It’s as if they believe that by simply persuading one more voter to vote for them instead of the other guy, they have the right to tell people how to use their money or run their businesses. In this case, the Fight for $15, the socialist union known as SEIU’s attempt to “raise the living wage” (and then sign them up as union members for the dues money). Well, Gov. Cuomo of NY pushed for and got a minimum wage of $15 dollars – and now we’re seeing what WE know are the entirely foreseeable expected results (emphasis mine, reformatted):
The legal minimum wage for New York City employers with 11 or more workers rose more than 15 percent on Dec. 31, 2018, to $15 per hour from $13, giving fast-food, retail and other employees a bump in pay. But some New York City restaurant owners say the latest minimum wage hike is forcing them to cut workers’ hours just to stay afloat.
Jon Bloostein operates six New York City restaurants that employ between 50 and 110 people each. The owner of Heartland Brewery and Houston Hall, Bloostein said the effect of the higher minimum wage on payroll across locations represents “an immense cost” to his business. “We lost control of our largest controllable expense,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “So in order to live with that and stay in business, we’re cutting hours.”
That’s right – Progressives, or those pandering to them, decided that they were going to control more of how a business operates. You know who did that? A lot? Mussolini back in the 1930’s in Italy. That economic system is called fascism whereby the government so controls how owners can run their operations, they effectively own it by regulartory capture. With the same expected results. So has Venezuela and look how that socialist kleptocracy has worked out.
Bloostein said he has scaled back on employee hours and no longer uses hosts and hostesses during lunch on light traffic days. Customers instead are greeted with a sign that reads, “Kindly select a table.” He also staggers employees’ start times. “These fewer hours add up to a lot of money in restaurants,” he said.
While reading the article, Bloostein’s confession that “in order to live with that and stay in business, we’re cutting hours,” stood out to me. He also staggers employees’ start times. “These fewer hours add up to a lot of money in restaurants,” he said. Bloostein said he has increased menu prices, too. “So as a result [of the minimum wage hike], it will cost more to dine out,” he said. “It’s not great for labor, it’s not great for the people who invest in or own restaurants, and it’s not great for the public.“
Higher costs all the way around, less employees, and a lesser dining out experience for customer who have to pay higher prices for less. Ayup, that’s a recipe for success, eh? But Progressives don’t care about the actual results when they interfer, they only care about their virtue-signaling that “they care” and then point to their policies. But never to the actual results or side-effects of that police. Instead of doing a look back with the idea of “hey, we are affecting peoples’ lives – are we doing it right”, they just go off to the next item on their list.
A New York City Hospitality Alliance survey of 574 restaurants showed that 75 percent of full-service restaurants reported plans to reduce employee hours this year in response to the latest mandated wage increase. Another 47 percent said they would eliminate jobs in 2019. Eighty-seven percent of respondents also said they would increase menu prices this year.
Yeah, that’s gonna help those minimum wage workers, isn’t it? Cut their hours, terminate jobs. The problem is that Progressives believe that employers should be running welfare programs – they are to provide jobs. They have it exactly backwards – owners start businesses to make a profit on the risk they take. Employing people is a side effect of accomplishing that goal – necessary and for good owners, those employees can be valued highly. What Progressives fail to realize is that every employee position must make economic sense. Unlike government that can employ hundreds of non-essential people, in the private sector, each position must add value and help profitability else the whole operation fails and no one has a job.
This mandating a minimum wage for a position that can’t make sense is just government making it harder to start up or keep up operations. But LIVING WAGE – and the Progressives don’t want to understand that the real minimum wage is zero when you aren’t working.
“The money has to come from somewhere, and we found that unfortunately, as a result, businesses are making some really tough decisions which don’t only impact them, but have a negative impact on their workers as well as their diners, too,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, which represents restaurants and nightlife venues throughout the five boroughs.
But shaving workers’ hours and killing jobs limits restaurateurs’ ability to offer employees opportunities for growth and development. It also can kill owners hopes of offering a fine-dining experience that delivers both good food and good service.
…”If you make it impossible for people to operate, they have to close or take drastic measures or really cut people back. At some point people aren’t going to be opening because you have to look at the bottom line,” she said.
But SOCIAL JUSTICE and a LIVING WAGE! To me, wages shouldn’t be set by Government at all. Let the worker and the manager / owner come up with an acceptable contract between the two. If an offer is too low, the worker will go elsewhere and the manager may well be out of a worker that is desperately needed. The converse may also be true – a worker that needs a job MAY be willing to work for less but if government has a mandate, the worker loses out completely and stays unemployed.
Certainly, the current climate is favoring the former than the latter around my neck of the woods but it also depends on the industry.
