The NRA group

But what an amazingly interesting article. I WAS FLOORED!

If you want to know what's going on with minimum wage or work in the restaurant/food industry business, read this.

Why raise min wage? Because the "cats out of the bag" now, that's why. Ask yourself this. How many other businesses have lobbying groups that do the exact same thing?

NRA

Bandit wrote:

But what an amazingly interesting article. I WAS FLOORED!

If you want to know what's going on with minimum wage or work in the restaurant/food industry business, read this.

Why raise min wage? Because the "cats out of the bag" now, that's why. Ask yourself this. How many other businesses have lobbying groups that do the exact same thing?

NRA

The only aspect that I can agree with is the tipped employees. This doesn't affect the fast food joints too much.

But based on personal experience long ago, I've avoided restaurants in general, in large part because of this.
It is indeed the practice of many sit down restaurants to pay their employees a sub-minimum wage on the assumption that they will make it up in tips. Problem is that the only employees who actually get the tips are those that work the dining room floor, with direct customer contact. Those who labor in the kitchen, while making the same sub-min. wage as the floor staff, often don't get a fair share of the tips, if they get any at all.

Back in the early 70's, when I was in school, I got a job at a large chain restaurant. Being male, I was employed in the kitchen doing various jobs. This restaurant had tendency to put males in the kitchen, and females out on the floor, particularly if the female in question was what is now referred to as a "hottie".

Took me about 3 working days to realize that while all these employees, male and female, were making sub-min. wage on the assumption of tips, but mostly female floor staff were making a great deal more than those of us in the kitchen, as the kitchen folks were not getting accurate percentage of the tips collected by the floor staff.

I brought this concern to the manager of the place, he stated that he'd look into it.
Next payday, I could see by my check that nothing had changed. Again, I took this up with the manager, and he replied that there wouldn't be any changes as it was the floor staff who was responsible for bringing in the tips; their personal attributes, attitudes and friendliness towards the customer was responsible for much of the quantities of the tips they brought in.
So, I clarified, that we are all paid sub-min. wage on the assumption that it would be made up in tips, but those in backs would never get an even distribution. Yes, that was the situation.

Quit the job on the spot, and tripped the fire suppression system on my way out the back door. Shut him down cold on a Friday night. Heck, I wasn't 16 yet, so I couldn't really be charged with anything serious.

Since that day, I've avoided sit down restaurants, and that situation, which continues to this day, is a large reason why.

The entire tipping system should be scrapped and the all of the employees paid an hourly wage commensurate to what their efforts contribute to the businesses income.

None of this applies to fast food joints, though.

Let me ask you something. How much are you willing to pay for a Whopper/Big Mac or whatever? Around here, they're running about 5 bucks unless you have a coupon of some sort.

What happens if they are forced to double the wages of the people that make them? The cost of the product would rise. Are you going to pay $10 bucks for a whopper? Hell, I won't pay $5, I always use a coupon or I don't go there.
What, do you think management is going to eat the cost increase? Of course not, don't be silly.

So, how many whoppers are they going to need to have cooked when few if any people are buying them? They're going to need a lot less people to flip those burgers they're not selling.

This is a perfect example of the value of a product vs. the cost of the product. If the cost exceeds the perceived value to the customer, it won't sell, unless some artificial interference is introduced. Or do you plan on giving govt. subsidies to fast food joints so that they can pay their workers more than the value of what they produce?

I have been steadily employed, since around the age of 9. I started paying into Social Security in 1969 and have continued without fail, to this date. I am well familiar with the restaurant business to include fast food. I am well versed in business management as well as administration. I am also well familiar with how most employers steal your wages, lie on time sheets, and other activities, all to boost their profits. While all illegal, you really have no choice but to deal with it. You still want a "McJob", right?

The Book of Lies, aka state and federal labor laws rarely comes into play. But when it does, it still means you lose your job, and nothing where you USED to work changes. The government gets to say "see, we enforce the labor laws" and the business says "anybody else want to complain"? When my own children were old enough to start working, my wife and I discovered things had only gotten worse.

I agree with doing away with the "tipped minimum wage". But employers have stealing wages down to a science now. Gratuity is included in your bill at most places. Cash given to an employee must be entered into the register, to include the tip you think will go to the employee.

As for raising min wage, I agree with that as well. It isn't a matter of how much I'm willing to pay for a burger. It's a matter of I'm already paying for it twice.

You are quite correct, in that if the cost of a product exceeds the perceived value, it won't sell. But whose problem is that? The government? The tax payer? No, it isn't. That's a concern of the producer. And posting profits in the billions tells me I'm already paying too much.

There is nothing stopping these people from charging whatever they want for their products. Not too long ago, they raised the price of a cup of coffee to $1 regardless what size.

I don't eat out much, unless I have to. Within the same city, every restaurant has different prices, even if the same franchise. And all of them too expensive.

So will this ever fly? I doubt it. Look where I found the article. Hardly main stream media. Look at this article. Check out the "End Notes". Talk about listing your sources. All 2 pages of them.

NYC and wage theft report

Again, all minimum wage workers, and again hardly main stream media.

Some time ago, Eber said something that resonated with me, because I have seen it, and agreed with him. If he's working 40 hours a week, and you cut his hours to 20, just to hire another person to work the other 20, that isn't "job creation". You can argue it's a "technicality", but one I agree with.

It's still the same job, and most times, the employer will pay less for 2, than just the 1. I as the taxpayer will have to make up the rest through assisted living programs. Now what is it going to cost for that Whopper?

The problem of public assistance (taxpayers) supplementing the incomes of bottom rung workers is simple.
End it. You don't work, you don't eat. Plain and simple.

But this must be combined with a restructuring of the employment landscape in this country.

Long ago, in the dark ages of the 50's and 60's, and single person who had a high school education and was willing to work could earn a very comfortable living, providing for both himself and his family.

As a result of the various free trade deals we've agreed to at the behest of BOTH major political parties (Remember Ross Perot and his "giant sucking sound" ? ) we've outsourced a very large number of positions that formerly employed US workers, further damaging an employment landscape that had already been substantially weakened by other changes in our society.

And then we look towards today. Both parties are hell bent on importing millions of workers (illegal aliens) to take over the jobs that can't be outsourced at a fraction of the cost of employing U.S. workers.

Yes, people must work in order to eat. If the government is willing to support those who don't want to work, we're out of the game of fixing this county before we get started.

Our trade policies must be rewritten to favor the United States economy first, foremost and always as their first priority. We have to put a stop to exporting our standard of living, along with a large # of our jobs.

We also have to stop importing workers to take jobs from U.S. citizens. Locate & deport every single person in this country illegally and erect effective barricades at our borders to prevent further unlawful entry. At the same time eliminate the large # of working visas issued at the behest of large corporations who simply want cheap labor.  Look how strong Microsoft is advocating expanding the # of these visas issued, so they can import workers rather than pay U.S. workers.

We've been the doormat for much of the rest of the world for a long time now. It's about time we say the hell with the rest of you, we need to look after ourselves first, or we aren't going to be here much longer.

Having worked in food service my whole life I have seen the decline in food service since the eighties. Restaurants used to pay for talent. Now they think they can get any Joe off the street and do the same thing. 9 out of every 10 restaurants fail. Reason? Because they hire people that have no clue how to cook.

We used to have a lot of restaurants around here we are now down to 3. One is only open in the summer. The other I refuse to eat at because the food is horrid. It is instant every thing. The other one my cousin owns and she makes almost every thing from scratch. Problem is her place is way off the beaten path.

People do not realize that a lot restaurants struggle to make it. In WV where I live min wage for a business that makes less than 50k a year is 4.50.

The author left out companies that handle contracts for colleges and city schools. They pay big money to keep wages down. Where I work at this semester coming up they will cut the employees to 30 hours per week. Just enough for them to keep their insurance and benefits. During times when the school is closed they do not get paid. This happens at every major college that has contracted their food service out.

Now they pay higher than min wage however they cut hours for those people big time. I am immune because when I started working there I was hired as a state employee. It pisses them off that they have to pay me for a 40 hours. They cannot make me leave.

But the pay for restaurants and talent has gone by the wayside. Restaurant business is unlike any other the profit margins are slim for mom and pop operations. The bigger ones like the ones that run colleges and city schools they are not fun to work for. The turnover rate is sky high. When it was self op it was nothing to get a 100 applications. Hell it took me 16 times to get hired there.


What used to be a well run machine that actually cared about sanitation. Now it is run by a company that only cares about profits. I would never send my kid to a college that is not self op. Trust me they do not have your kids best interest at heart.

Now I don't want the government to get involved if the workers feel they are getting hosed than create a union. This is why unions are failing. They are backing government for the job they should be doing.