Minimum Wage Increase?

@el_tino Said
They probably bummed the cigarettes too.

@lili Said
But I doubt they "bummed" the bottles of liquor.

@lili Said
But I doubt they "bummed" the bottles of liquor.

@johnnyposter Said
Just like little corner convinience stores OMG *makes the connection!*

@stumblinthrulife Said
that's not the only reason small local stores have higher prices. They don't have the buying power of WalMart so can't negotiate contracts with suppliers so well. They're probably getting stuff for only a couple of cents less than you could buy it at WalMart. Add to that their overheads and operating costs, and you get a higher price passed to the consumer.

@el_tino Said
I think a lot of the big chain grocery stores jack up prices in low income areas too.

When I lived in albuquerque there was a Smith's grocery store in the 'student ghetto' where a lot of people don't have cars. The prices were higher than in the Smith's across town in the richer neighborhoods.

@stumblinthrulife Said
Because the number of jobs would decrease and the low income workers would be truly screwed. The unemployment rate will also increase.

Aditionally, retailers, fast food joints, etc... really aren't going to suck up all the extra cost, they are going to pass it on to the consumer. And since the companies most affected are the discounters, that pay minimum wage, the cost is then passed on theit consumers, i.e. the low income households that cannot afford to shop elsewhere. Ergo although the wage of those households may increase, so does the cost of maintaining a poverty level existence.

Support low income workers? Yes. Is minimum wage the right route? Maybe not.

@stumblinthrulife Said
Because the number of jobs would decrease and the low income workers would be truly screwed. The unemployment rate will also increase.

Aditionally, retailers, fast food joints, etc... really aren't going to suck up all the extra cost, they are going to pass it on to the consumer. And since the companies most affected are the discounters, that pay minimum wage, the cost is then passed on theit consumers, i.e. the low income households that cannot afford to shop elsewhere. Ergo although the wage of those households may increase, so does the cost of maintaining a poverty level existence.

Support low income workers? Yes. Is minimum wage the right route? Maybe not.

@wildchild Said
I would have to agree with you Doug, being a business owner it will make it alot harder on us if the minuim wage goes up. Alot of our employees make much more than the min. wage now but putting all of them up to over 7 bucks and hour would be very hard on us. I'd figure something out but it would be hard. I agree that the min. wage is low compared to the cost of living but I'm just not sure how we'd absorb the cost. I've already had to eat alot of expense with food cost because of inflation, I could serve a certain item for $9.99 a few months ago and make a reasonable profit off of it, now that item is costing me close to $9.25 so I'm not making alot per item, but I don't want to go up on the menu items this season anyway , maybe when the season starts next year but I don't know.

My husband is eating cost at the stables as well, horse feed has went up, fairers have started charging more to shoe horses because gas prices have caused them to do so. Vets charge more and Dougs right in the end the consumer is eating the cost.

I try my best to be fair to my employees and since we are seasonal businesses that are only in full operation from March to november I feel like they are taken care of with season completion bonuses. If they complete the season for us they are given a generous bonus at the end of the season sometimes thouse bonuses are huge too depending on their gross income for the season and their performance.

I do the best I can with what I have though. Small businesses will suffer from this I'm sure.

@el_tino Said
Well you also have to consider that the cost of maintaining a poverty level existence has already gone up a lot since the minimum wage was last increased due to simple inflation (which leaves out things like the price of food and gas). So the poor people actually have less buying power than they did 10 years ago. The minimum wage should at least keep up with inflation... a 40% increase in the minimum wage would seem about right to make up for 10 years of inflation.

@stumblinthrulife Said
Finally - an intelligent counter-point

Yes, it is fair to assume that any properly managed minimum wage should scale with inflation.

Unfortunately 10 years worth of inflation (about 35% considering average annual inflation to be 3%) is difficult to swallow in one hit. So while this point is good, it does nothing to mitigate the problems I am arguing.

If we wanted inflationary increases, they should have been built in from the beginning, and I consider it remiss that they were not.

I would argue that the Consumer Price Index would probably be a better thing to track increases to, though, but that's a technicality.

@el_tino Said
Well the plan I saw phased it in over 3 years.

@stumblinthrulife Said
Still a short phase in period, especially if a forward looking CPI tracking policy was introduced at the same time. That's an 11% increase per year, plus a further 2.5% for the current CPI.

@el_tino Said
I think a minimum wage increase would help my small business. Pimp my profile caters mainly to teenagers and college students... who mostly get minimum wage.

If they have more money they can buy more things. If they buy more things rates for advertising can go up. If rates for advertising go up, I can get more money!