$15/hr minimum wage- what's it mean to you?

NickfromWI

King of Splices
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Mar 30, 2005
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Seattle and LA have passed laws raising wages to $15/hr. Obviously every employee should love this.

What do you business owners think about it?


love
nick
 
I haven't paid anyone 15 per hour for a long time.....what's the big deal?
 
For me, nothing, really. $15 is minimum wage already, to show up with some skills, work hard, take training, prove competence and get raises. Our market doesn't have the cost of living of Seattle. Probably making $15 in Seattle is like making $10/ hour in Olympia. Everything cost much more. I used to live in the City of Chicago. Cities are expensive.


For minimum wage jobs, more automation, less people. More computer ordering, like they have at Applebee's or some other chain that I heard about.




What is expected of a $15/hour groundie? Do expectations go up with the Minimum Wage?

Will you only hire someone with a greater skill set, now? Does the occasional grunt dragger lose out to an machine payment?

Interested to hear what people start paying groundies? What do you pay on average after they get on board and can perform within your crew? Where does a groundie top out on the pay scale?

Minimum wage here is around $10/ hour. Getting hired starts at $15/ hour. Proving skills and being ready to learn and integrate earns raises. I'm trying to figure out what to pay the new Sean, who came in at $15, with his first pay period about to end. I'll pay him the elevated wage for the whole period.
 
I think some people are worth $15/hour. I've seen others who would be pressed to earn $5/hour. I personally think the idea of a "law" regarding such is foolish. If all these hard-working, ambitious folks want more money, let them get jobs where they can earn it. To sit on one's hands and "demand" more money is ridiculous.
 
I think it will lead to more automation, entitlement, separation and tension between classes of people. At some point that tension and separation will lead to lancing the boil.
 
I agree with Carl. Simple eco nics will also dictate that this increase is going to raise every ones overhead overall. The prices on everything, including the cost of living, are about to go up.so even if I pay some one 20.00 per hour, they will only be able to afford less than they can now.Since a lot of my clients are fixed income, I will lose business over this.
 
I don't pay by the hour. lol But I don't think it will "help" anybody as said above it will just raise the cost and that cost will roll down hill to the consumer, so there is no one that truly benefits.
 
By the day usually aside from firewood splitting thats by the hour, $100-150 for groundies and $300-600 for subs.
 
We've had fixed minimum wages since forever, and it hasn't made society break down so far.

It is somewhere around $17/ hr, but you'll need to use the Big Mac factor to compare it to US prices.

I've never paid anyone minimum wage. If that is all they are worth, they don't work for me.
 
Sancho is happy making what he makes under the table tax free, he just works for diesel really, a filter every now and a gain, maybe some oil and grease. Tho he did ask for some new rubber but we will have to see.
 
I've never paid anyone minimum wage. If that is all they are worth, they don't work for me.
Agreed, but I say if someone flipping burgers wants to make $20 an hour, they need to find another line of work. Without entry level jobs at entry level pay, there is no incentive to increase one's education, skill and pay level, not to mention the fact that the price of a big mac will go above what people are willing to pay. People don't seem to realize that while it seems like the humanitarian thing to do, these minimum wages will come out of their own pockets, not the politicians manipulating them.
 
Sure doubt I'll buy fast food in those cities, may as well have a nice meal somewhere for the money fast food will need to charge
 
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  • #17
I view a great ground guy is worth 2x minimum wage. So now the ground guy should be pulling $30/hr? And the top climber should be making $60/hr then?


love
nick
 
The way I see it, yiu either pay a living wage or you rely on the government to pick up the slack. You both work flipping burgers and collect welfare or you get paid enough to cover your expenses. Micky ds aND the rest are getting a huge deal from the government because they are getting help from the government keeping their employees alive. And honestly I would much rather drag brush for 15 an hour than flip burgers for 15. working fast food is not exactly easy.
 
I view a great ground guy is worth 2x minimum wage. So now the ground guy should be pulling $30/hr? And the top climber should be making $60/hr then?


love
nick
I don't know if your looking at it the right way. do you beleive that a ground should live twice as well as the person who serves you food? Or a climber should live four times as well? I am conflicted by the minimum wage argument as well. I want to be able to pay 5 bucks an hour to kids to stack firewood or clean up after school and have it be legit... there are probably ways. But, there is a minimum amount of money required and a minimum amount of hours in a day in order to live a healthy life. Unhealthy people are not good workers. Sick people are expensive. It is in no one's benefit to have working people be not able to meet their daily needs.

Like the famous mcdonalds budget handed out to employees that had a second job included but no money for food and clothes.
 
McDonald's burger flipping was never meant to be a living wage, just a stepping stone into the work force. You shouldn't be satisfied with minimum wage, always be looking to better yourself!
 
Agreed, but I say if someone flipping burgers wants to make $20 an hour, they need to find another line of work. Without entry level jobs at entry level pay, there is no incentive to increase one's education, skill and pay level, not to mention the fact that the price of a big mac will go above what people are willing to pay. People don't seem to realize that while it seems like the humanitarian thing to do, these minimum wages will come out of their own pockets, not the politicians manipulating them.

Wait, Wait, Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that there is no free lunch?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #23
...do you beleive that a ground should live twice as well as the person who serves you food? ...

Yes absolutely 100%. The ground guy will work twice as hard. I believe that a good ground guy is much more rare than finding someone who flips burgers well. So yeah.

Same for the climber. A climber DOES deserve to make double a ground guy,for all the same reasons I stated above.

I've argued against increased min wage in several places and it's hard to do without sounding like a greedy jerk of a boss. I love my crew and Karina and I are always looking for ways to give someone else a raise.

My whole crew will always make more than min wage. The real issue is that if minimum wage goes up, I gotta give EVERYONE a raise which means my prices are going up to make up for it.

The question then becomes, will increased rates make us lose customers to the point where we can't stay in business?


love
nick
 
We have a national minimum wage here and all it means when it gets raised is that some of the bosses that I know have just had more people working on minimum wage. But that is just the way it is here.
 
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