Agent smith gonna get you nowsometimes I wonder if they are indeed "people"
I've said too much
Living wage advocates, how are restaruant owners supposed to deal with being squeezed like this?
- Thread starter Camile.Bidan
- Start date
Brown_Pride
All Star
diving in on page 15 or so but basically for large franchise types establishments (McDonalds) will have to dip into their profits. And while they are dropping (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/b...es-dropped-in-2nd-quarter-cutting-profit.html) they are profitable.
Smaller mom and pop shops tend to be worked by moms and pops, they'll take a hit as well and will be forced to dip into their profit. In either case both will likely remain profitable or die. If they die then chances are they weren't going to make it.
The reality of the situation is that the profits companies have made on the backs of workers has been a bubble. A bubble that needs to be popped. Profits have been squeezed towards the top while the workers have received less and less. The main gripe people have is that owners wont be making buckets of money anymore, but rather CUPS of money. In any case they're making money.
Time to tighten those belts and maybe cut back on the tennis club memberships, the 3rd vacation, or the boat purchase. it's hard out there.
Smaller mom and pop shops tend to be worked by moms and pops, they'll take a hit as well and will be forced to dip into their profit. In either case both will likely remain profitable or die. If they die then chances are they weren't going to make it.
The reality of the situation is that the profits companies have made on the backs of workers has been a bubble. A bubble that needs to be popped. Profits have been squeezed towards the top while the workers have received less and less. The main gripe people have is that owners wont be making buckets of money anymore, but rather CUPS of money. In any case they're making money.
Time to tighten those belts and maybe cut back on the tennis club memberships, the 3rd vacation, or the boat purchase. it's hard out there.
There are IT workers with certs making less than 50k. That is criminal.
Most equities (stocks and the like) are held by institutions, not individuals. Those institutions manage shyt like pensions, 401Ks, insurance funds and other financial vehicles highly relevant to normal people. If you have any kind of retirement account, or a college fund for your kids, or basically any kind of investment, you are a shareholder. So this idea that profits only benefit people at the top is a silly myth.
Why are all the minimum wage collectivists so afraid of entertaining the idea that so many people shouldn't be dependent on minimum wage in the first place? What good is a high minimum wage when those jobs will probably be automated or outsourced anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to try and get people out of those jobs and up to jobs with pay levels that generate "living wages"? You get those fast food workers $15 MW, then what. All those franchises come together and have machines made to automate much of the work, and much of those workers get $0/hr. You forbid franchises from letting workers go.... they become reluctant to hire, prices go up and the societal transition away from shytty fast food accelerates, making the ventures unprofitable. Then what? You forbid people to close down their businesses so MW workers don't lose their jobs? Eventually the buck has to stop somewhere. This whole "minimum wage = livable wage" mantra is very recent. MW was not livable in the 90s, 80s, 70s etc. etc so why does it have to be now? We should be looking to get back to how things were before, when the bulk of Americans were earning much more than minimum wage. Only way to do that is through education and job training.
Misanthrope
None of the above '16
How do you do that without ending globalization and bringing manufacturing/outsourced jobs back to America? If we have college grads working at Starbucks, then it seems like the problem might not be a lack of college educated individuals, but the lack of jobs for the people to fill.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
College isn't the only kind of education I'm talking about.
Nobody was claiming it had to be then, so why is it a problem now?
And again, how is forcing higher pay for jobs on the brink of destruction a better idea than getting people into better higher paying jobs instead?
U gonna sit here and tell me someone with a college degree isn't smart enough to do anything more than work a Starbucks register
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
What has changed since the decades you just ticked off in the United States and the world? It's laughable to even mention.
Why shouldn't Americans have a livable wage? As a country we should look to make individuals self sustainable and have a decent quality of life.
We have ample data to show that these types of jobs are what adults sustain themselves by working and we're a service economy now for the most part. Corporations are having a free lunch on the back of taxpayers and it's old frankly. These same corporations have don't nothing meaningful for the American people so why should they be protected and propped up? Outsource here, cut pay there, cut pensions, cut benefits, destroy the environment, avoid taxes, layoffs, unsafe products, and it's just old. The idea of protectionism for companies like this is stockholm syndrome status. Jobs on the brink of destruction? We'll let them be "destroyed" then. It'll just force the government to pay a basic income and sales be pushed out of brick and mortar. I see nothing positive coming from the private sector in regards to job creation and growth so time will tell what the government is able to do.
Misanthrope
None of the above '16
Certs are awesome, I agree, but if everyone has certs, then what keeps employers from dropping wages to whatever the market will accept, or replacing workers that have high-salary job descriptions with lower-salary jobs that somehow end up doing the same work, like how medicine has been creeping in to replace doctors with nurse practitioners, and nurses with home health aides/personal care aides?I mention those jobs because the two fastest growing jobs in the next ten years according to the BLS are going to be Home Health Aides, and Personal Care Aides. Between the two, the govt. thinks there will be 1,000,000 new jobs, at a median 2012 salary of $19-21,000/year.
Nurse practitioners...$90,000 salary but only +37,000 employees in ten years.
Edit, link to source: Fastest growing occupations
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Obviously a lot....... but in the context of this thread, the most important change is the growth in the # of Americans earning MW or something close to it
I agree that Americans should have a livable wage, and that individuals should be self sustainable and have a decent quality of life. The way to ensure those things happen is NOT by raising MW, to prop up the very kinds of jobs that have forced Americans into this disadvantageous position in the first place. What good is MW when your job can be replaced by a machine tomorrow?
Clearly these jobs are not what adults sustain themselves on, hence the heavy govt subsidies. And I'm not going to nor have I defended corporations so u can talk to someone else about that. But people need good paying jobs, and good paying jobs come from companies. So in order to make a transition forward for everybody all involved parties have to have a seat at the table
People have all kind software job skills that are undervalued. We need unions to build back the middle class, but no one is mentioning it in this thread. Wonder why.
I'm not just talking certs. Your example makes some good points though.
I mention those jobs because the two fastest growing jobs in the next ten years according to the BLS are going to be Home Health Aides, and Personal Care Aides. Between the two, the govt. thinks there will be 1,000,000 new jobs, at a median 2012 salary of $19-21,000/year.
Nurse practitioners...$90,000 salary but only +37,000 employees in ten years.
Not to sound like @DEAD7 but I have two questions. One, obviously nurses and doctors can do a lot more than HHAs and PCAs. But what is the value of having doctors and nurses do stuff like a patient's housekeeping, laundry, grocery shopping etc.? What is the value of having doctors and nurses driving out to give patients daily care? I don't think there is much overlap in the functions of the low paying and high paying jobs you described.
2, $21K/yr....... this is going to pull some low quality talent and yield a system rife with abuse and other issues. It makes me cringe to say this but the market will correct itself.... this kind of work is not easy and the frustrations of low pay often result in workers acting out on patients. Do you really see these jobs paying this low forever? I don't.
On paper, unions are great. In real life, unions are horrible and just suck the blood out of a workforce to do nothing but serve their own interests. Need proof? Look at the NYPD's union......People have all kind software job skills that are undervalued. We need unions to build back the middle class, but no one is mentioning it in this thread. Wonder why.
I agree that workers need more leverage against the companies they work for, but it would be better for that to come through broader legal means, like severely chopping down corporations' ability to lobby and giving workers clearer more powerful channels to negotiate with employers.