Minimum wage increase: 1st hand story

My 17 year old son works at Popeye's (regional Fried chicken joint) and this is how they are preparing for the upcoming minimum wage increase.

Cutting business hours. They used to stay open until 10:00 on weekdays and 11:00 on weekends. Now they close at 9:30 and 10:30 respectively.

Cutting hours: My son regularly got his 40 hours week in and week out. Now it's cut to 35 max. Most employees at this place usually gets 20-25 hours a week.

Raising prices: Everything on the menu jumped up 10-30 cents.

Employee fringe benefits: Employees USED to get free meals on the day they worked more than 5 hours. Not anymore.

Long time employees: You would think my son who has worked there for 2 years would also have a wage adjustment. NOPE his salary stays the same and someone who gets hired today will make on 25 cents an hour less than him.

I just got off the phone with my son, and he is extremely upset, to the point he wants to quit. I calmed him down telling him if he went somewhere else he would have to start all over again, and every business is doing all they can to control extra costs imposed on them by the Democrat controlled federal government.

This is just my first hand story. Can you imagine the mess that this is going to have on the economy as a whole?



[edit on 22-7-2009 by RRconservative]

How do you know this is related to the minimum wage? Most service industry businesses - retail, restaurants, etc - have been taking these measures since last summer based on the severe drop in consumer spending.

reply to post by RRconservative



My parents owned a KFC franchise and every time the minimum wages were increased they had to take similar draconian measures to stay in business.

I sympathize for your son.

reply to post by RRconservative


Working hard to get ahead takes on a whole new meaning with today's economic and political instability. Gone are the glory days of climbing the ladder to success. After 2 years, one would think your son would be repaid in kind for his dependability.

reply to post by kosmicjack



I guess the timing is the dead giveaway. All these measures announced a week before the government mandated minimum wage increase?

2+2=4

reply to post by RRconservative


And also coinciding with data on sales, etc from the second quarter. If the stats were bad, they have to re-adjust to stay in business.

Retailers and restaurants have x dollars allocated for payroll based on sales. If the minimum wage goes up typically the result would be running with less staff, not limiting hours which would impact overall sales.

A reduction in hours is a direct result of consumer habits.

[edit on 22/7/2009 by kosmicjack]

reply to post by kosmicjack


I bet if customers were allowed to use food stamps they would have to increase staff and hours........



[edit on 22-7-2009 by RRconservative]

So it looked like it increased by about 75 cents. So if they have 7 workers working 8 hours, they'll have to spent about $42 dollars a day extra on labor and they probably have less than 7. Someone can put up some more numbers if they want, but a business should be able to be profitable enough to afford that. Not to mention, minimum wage isn't a living wage..working fulltime on minimum wage and you get a whooping 14K a year now, nice..

Originally posted by RRconservative
reply to post by kosmicjack

 

I bet if customers were allowed to use food stamps they would have to increase staff and hours........

So I'll take this a you agreeing with me that it is the economy and not the minimum wage...




[edit on 22/7/2009 by kosmicjack]

You posted about some min wage stuff on ATS so you have this one comming.


From your information, your son is no younger than 17. This is assuming that he got a workers permit at age 15. More likely your son is 18 or older.

ANYWAYS.... If my son was 18 or older, (unless he was the manager at said chicken shack and on his way to becoming district manager)....
I would be giving him advice to find something better or be going to school to learn a trade so that the chicken shack isn't where he stays.

If he is in school (and applause if he is), SCREW a chicken shack job! Again, he can hustle more money as a manual labor helper in a week than a months salary at the grease pit!

Im not trying to be mean.....Im just say'n!


Min wage is for suckas and kids. The true American dream is about getting PAID. Unless you are running a BUNCH of chicken shacks or the owner, your NEVER going to get anywhere in life.

reply to post by ghaleon12



It's not just the money you see, it's the money you don't see. Workmans comp insurance, social security, etc that businesses have to pay out per worker per hour.
It's alot more than you think.

00.06 (tripled because of tax increases)

reply to post by ghaleon12


I know that you just pulled those numbers out of thin air, but lets go with them for a minute...

$42 per day increase in total wages. 365 days in a year. $42*365 = $15,330. Try telling a small business owner that his annual costs just rose $15k, and he'll crap himself.

[edit on 22-7-2009 by theWCH]

Originally posted by kosmicjack

Originally posted by RRconservative
reply to post by kosmicjack

 

I bet if customers were allowed to use food stamps they would have to increase staff and hours........

So I'll take this a you agreeing with me that it is the economy and not the minimum wage...

[edit on 22/7/2009 by kosmicjack]

when you limit hours (imagine 7 to 10 employees) by just one ot two, you exponentially decrease outcosts for employees in terms of pay and associated costs for social security and workmans comp fees that have to go out.

An employee making 8 bucks an hour is ACTUALLY costing the employer 35 to 45 dollars an hour depending on where you live.

so minimum wage workers will be forced to work fewer hours for the same overall wage, what a shame. are we supposed to feel bad for them? should we feel bad for popeyes?

I dont know if its the wage increase or low sales.Chains like mcdonalds will check their receits HOURLY.If they didnt clear x amount they start sending people home early.

reply to post by AgentX09


Yes and what most consumers don't know is that many retailers and restaurants also have a people counter. If they don't generate a certain amount of dollars per consumer who walks in and/or per transaction, the staff will get replaced eventually - on some chumped up reason or another but really it's for low stats. That's why they are always asking you if you would like fries with that, a latte, whatever.

[edit on 22/7/2009 by kosmicjack]

reply to post by Hazelnut

In my opinion the days of working hard and climbing your way to the top either A) never existed or B) died out years and years before I was born. I remember in 1991 when I was 6 my Grandpa was fired from his job because he got sick. He had worked at the factory that fired him for 15 years.

reply to post by RRconservative


Its funny how people view this kind of situation..

The Government here in Ireland are trying to LOWER the minimum wage (which is almost $10 per hour) and the amount of complaining that is being directed at them is unbelievable.. the people doing the complaining obviously don't understand economics..

Raising the minimum wage during a crises like this is a bad idea.. it can really damage small business's and cause large scale uncompetitiveness.. especially with the Global economy becoming more and more open.

reply to post by pieman


Thats a good point..

Less hours, more intensive work, more time spent relaxing with family/friends = Healthier population.