their matching contributions to your 401K and I would guess that they CAN cancel an employer provided 401K.
Fourthly, are the Koch brothers any more repugnant than Warren Buffet or ANY joosih producer in Hollyweird? I thought not, shut up and put on your dunce cap, asswipe.
Grammar Nazi and Liberal Pointed Stick, signing off.
Yes, the corrupt, lying Politicians will OK a few Dollars more, then they will Gang-Rape you again with Obamacare, pension cuts, excessive Tax increases, and will do nothing about the skyrocketing Gasoline, Food, and other costs of Living, then their lying, corrupt Puppet-Tools in the totally dishonest Media will Spoon-Feed you B.S. about how good you've got it now, and most of you imbecilic Sheeple will fall for it hook,line, and sinker. You will stand by like pussys and allow the Government to seize your wealth thru excessive Taxation, fees, and fines, and give it to every piss-ant, America-Hating Country on Earth, so their whacked-out New World Order Scheme will succeed. Soon you will be picking fleas and flys out of your heads, like those African Children, with the same dumbfounded looks on your faces, when you finally realize that you did nothing while the govt. slowly raped you of all your lifes savings and property value, and kept it for themselves, all in the name of "fairness", Equality", "For the Children" and other Communist Buzz-Phrases, save for giving some to the low I.Q. masses to continue to breed irresponsibly and vote for them, until voting is no longer allowed, or every Election is fixed like it is in 3rd World Banana Republics. Yeah. Then the Politicians will all live in their Mansions, and you will live in a shack, and the Media will report that now, everything is "Fair and Equal".
Let's put this in perspective, so we get the full picture of how this will likely effect the current minimum wage folks in Seattle.
$15*80 (2 weeks, 40 hours each)*26.1 pay periods (every two weeks) = $31,320.00 year. An entry level administrative assistant in Seattle makes a little more than that per year. If you take on fringe at 27.2%, that's nearly $40,000 per year. The first thing to go, and at SeaTac this bears true, is fringe, i.e. vacation, health insurance, profit sharing, sick days, etc.
This $15 is applicable to the city of Seattle, but what about the suburbs? What about the high school kids from the 'burbs who say to themselves, "Heck. $15 an hour? I'll go flip burgers for some pocket change"? Why wouldn't an employer hire a literate high school kid, who speaks English clearly and can count change over someone who is not so adept at doing so? Moreover, why not hire the countless college grads who have limited job prospects due to the recession?
These same unskilled folks are going to find themselves competing against better qualified people, which in turn, will push them to the jobs out of the city limit, and that do not pay the $15 per hour. They will be right back from whence they came.
Businesses are not charitable organizations. A business seeks out to make a profit, and the larger, the better. Want charity? Go to a soup kitchen.
Don't give Rahm any ideas.
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