02-16-2019, 04:03 AM
"I think the idea of a boss pocketing profit by shortchanging the people who work for them is disgusting."
When I had employees I couldn't afford to take a wage. In fact I frequently had to dip into savings to pay them on time. I thought that was disgusting, but I still paid them more than minimum wage, but it was not a living wage.
I'm all for paying people as much money as they are worth, but the problem is that small businesses frequently don't turn a profit for years, and sometimes never. The problem with unrealistic minimum wages is that frequently only large corporations can afford to pay them, and the mom and pop operations either go out of business or never get started to begin with.
A $15.00/hour employee costs much more than $15.00. The employer has to pay workers compensation insurance, social security tax, medicare tax, unemployment insurance, legal liability insurance, plus you have to train them, provide clothing / protective gear, and in some cases pay into a fund for annual / sick / family leave. It gets to the point where labor is the highest expenditure and the first thing, frequently the only thing, that can be cut in order to keep the paychecks flowing.
If I have a Norman Rockwell vision of the world, you have a Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life view where every employer is a rich banker sticking it to the little guy. Most small businesses that I know only operate because it's a family operation where they can only stay open by paying their family members nothing. Which brings me back to the original concept that the minimum wage is actually zero. Look at how many jobs have been lost to self-ordering kiosks, automatic check-out lanes, etc.
Even the big corporations are having problems paying higher wages as operations like Amazon that use thousands of robots squeeze the market. As the number of employers continues to decline people are discovering they have less freedom in choosing where they can work. Meanwhile the corporations that can afford to raise their prices to pay "living wages" drive up the inflation rate so that everything costs more, negating the wage increases and eventually people start thinking socialism is a good idea. So yeah, we'll never see Richie Cunningham sweeping the barber's floor for $5/hour because the state has mandated he must pay $20.00 (wages, taxes, insurance, etc) so the barber just does it himself, and the red head kid gets paid the real minimum wage: nothing.
When I had employees I couldn't afford to take a wage. In fact I frequently had to dip into savings to pay them on time. I thought that was disgusting, but I still paid them more than minimum wage, but it was not a living wage.
I'm all for paying people as much money as they are worth, but the problem is that small businesses frequently don't turn a profit for years, and sometimes never. The problem with unrealistic minimum wages is that frequently only large corporations can afford to pay them, and the mom and pop operations either go out of business or never get started to begin with.
A $15.00/hour employee costs much more than $15.00. The employer has to pay workers compensation insurance, social security tax, medicare tax, unemployment insurance, legal liability insurance, plus you have to train them, provide clothing / protective gear, and in some cases pay into a fund for annual / sick / family leave. It gets to the point where labor is the highest expenditure and the first thing, frequently the only thing, that can be cut in order to keep the paychecks flowing.
If I have a Norman Rockwell vision of the world, you have a Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life view where every employer is a rich banker sticking it to the little guy. Most small businesses that I know only operate because it's a family operation where they can only stay open by paying their family members nothing. Which brings me back to the original concept that the minimum wage is actually zero. Look at how many jobs have been lost to self-ordering kiosks, automatic check-out lanes, etc.
Even the big corporations are having problems paying higher wages as operations like Amazon that use thousands of robots squeeze the market. As the number of employers continues to decline people are discovering they have less freedom in choosing where they can work. Meanwhile the corporations that can afford to raise their prices to pay "living wages" drive up the inflation rate so that everything costs more, negating the wage increases and eventually people start thinking socialism is a good idea. So yeah, we'll never see Richie Cunningham sweeping the barber's floor for $5/hour because the state has mandated he must pay $20.00 (wages, taxes, insurance, etc) so the barber just does it himself, and the red head kid gets paid the real minimum wage: nothing.