Minimum Wage of $15

[B.H.]

Reality sucks, doesn't it? Excellent points Tarheel.

I wouldn't go that far cootie. There are a lot of good things in life.

[agricola]

I know you realize when wages are increased the price of goods & services also increase. McDonalds will willingly pay their employees $25 per hour as long as their customers are willing to pay $10+ for a Big Mac. At that point it becomes more cost effective to automate & eliminate employees.

As far as Amazon, Walmart, etc. the golden rule applies. Those with the gold make the rules. It's kind of like the government.....we make rules for the people, but those rules don't apply to the rule makers.

Nice theory -
But in Honolulu current minimum wage is still $7.25 and a Whopper costs $9.69. (I bought one two days ago so I know).That extra profit isn't getting passed along to the workers - which is exactly my point about Walmart and other large corporations. Prices are up, profits are up - but the benefit of that goes solely and exclusively to upper management and shareholders, not to employees.

[KLP]

The minimum wage should be $22...at $15 they can barely afford to buy a hamburger in Hawaii. The minimum has to be at least $22 for any of this to even begin being fair to the poor. $15 does nothing for anyone.

[gordie91]

Continuing my Fountainhead motif -

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

[faithfyl]

Many fast food jobs are going to be automated, so the jobs will go away altogether. At least for the people who work at the front counter. So instead of $15 an hour they're going to be unemployed.

[tarheel]

Continuing my Fountainhead motif -

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

That is certainly the case here.

[tarheel]

I know you realize when wages are increased the price of goods & services also increase. McDonalds will willingly pay their employees $25 per hour as long as their customers are willing to pay $10+ for a Big Mac. At that point it becomes more cost effective to automate & eliminate employees.

As far as Amazon, Walmart, etc. the golden rule applies. Those with the gold make the rules. It's kind of like the government.....we make rules for the people, but those rules don't apply to the rule makers.

Nice theory -
But in Honolulu current minimum wage is still $7.25 and a Whopper costs $9.69. (I bought one two days ago so I know).That extra profit isn't getting passed along to the workers - which is exactly my point about Walmart and other large corporations. Prices are up, profits are up - but the benefit of that goes solely and exclusively to upper management and shareholders, not to employees.

In your example you are making assumptions. You are assuming that because prices are up that profits are up. I sincerely doubt this is the situation. I suspect that food costs remain the same percentage as the mainland units and that other operating costs are higher there, such as the cost of the bricks and mortar, the cost of getting the food supplies to the islands and higher labor costs.

The other assumption you make is that the employees are all being paid min wage. Do you know that for a fact? Just for grins, I just looked up the phone number for a Burger King in Honolulu and called them. (I like to deal with facts). They start at $10.25 an hr. Here in the middle of North Carolina they make several dollars more than min wage ($9-10 hr) because of the competition for workers.

However, just for grins, let's assume there is extra profit involved. I still don't understand why you and others think it should go to the employees. They aren't the ones who took the financial risk to open the units. You don't own the units so you don't get to set the rules. I guess this is one of those areas where we agree to disagree.

[agricola]

I'm not agreeing to anything.

The minimum wage has been set at the current level for far too long, allowing corporations to grow at the expense - literally - of the workers.

THAT the minimum wage exists serves to depress ALL hourly wages, since they can be compared to 'the minimum', therefore your argument that, because fast food workers start above minimum wage they therefore are not paid below their value, is not defensible.

[gordie91]

Once a minimum is set, by definition the people doing the hiring that have been mandated to pay a set minimum will naturally start there. If however, the governing authorities were to stop meddling in the private interaction between the hiring and the hired, choices would be opened up for negotiation and competition in a market. Instead, a minimum is set the potential employee has less to bargain with because the employer can now claim that "well this is a minimum wage job, and we only start at minimum wage". Who is the discriminated against here? These laws do not protect the new "to the workforce" individual or poor they only serve to discriminate against the young and the poor.

For years different "groups" have complained about the government "in our bedrooms" when it comes to various morality laws. We have others that will use the "separation of church and state" in order to get their way in public schools, government property and so on. So why is it ok for the government to set minimum wage? It isn't ok for the same reason it isn't ok for them to regulate the bedrooms of consenting adults or the establishment of a state religion.

I am sorry, if a business owner is not motivated by the profit motive he is either telling you a lie or is an idiot and will not last long because no matter what things are, reality is and no amount of wishing or hoping will change that, ever. Furthermore, if a business owner is profitable why is that a bad thing? We have for far too long in this country equated wealth and the creation of wealth with bad or negative motives, why? Are people jealous or envious? I am not talking about the young kids, I am talking about the adults that have created an environment of learning for these kids that tells them they have rights or some such entitlement.

[KLP]

it is obvious to anyone with at least half a brain that $22 is the proper amount for minimum wage for full time work. How else do we expect parents working at Wendy's to be able to provide for their families. Anything below $22 hour is tantamount to slavery. And yet, people keep righteously demanding a degrading $15 minimum wage. There is no defense or argument for anything less than $22/hour. If everyone was making at least $22 hour our country would be one of the wealthiest on the planet, and everyone would be able to get out of poverty. And the rich could still be rich, but the poor would no longer be poor.