Minimum Wage The Ruinous Compassion.

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

First story explains why minimum wage destroys more jobs and businesses then it ever creates.

Second story shows the negative outcomes from new minimum wage laws.

It is fascinating to see brilliant people belatedly discover the obvious — and to see an even larger number of brilliant people never discover the obvious.

A recent story in a San Francisco newspaper says that some restaurants and grocery stores in Oakland’s Chinatown have closed after the city’s minimum wage was raised. Other small businesses there are not sure they are going to survive, since many depend on a thin profit margin and a high volume of sales.

At an angry meeting between local small business owners and city officials, the local organization that had campaigned for the higher minimum wage was absent. They were probably some place congratulating themselves on having passed a humane “living wage” law. The group most affected was also absent — inexperienced and unskilled young people, who need a job to get some experience, even more than they need the money.

It is not a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge that minimum wage laws reduce employment opportunities for the young and the unskilled of any age. It has been happening around the world, for generation after generation, and in the most diverse countries.

It is not just the young who are affected when minimum wage rates are set according to the fashionable notions of third parties, with little or no regard for whether everyone is productive enough to be worth paying the minimum wage they set.

You can check this out for yourself. Go to your local public library and pick up a copy of the distinguished British magazine “The Economist.”

Whether it is the current issue or a back issue doesn’t matter. Spain, Greece and South Africa will be easy to locate in the table near the back, which lists data for various countries. Just look down the unemployment column for countries with unemployment rates around 25 percent. Spain, Greece and South Africa are always there, whether or not there is a recession. Why? Because they have very generous minimum wage laws.

While you are there, you can look up the unemployment rate for Switzerland, which has no minimum wage law at all. Over the years, I have never seen the unemployment rate in Switzerland reach as high as 4 percent. Back in 2003, “The Economist” magazine reported: “Switzerland’s unemployment neared a five-year high of 3.9% in February.”

READ THE REST HERE
http://capitalismmagazine.com/2015/03/ruinous-compassion/

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writes that “closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront.”

Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, according to Seattle Magazine, the “impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour” is playing a “major factor.” That’s not surprising, considering “about 36% of restaurant earnings go to paying labor costs.” Seattle Magazine,

“Washington Restaurant Association’s Anthony Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”

“He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs).  The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.

“With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.”

READ THE REST HERE
https://shiftwa.org/more-seattle-restaurants-close-doors-as-15-minimum-wage-approaches/

 

[+paradox]

or is it more of the rich and powerful people and the crooks in high places that destroy jobs, businesses and economies?

facts...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

or is it more of the rich and powerful people and the crooks in high places that destroy jobs, businesses and economies?

facts...

No it is a minimum wage. No poor person ever gave me work and a middle class income.

 

[+paradox]

No it is a minimum wage. No poor person ever gave me work and a middle class income.

in seattle, the cost of living is crazy high, so a minimum wage to reflect that is wise for the economy of that specific city...

but at the same time, high cost of living and low wages are everywhere, and people are struggling, even with jobs...

it's also called inflation and when businesses get greedy and keep raising their prices to keep up too...

the minimum wage don't ever reflect cost of living respectively...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Seattle is the prime example for the title of this thread. More people unemployed, higher prices, businesses moved and businesses shut down. Anytime government decides what is fair forcing a business owner on how it should run a business it always ends badly.

Bunch of non business owner geniouses they are in Seattles elected office.

No minimum wage would mean in todays economy more people working and not having 93 million people leaching off the tax payers and the free market actually paying people what the market demands. But the liberal policies feel good even though it don't people ever.

According to the National Review Hotline, Kathrina Tugadi owner of Seattle’s El Norte Lounge, no longer hires musicians for her restaurant, she said she can’t justify expenses that don’t directly “add to the bottom line.” And, she says, hours will have to be cut: El Norte Lounge plans to stop serving lunch and only serve dinner.

“I am concerned about my business and others in the community, but it isn’t just about any one business. It’s about how the entire economic community,” she said. El Norte may be unable to remain open once the ordinance is fully in effect, she said. Even Pagliacci Pizza, a Seattle-area pizza chain, is considering moving its call center and some of its production facilities outside the city. That’s a lot of job loss, a lot of new people with a new wage of ZERO.

Socialist Council-member Kshama Sawant was the main proponent of the $15 ordinance. She and her supporters denied that the policy change would hurt businesses in the city. In one interview, Sawant said there need be “no unintended consequences.”

“No Unintended Consequences?” Who is she kidding? There are always consequences. In this case the consequences are the businesses that are downsizing, closing and failing, jobs that are lost, and most of all, people whose new hourly wage is ZERO. No unintended intended consequences? Are our politicians really that . . . stupid? Yes, I said it, Stupid. Do they really think taxes are irrelevant, businesses are omnipotent and that they can be drained in the name of politics without “any intended consequences?”

Do our politicians really not understand that our standard of living is the direct result
of one thing . . . the vitality of our businesses?

She went on to state that “any additional costs could come out of ‘extravagant profits’ rather than consumers pockets.” You have got to be kidding me . . . squared! Extravagant profits? Tell that to all the entrepreneurs out there who are trying desperately to make ends meet. Explain that to the mortgage companies they are trying to pay. And please pass that on to those on the street who’s job no longer exists. And, by the way:

where do you think every paycheck every employee has ever received came from?

Yes, Kshama, they came from business, all of them. And where do you think these businesses came from? They came from regular people like you and I who took a chance, rolled the dice, worked hard and were able to provide the people with something of value. All of them, that is where every single business you deplore came from.
http://viral.buzz/seattles-15-minimum-wage-crash-for-many-their-new-wage-is-zero/

Seattle eateries closing as $15 minimum wage approaches


Last summer we talked about the rather faint hopes that some Seattle businesses were clinging to as the city moved toward jacking up their minimum wage (for some jobs) to $15.00 per hour. Employers – particularly in the restaurant industry – were asking the city council to reconsider as they evaluated their options in the face of labor costs which were about to rise to between 42 and 47 percent of their operating expenses. It all fell on deaf ears, unfortunately, and the plan is moving forward. And rather than waiting for the roof to come crashing down, some owners are preemptively closing their doors.

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law goes into effect on April 1, 2015. As that date approaches, restaurants across the city are making the financial decision to close shop. The Washington Policy Center writes that “closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront.”

Of course, restaurants close for a variety of reasons. But, according to Seattle Magazine, the “impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour” is playing a “major factor.” That’s not surprising, considering “about 36% of restaurant earnings go to paying labor costs.” ..,

“Washington Restaurant Association’s Anthony Anton puts it this way: “It’s not a political problem; it’s a math problem.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/03/14/seattle-eateries-closing-as-15-minimum-wage-approaches/

Even yesterdays long lost more reasonable Democrats who were actually democrats and not left wing hard core socialists saw the destruction of a minimum wage.

President Kennedy put it in his inaugural address, “the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” If two free people want to enter into a voluntary, consensual agreement that doesn’t infringe on anyone else’s rights, why should the government stop them? If someone wants to work for $5 an hour, and someone wants to hire that person for that much, and no one is forcing either one of them to enter into the agreement, by what authority does government step in and stop them?

 

[+paradox]

if you haven't noticed yet that it's technology and greed that's taking jobs away from humans in the fast-food industry, not the minimum wage...

you have all of your facts screwed and you think the 'effect' is the 'cause'...

you get a 'cause' first then the 'effect', not the other way around...

i don't think the minimum wage crashes economies, but the elites, bankers, wall-street crooks, politicians, etc. and greed does my friend...

learn what the real world is before you type what you think is real first...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

if you haven't noticed yet that it's technology and greed that's taking jobs away from humans in the fast-food industry, not the minimum wage...

you have all of your facts screwed and you think the 'effect' is the 'cause'...

you get a 'cause' first then the 'effect', not the other way around...

i don't think the minimum wage crashes economies, but the elites, bankers, wall-street crooks, politicians, etc. and greed does my friend...

learn what the real world is before you type what you think is real first...

Well nothing wrong with certain types of greed. But technology is the outcome because of the heavy hand of government forcing small businesses and not just large companies going with other means to keep there business profitable. Regardless even if that business is making huge sums of money it is not governments business to decide what a fair wage is. But since small business is the backbone of America they survive on tight margins. It's why I use temporary contractors instead of hiring people full time. It not worth the expense. So it is not me that needs to learn the real world. LOL!

 

[+paradox]

Well nothing wrong with certain types of greed. But technology is the outcome because of the heavy hand of government forcing small businesses and not just large companies going with other means to keep there business profitable. Regardless even if that business is making huge sums of money it is not governments business to decide what a fair wage is. But since small business is the backbone of America they survive on tight margins. It's why I use temporary contractors instead of hiring people full time. It not worth the expense. So it is not me that needs to learn the real world. LOL!

you're still trying to argue your point with me using your slimy small picture ideology and illogical theories of what makes and breaks a business and a economy, but i'm up here looking at the big picture...

and the minimum wage is not the big picture, even if you tell me a million times over...

but good try though...

 

[Webster]

if you haven't noticed yet that it's technology and greed that's taking jobs away from humans in the fast-food industry, not the minimum wage...

...so, you're saying we should keep low-wage jobs rather than use any and all available technology?

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

you're still trying to argue your point with me using your slimy small picture ideology and illogical theories of what makes and breaks a business and a economy, but i'm up here looking at the big picture...

and the minimum wage is not the big picture, even if you tell me a million times over...

but good try though...

I am just arguing the facts of the matter that proves over and over when a government arbitrarily decides what a fair wage is, it destroys jobs and businesses.

But lets have a expert on the matter explain it to you.

 

[+paradox]

I am just arguing the facts of the matter that proves over and over when a government arbitrarily decides what a fair wage is, it destroys jobs and businesses.

But lets have a expert on the matter explain it to you.

and let me counter your "expert" with my experts...

LCRHD LCRHD 1 week ago
Rationalizing greed. This guy always does a quick hop and skip over the fact that there are a small group that have the majority of wealth (billionaires). He calls them investors, bullshit. The best investors are the middle class. I'll chop this guy down to size in any debate. There must always be a minimum amount of government to control minimum wage, tax the wealthy, and insure the welfare of people so that society remains stable. The wealthy cannot be trusted to hold a majority of wealth since it undermines democracy, this is no different than a tyrannical government. This is what we have now and is evident in campaign contributions and lobbyist. Having excess poverty also increases crime, bad health and creates hopelessness. In essence, he and those like him, support a dog eat dog world and if that is what we want, if we want greed, then we should just all buy guns and start shooting until the last man is standing. Wealth must be controlled, the wealthy corporations at certain point need to be forced to reinvest and be heavily taxed. This is what pays for the infrastructure and economic stability that allows them and others to prosper.

Benjamin Benoit 1 week ago
this man fails to vocalize his understanding of why the minimum wage laws were established in the first place. The fact that he is some how establishing business as a victim to the laborer because the laborer is establishing the means of production. The reasoning for child labor being banned and children not being hired is that we know from scientific comprehensive studies that societies are vastly more productive as education is more widely dispersed. China is a modern example of this. The minimum wage also helps to elevate the economy by putting money into the pockets of those who spend it. The rich millionaires and billionaires do not spend money on the level of the poor and middle class citizen simply, and statistically because there are more poor and more middle class. The rich pocket the profits, save it, and reinvest it to further profit utilizing capital gains and the loopholes. This does not put money back into the system, thus stifling growth. Friedman economics only works without giving credence to a global economy. I suspect he gained the momentum he did because the global economy was fairly new. Fast forward 30 years later and look what has happened. You had the U.S. which owned 52% of the worlds economy stagnate into recession after recession. This is not sound economics. This is Ideological nonsense that parsed long enough has become more extreme and more belligerent. 2008 was a result of Friedman-economics gone awry. Laissez faire economies have let to depravity and failure every time in history in which it has occurred. Businessmen are not righteous or stand for principles or protection of citizens or growing the power of a nation. They are simply men in the business of making money, and because of this ideology these men are willing to make money even if it means the failure of sovereign states and governments established for the people by the people. This is not a society any man should desire to see built. “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

 

[+paradox]

...so, you're saying we should keep low-wage jobs rather than use any and all available technology?

i'm not saying that, but at the same time don't blame a fallacy reason why something is something when it's a multiple complex of reasons why something is something... you two just trying to simplify it with one reason, the minimum wage, but my counter-point is that there's other reasons behind the unemployment rate in this country, and technology can be listed as one of the culprits but the major reason is greed/evil...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

and let me counter your "expert" with my experts...

LCRHD LCRHD 1 week ago
Rationalizing greed. This guy always does a quick hop and skip over the fact that there are a small group that have the majority of wealth (billionaires). He calls them investors, bullshit. The best investors are the middle class. I'll chop this guy down to size in any debate. There must always be a minimum amount of government to control minimum wage, tax the wealthy, and insure the welfare of people so that society remains stable. The wealthy cannot be trusted to hold a majority of wealth since it undermines democracy, this is no different than a tyrannical government. This is what we have now and is evident in campaign contributions and lobbyist. Having excess poverty also increases crime, bad health and creates hopelessness. In essence, he and those like him, support a dog eat dog world and if that is what we want, if we want greed, then we should just all buy guns and start shooting until the last man is standing. Wealth must be controlled, the wealthy corporations at certain point need to be forced to reinvest and be heavily taxed. This is what pays for the infrastructure and economic stability that allows them and others to prosper.

This is a expert. LOL!

Benjamin Benoit 1 week ago
this man fails to vocalize his understanding of why the minimum wage laws were established in the first place. The fact that he is some how establishing business as a victim to the laborer because the laborer is establishing the means of production. The reasoning for child labor being banned and children not being hired is that we know from scientific comprehensive studies that societies are vastly more productive as education is more widely dispersed. China is a modern example of this. The minimum wage also helps to elevate the economy by putting money into the pockets of those who spend it. The rich millionaires and billionaires do not spend money on the level of the poor and middle class citizen simply, and statistically because there are more poor and more middle class. The rich pocket the profits, save it, and reinvest it to further profit utilizing capital gains and the loopholes. This does not put money back into the system, thus stifling growth. Friedman economics only works without giving credence to a global economy. I suspect he gained the momentum he did because the global economy was fairly new. Fast forward 30 years later and look what has happened. You had the U.S. which owned 52% of the worlds economy stagnate into recession after recession. This is not sound economics. This is Ideological nonsense that parsed long enough has become more extreme and more belligerent. 2008 was a result of Friedman-economics gone awry. Laissez faire economies have let to depravity and failure every time in history in which it has occurred. Businessmen are not righteous or stand for principles or protection of citizens or growing the power of a nation. They are simply men in the business of making money, and because of this ideology these men are willing to make money even if it means the failure of sovereign states and governments established for the people by the people. This is not a society any man should desire to see built. “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

No one is even talking about child labor laws here. So?

The rich do spend on the level of the rich and poor? What a stupid comment! It must be the poor who just have just spent hundreds of millions of dollars in expansions at Disney and Universal Studios for there parks and new hotels that just created thousand of new jobs. So saying it does not go go back into the system has got to be a top ten dumb statement. Friedman would have fun whooping up on this persons sillyness.

2008 had zero to do with Friedman economics or Laissez faire economics. It had to with government interfering in the stock market, housing, and tens of thousands of regulations added every year. Let alone a government spending a trillion more dollars it takes in every year.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

i'm not saying that, but at the same time don't blame a fallacy reason why something is something when it's a multiple complex of reasons why something is something... you two just trying to simplify it with one reason, the minimum wage, but my counter-point is that there's other reasons behind the unemployment rate in this country, and technology can be listed as one of the culprits but the major reason is greed/evil...

And yet in a country like Switzerland where there is no minimum wage the low and middle income class are doing better then all of Europe in pay and economy. They have learned government deciding what they think is fair over the market does far more harm then good.

 

[+paradox]

LCRHD LCRHD 1 week ago
Rationalizing greed. This guy always does a quick hop and skip over the fact that there are a small group that have the majority of wealth (billionaires). He calls them investors, bullshit. The best investors are the middle class. I'll chop this guy down to size in any debate. There must always be a minimum amount of government to control minimum wage, tax the wealthy, and insure the welfare of people so that society remains stable. The wealthy cannot be trusted to hold a majority of wealth since it undermines democracy, this is no different than a tyrannical government. This is what we have now and is evident in campaign contributions and lobbyist. Having excess poverty also increases crime, bad health and creates hopelessness. In essence, he and those like him, support a dog eat dog world and if that is what we want, if we want greed, then we should just all buy guns and start shooting until the last man is standing. Wealth must be controlled, the wealthy corporations at certain point need to be forced to reinvest and be heavily taxed. This is what pays for the infrastructure and economic stability that allows them and others to prosper.

This is a expert. LOL!
yes, he makes more sense than anyone you follow...

Benjamin Benoit 1 week ago
this man fails to vocalize his understanding of why the minimum wage laws were established in the first place. The fact that he is some how establishing business as a victim to the laborer because the laborer is establishing the means of production. The reasoning for child labor being banned and children not being hired is that we know from scientific comprehensive studies that societies are vastly more productive as education is more widely dispersed. China is a modern example of this. The minimum wage also helps to elevate the economy by putting money into the pockets of those who spend it. The rich millionaires and billionaires do not spend money on the level of the poor and middle class citizen simply, and statistically because there are more poor and more middle class. The rich pocket the profits, save it, and reinvest it to further profit utilizing capital gains and the loopholes. This does not put money back into the system, thus stifling growth. Friedman economics only works without giving credence to a global economy. I suspect he gained the momentum he did because the global economy was fairly new. Fast forward 30 years later and look what has happened. You had the U.S. which owned 52% of the worlds economy stagnate into recession after recession. This is not sound economics. This is Ideological nonsense that parsed long enough has become more extreme and more belligerent. 2008 was a result of Friedman-economics gone awry. Laissez faire economies have let to depravity and failure every time in history in which it has occurred. Businessmen are not righteous or stand for principles or protection of citizens or growing the power of a nation. They are simply men in the business of making money, and because of this ideology these men are willing to make money even if it means the failure of sovereign states and governments established for the people by the people. This is not a society any man should desire to see built. “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

No one is even talking about child labor laws here. So?
it was mentioned because with a society, there must be laws to govern it, if not people will abuse children like china does...

The rich do spend on the level of the rich and poor? What a stupid comment!
the truth is stupid now? very interesting...

It must be the poor who just have just spent hundreds of millions of dollars in expansions at Disney and Universal Studios for there parks and new hotels that just created thousand of new jobs.
because that's what the rich does, they profit off of the backs of the poor people and reinvest it to make more money, just because a company expands doesn't mean they are doing it for the people and to create jobs for people, it's because they want to make more money off of the backs of the poor, no matter how many jobs they create...

So saying it does not go go back into the system has got to be a top ten dumb statement. Friedman would have fun whooping up on this persons sillyness.
okay, people will get jobs? but will that really matter? disney has a bad track record for the treatment of their employees... friedman wouldn't have none of me because i'd slap his stupid ass with truth and logic...

2008 had zero to do with Friedman economics or Laissez faire economics. It had to with government interfering in the stock market, housing, and tens of thousands of regulations added every year. Let alone a government spending a trillion more dollars it takes in every year.
do you mean corruption in the stock market? greedy and unjust banking practices and the elites that manipulate and strangle countries and their economies? and the government politicians that aren't for the people yet people get brainwashed into thinking they are the best for the country instead of being a free thinker and elect someone that is not in someone's pocket, no matter left or right?

 

[+paradox]

 

[+paradox]

And yet in a country like Switzerland where there is no minimum wage the low and middle income class are doing better then all of Europe in pay and economy. They have learned government deciding what they think is fair over the market does far more harm then good.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

This was spoken by a true leftist. And yet OVERWHELMINGLY the people wanted no minium wage in there country from a vote last year. Unemployment is the lowest in Europe and not something America has seen since Grover Cleveland. in the US where minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the average household income is $4,300 a month; in Switzerland, where there is no minimum wage, the average is $6,800.

Even the hard working immigrants who appreciate the job they have get it more then the "educated" class.

Almeida’s earnings of $3,250 a month are below the proposed minimum wage but still much more than she’d make in Portugal. Since she is not a Swiss citizen, she cannot vote but if she could, “I would vote ‘no’,” she says. “If my employer had to pay me more money, he wouldn’t be able to keep me on and I’d lose the job.”




By the way, this isn’t the first time the Swiss have demonstrated common sense when asked to vote of key economic policy issues.

In 2001, 85 percent of voters approved a plan to cap the growth of government spending.

In 2010, 59 percent of voters rejected an Obama-style class-warfare tax plan.

No wonder there are many reasons why Switzerland ranks above the United States.

P.S. I wrote earlier this month about Pfizer’s potential merger that would allow the company to reduce its onerous tax burden to the IRS by redomiciling in the United Kingdom.

Well, Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe has weighed in on the issue and I can’t resist sharing this excerpt.

…the outrage isn’t the wish of an American corporation to lower its tax bill. It is a US tax code so punitive and counterproductive that it can drive a company like Pfizer, which was launched in Brooklyn in 1849, to turn itself into a foreign corporation. The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. That puts American companies at a serious competitive disadvantage, since their rivals elsewhere are able to channel more of their profits into new investment, hiring, and productivity. What’s worse, ours is the only country that enforces a system of “worldwide” taxation, which means that American firms have to pay tax to the IRS not only on income earned in the United States but on their foreign earnings as well. Other nations content themselves with “territorial” taxation — they only tax income earned within their national borders. US corporations like Pfizer that have significant earnings overseas are thus taxed on those earnings twice: first by the government of the country where the money was earned, and then by the IRS.
Amen, amen, and amen.


http://finance.townhall.com/columni...posed-minimum-wage-mandate-n1840479/page/full

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Where do these people come from and the lies they tell.

Seattle Raises Minimum Wage, Businesses Close Down – Liberals Completely BAFFLED

Conservatives know from common sense and some of us from running businesses that it’s obvious if you raise wages artificially you’re gonna lose some businesses that have a very thin profit. But liberals are idiots. That’s why they’re shocked that raising Seattle’s minimum wage has caused many businesses to go under, even in anticipation of the law going into effect.

Here’s Seattle Mag just completely flummoxed:





It goes on to list all sorts of different excuses for businesses closing down, and only after eleven paragraphs eventually meanders around to talking about the pending minimum wage hike:

Though none of our local departing/transitioning restaurateurs who announced their plans last month have elaborated on the issue, another major factor affecting restaurant futures in our city is the impending minimum wage hike to $15 per hour. Starting April 1, all businesses must begin to phase in the wage increase: Small employers have seven years to pay all employees at least $15 hourly; large employers (with 500 or more employees) have three.

Since the legislation was announced last summer, The Seattle Times and Eater have reported extensively on restaurant owners’ many concerns about how to compensate for the extra funds that will now be required for labor: They may need to raise menu prices, source poorer ingredients, reduce operating hours, reduce their labor and/or more.

I’m actually surprised they explained it so well. There’s actually some MATH later on in the article:

He estimates that a common budget breakdown among sustaining Seattle restaurants so far has been the following: 36 percent of funds are devoted to labor, 30 percent to food costs and 30 percent go to everything else (all other operational costs). The remaining 4 percent has been the profit margin, and as a result, in a $700,000 restaurant, he estimates that the average restauranteur in Seattle has been making $28,000 a year.

With the minimum wage spike, however, he says that if restaurant owners made no changes, the labor cost in quick service restaurants would rise to 42 percent and in full service restaurants to 47 percent.

To complete the math, a rise from 36% to 42% completely swallows up the meager $28,000 a year the business owner would make! Not only would the owner stop making money, but he’d actually have to pay in 2%, or $1,400 for the benefit of toiling to run a restaurant in Seattle, and if it’s a full service restaurant, the owner would have to pay in 7%, or nearly $5 grand! What a stupid joke liberal economics are.

Maybe someone should explain these numbers very very slowly to Mika Brzezinski and the Morning Nebulous crew that had absolutely no idea why such a business would have to close down.
http://soopermexican.com/2015/03/14...esses-close-down-liberals-completely-baffled/

Seattle Restaurant Owner Forced To Shut Down Because of Minimum Wage Increase

Conservatives have been shouting from the rooftops about how bad of an idea raising the minimum wage is, how it will negatively impact businesses, who will then be forced to reduce hours for workers, let staff go, or worse, completely shut down.

As you might have guessed, lefties ignored this sound economic advice in favor of bleeding heart emotionalism, saying anyone against raising the minimum wage hates the poor and is defending the wealthy, which couldn’t be further from the truth, but facts have never gotten in the way of liberal insanity before, so why would it start now?

Well, Seattle decided to bump its minimum wage April 1, and it’s wreaking havoc on local businesses, like this family owned pizza restaurant that is now being forced to close its doors because of the hike.

I hate to say we told you so, but, hey, we told you so.

From The Federalist Papers:

The law went into effect on April Fool’s Day and gave businesses up to 5 years to implement up to $15/hour but the $11/hour increase was mandated on April 1st.

A pizza place in the city, which has to implement within 2 years due to the law has done what proponents of the minimum wage raise lied and said wouldn’t happen – she’s closing her business.

Not only has the owner cut hours but she’s already let someone go and now she’s letting everyone go and shutting her business down.

Here’s additional details on this tragic turn of events from IJReview:

Burnham says she and her 12 employees will now be looking for new jobs:

“I’ve let one person go since April 1, I’ve cut hours since April 1, I’ve taken them myself because I don’t pay myself.. I’ve also raised my prices a little bit, there’s no other way to do it.”

Seattle’s minimum wage was just raised to $11/hour as part of a phase-in to the $15/hr wage over six years. But since Burnham owns one store of a large franchise, she’s considered a big business and must phase in the $15/hour wage in two years.

“I know that I would have stayed here if I had 7 years, just like everyone else, if I had an even playing field. The discrimination I’m feeling right now against my small business makes me not want to stay and do anything in Seattle.”

Employee Devin Jeran says he was excited about making more money, but didn’t recognize there might be a downside.

So the liberal solution to poverty and unemployment actually caused more poverty and unemployment, yet we’re still somehow supposed to believe it’s the right thing to do?

If that isn’t pure insanity, I’m not sure what is.

http://www.youngcons.com/seattle-re...o-shut-down-because-of-minimum-wage-increase/

What Is Killing the Restaurants of Seattle?



A feature in the Seattle Times called the “Truth Needle” (we’re guessing the Times didn’t want to pony up to license PolitiFact’s logo) declares the claim that minimum wage has anything to do with the undeniably large number of restaurant closings is “false.”

Now, it’s certainly the case that restaurant operators in liberal Seattle are claiming a higher minimum wage has nothing to do with their business decisions. This is likely somewhere between a delusion and a lie, so let’s split the difference and call it public relations. Again, basic economics tells us that the typical restaurant operates on a slim profit margin, and wages typically run about 35 percent of operating costs.

Nonetheless, in very liberal and very wealthy Seattle, angering your customer base by proclaiming your opposition to redistributive social justice would be foolish. It would also be foolish to anger the local regulatory czars in a city that has proclaimed the new wage law a political triumph. “Restaurateurs are business people, not politicians, and angering the mayor over the law he signed is not a smart business move,” notes the Washington Policy Center.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/what-killing-restaurants-seattle_892724.html

Nancy Pelosi’s ‘vital step towards progress’ falls on its face: Seattle’s minimum wage increase ‘shuttering’ businesses

Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer
Sigh, it’s a mystery: http://ow.ly/3xvyMc


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Free_Will @djross95
@mkhammer The real world keeps intruding on our march to progressive nirvana.

9:53 AM - 14 Mar 2015
Last June, Nancy Pelosi praised the city of Seattle for taking a “vital step towards progress” by raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The increase is set to kick in on April 1st.

Anybody with a realistic grasp on economics could have predicted what would happen next:







A recent story at SeattleMag.com cites the minimum wage increase as one possible reason “so many Seattle restaurants are closing lately”:



In the article, the acknowledgement that the minimum wage increase could be a factor in businesses closing wasn’t mentioned until after all other possible explanations were exhausted:













Progressives will likely cite business owner “greed” as the culprit.
http://twitchy.com/2015/03/14/nancy...-minimum-wage-increase-shuttering-businesses/

 

[+paradox]

you're trying to compare apples to oranges here...

in switzerland, there's a way higher cost of living, so of course they can pay their employees more...

and if they didn't then the economy will crumble, like here in the united states...

where unemployment is high, cost of living and inflation is high, and the minimum wage is low...

and that's not the cause of liberalism, sorry to ruin your fantasy world you're living in...

and because you point out that switzerland is doing good without the minimum wage doesn't prove anything and it surely doesn't prove that having no minimum wage in america will be better for the economy and as a society as a whole... you're just trying to brainwash people into thinking that it will when you don't even know how it will turn out...

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...p?country1=Switzerland&country2=United+States