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Eric Risberg / AP
Executive chef Daniel Scherotter talks about the city's minimum wage and health care mandates for workers during an interview at the Palio D'Asti restaurant in San Francisco.
David Frias works two minimum-wage jobs to squeak by in one of the most expensive cities in America.
Come New Year's Day, he'll have a few more coins in his pocket as San Francisco makes history by becoming the first city in the nation to scale a $10 minimum wage. The city's hourly wage for its lowest-paid workers will hit $10.24, more than $2 above the California minimum wage and nearly $3 more than the working wage set by the federal government.
It won't put much more in Frias' wallet. But it gives him a sense of moving on up.
"It's a psychological boost," said Frias, who is a 34-year-old usher at a movie theater and a security guard for a crowd control firm. "It means that I'll have more money in my wallet to pay my bills and money to spend in the city to help the economy."
San Franciscans passed a proposition in 2003 that requires the city to increase the minimum wage each year, using a formula tied to inflation and the cost of living. It's just another way the progressive people of the City by the Bay have shown their support for the working-class in a locale where labor unions remain strong and housing costs are sky high.
Karl Kramer of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition said a decent wage for a single adult without children in the city would be $15, and that doubles when you have at least one child or more. But like other advocates of better wages, he's still pleased that San Francisco will be the first in the nation to top $10.
"It helps workers' morale in a time of economic crisis; they feel that they're able to tread water and get some relief from the recession," said Kramer.
While the city is at the forefront of attempting to provide a decent living wage, most employees say it's still not a wage to live on, that the 32-cent hike seems like peanuts. And some employers say it could lead to layoffs by small businesses already forced to pay federal, state and city payroll taxes as well as a slew of other city-mandated taxes.
Daniel Scherotter, chef and owner of Palio D'Asti, an upscale Italian restaurant in the Financial District, said the city's minimum wage hike from $9.92 to $10.24 means that his highest-paid employees — the waiters who make most of their income from tips — will see more money in their pockets while his salaried kitchen staff will have to take the hit.
If Scherotter raised menu prices to make up the difference, he'd risk going out of business in this economy.
What the average San Franciscan may not know, he said, is that business owners also must pay another $1.23 to $1.85 an hour per employee for health-care coverage if they don't offer health insurance. San Francisco is also the only city in the state that charges a payroll tax of 1.5 percent; it also mandates nine paid sick days annually per employee.
"So that drives me nuts, that as a chef, I have to cut my kitchen allowance," Scherotter said. "What I pay for a waiter is more than double what Manhattan pays, it's more than double what Chicago pays, and it's four times what Boston pays. And those are ... other big, expensive, pro-labor cities. But I pay what they all pay added together for tipped employees."
Scherotter said the double whammy of recession and wage hikes has led to eight layoffs in his kitchen in the last four years.
"We hear that all the time," said Steve Falk, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
He said that by the time you add up all the mandates and taxes that city employers must pay for their minimum-wage workers, the payroll burden is at least 25 to 40 percent higher than other Bay Area cities.
He gave the example of catering companies bidding for the contract at the city's Treasure Island. In the end it went to a Napa firm over a San Francisco catering company because Napa was able to come in lower.
"You can't on one hand as a city impose mandates and fees on a local business and then exclude them because their costs are too high when they go to bid on a city contract or a city service," Falk said. The chamber of commerce is calling on the city to build in a 25 to 30 percent bid allowance for San Francisco companies.
"Fortunately, it's a very attractive place to own a business and businesses thrive here because of the number of visitors," Falk said. "But we always worry: where's the tipping point?"
That tipping point needs to lean toward the worker, said David Madland, director of the American Worker Project at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress Action Fund. He said the best studies on minimum wage indicate that the benefits outweigh the burdens placed on employers.
"I think it's a big deal when a city is making a commitment that says, 'Our workers are going to get paid a livable wage for a day's work,'" he said. "It's also very important that in today's economy when a core problem is lack of demand ... that a city is actively taking steps to put more money into consumers' pockets."
For Frias, it's not just about a bit more change in his pocket.
"Hey, it's a little over $10 — it's a little bit of respect."
Leave a Comment:
Then the City should only take bids from San Francisco companies to make it a level playing field. All of this reads just like Atlas Shrugged.
With the cost-of-living the minimum wage should be no less than $15/hr.
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Sounds like a GREAT idea, putting money in the hands of the PEOPLE.. NOT THE GOVERNMENT!!
This the epitome of liberal stupidity!!!!!!!!
Just think, if we changed the minimum wage to $1.00 an hour, employers would hire all the unemployed people and we'd all live happily ever after.
After all, it's high business costs that prevent employers from hiring, not a lack of customers who earn enough money to buy stuff. Right? Right?
"Daniel Scherotter, chef and owner of Palio D'Asti" I hope people boycott his restaurant. What a bad attitude he has towards his workers in general.
For the past 50 years, Federal, and State have imposed onerous wage-price controls on top of oppressive taxes. Today, the Cities have joined in. Under the control of special interest groups, America's Big Government grows unchecked extracting more money from the people and imposing burdensome regulations.
The Federal government, the world greatest debtor, is insolvent despite levying ever more taxes against workers and business since 1913. The State of California has been insolvent for nearly 20 years, despite having one of the highest effective tax rate in the Union. Despite the obvious demonstrable failed leaderships at the Federal and State levels, San Francisco has decided to follow their path to bankruptcy, nevertheless.
San Francisco is on a doomed trajectory like the one Detroit had taken more than 30 years ago. When the socialist Detroit government, dominated by powerful labor unions aligned with the mighty UAW, imposed a City Tax upon its residents and anyone else who works or operates a business in Detroit, massive financial and human capital abandoned Detroit. Gradually, the economic forces exacted its toll. The result is a dead motor city without locomotion due to absence of intelligent leadership and investment in business as well as local government. The bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler, both with heavy business presence in Detroit, is the direct consequence of talented people fleeing from Detroit and the surrounding area. Indeed, during the past thirty years more Michiganians fled from the decaying Detroit area to other states than any other metropolitan area.
With the best of intentions of helping the working class, the socialist of San Francisco have added additional regulations and taxes on top of the onerous ones from the Federal and State. The City of San Francisco, today's leading socialist city-state, will follow the same foot-step as Detroit, dying a miserable death.
Based on the big wig, fat-cat analysis the businesses should be running screaming from San Francisco but that isn't so. I know it is a bitter pill for the GOP to swallow since they consider themselves the party of big business yet the fact is the GOP and the GOP economic policies caused the only two Great Depression that our Nation has been forced to suffer.
Don't you socalist liberals ever get tired of all the BS!! And before you blame bush lets talk the democratic controlled congress under bush and there appointment of Barnie franks and Chris Dodd as CEO of fanne and Freddie!!
GOP the party of big business?? Only in the vast emptiness of a liberal/progressive ming. Better watch out obama might have to give up his $35000/plate fund raisers. Tips in san francisco must be really good.
Interesting that up until the obama administration, fiscal policy was based on bipartisan support and presidents prior to obama knew how to work with congress.
This means that the minimum wage earner will have more taxes pulled from his paycheck. When you take the amount of the wage increase and factor that against what the tax increases will be, the primary recipient of said largesse will be the taxing entities, not the wage earner.
Wasn't the current minimum wage set under BUSH? Sure was not under OBAMA ..
YAWN. Don't you guys ever get tired of repeated the same, worn out talking points?
There are tens of millions of people like me who fell on hard times due to no fault of their own, and thanks to those oh-so-wondeful "job creators", you know, the ones that cut health benefits to make more profit, that layoff employees to make more profit, that give the remaining employees twice the workload to make more profit...thanks to them, I'm working two part-time jobs and searching for a third.
Oh, I'd love to work a single full-time job, but golly, guess what? No one wants to hire full-time because then (gasp) they might have to offer BENEFITS, and while that would greatly enhance my life even just a litle, it would reduce their ability to buy their ungrateful 16-year old a brand new Mustang.
If you're going to stand around and squawk about how none of us liberals are hard-workers, then be prepared to prove it. Prove that none of us are working our asses off and trying to earn our own way. Prove that not a single liberal is trying their hardest to work their way up, despite the multiple obstacles that the GOP and the 1% have put in their way.
Oh, and while you're at it, do some research about the "myth of social upward mobility". You'll see that it really is almost impossible now for lower-income people to become wealthy anymore...and you can thank your revered 1% for the loss of that American dream.
I hope that helps. 8)
Because 98 percent of liberals dont have an education above GED .. If you are poor its YOUR fault if you are unemployed its YOUR fault..NO ONE elses Take some personal responsibility It takes approximately 90 seconds to land any job ... There are only TWO excuses for not being employed 1 you're too lazy and love living in your moms basement playing pokemon and xbox or your are the WORST at what you do ...Change fields Source US STATE DEPT US CENSUS BUREAU IRS
FVRA... You lose everyone is always hiring talent I can walk in to ANY company and within 5 minutes be out the door with a check for my time for interviewing them a signing bonus and top salary and benefits ...You are on lettuce and in 5 years you can maybe move up to mustard and ketchup And btw the minimum wage for tipped employees is still going to be 2.62/hr
And the lefties wonder why there are no jobs...
Actually, statistically, the more educated you are the more likely you are to be liberal because you can see all points of view not just a narrow single focused point. You can look this up if you like. Many studies have been done on it. Or you can just have a look at the make-up of the Republican party which leans heavily on fear-mongering through things like god.
I think if you do a bit of research you'll find that many more liberals are highly educated and well traveled than conservatives. The rich conservatives are conservatives because it benefits them financially and they believe they are entitled. The poor are typically conservative because of god.
It's hard to ram talking points down the throats of people who have a world view.
It might be "hard" according to you to ram talking points down a liberal's throat with a world view, but it doesn't preclude said liberal from spouting the constant and redundant talking points of the Socialist - Democrats either.
And by the way, a "world view" isn't A: Always beneficial to the country said liberals call home. and is B: Rarely indicative of superior intelligence.
Jay often confuses facts with stuff he just made up.
mj...actually the number of people with graduate level degrees is about even between both Democrats and Republicans. Republicans are much more likely to have four-year degrees than are Democrats. Academia is the dominated by leftists, especially in the liberal arts and humanities, while the Private Sector, especially in the fields of Business and Engineering, is dominated by right-wingers. It really has more to do with whether or not one is market-driven or not...there are equally intelligent people in both Academia and in the Private Sector.
Also, we should not confuse modern/American liberalism with classical liberalism. Right-wing economics is much closer to classically liberal economics than is left-wing economics.
Evidence, please.
Evidence, please.
Evidence, please.
Evidence, please.
Evidence, please.
I'll be waiting for the evidence of all these awesome assertions. 8)
Dude its basic FACT when and IF you have EXTREME TALENT and ABILITY it takes 90 seconds. When I got my doctorate at 20 I charged everyone 2500.00 When you have the skills you call the shots. The first offer i took was 7 figures 200,000 in cash signing bonus on the spot ... They will line up if youre good if you suck well youre either a loser, liberal, or The President
Translation: "I'm a troll and I say a bunch of sh1t I can't back up, but BY GOD, I'm right and anyone who disagrees is a liberal loser!!!!
Understood, Mr. Doctorate-At-20, ROFLMAO!!!
*Pats him on the head*
Ten bucks an hour is nothing in San Francisco, only illegals would work for that. What's wrong with the miserly creeps that run that city?
Ignorant liberals, must have flunked econ 101. The minimum wage reduces jobs. It hurts those it that need entry level jobs the most: teens, blacks, unskilled laborers.
Businesses and people with options are fleeing California in droves. Soon all that will be left will be unions and illegal aliens. Surprise, there will be no one left to pay for it all.
Misguided policies like a $10.24 minimum wage ultimately reduce employment and opportunity. California used to be a great state. Now it is number 50 in "best managed". Behind Alabama, Texas, Mississippi and even Illinois.
To..Gary"""
Where they all going to lower wage states...good for them ..The American Dream is just that ..a dream
Gary, not paying a living wage hurts hiring prospects. When I became disabled, I had to leave San Francisco, and I am very, very well educated. But it is an extremely expensive city. There is no way you can live there on disability without lots of help. If the poor can't live there, who'll do the menial jobs? Plus, because San Franciscans tend to have a lot of money but can't buy much with it because houses and cars are way too expensive or inconvenient, they have a lot of disposable income. Businesses aren't moving anywhere. Realtors still fight to buy property, even though they complain about rent control. They still make a lot of money while complaining. Finally, there is little to back up your claim that raising the minimum wage causes a loss of jobs. That's just a scare tactic.
Brenda, economists have researched the impact of minimum wage on hiring numerous times. It is proven to reduce entry level jobs. My larger point was about all of California losing jobs because of the anti-business and high tax climate that exists in the state. Job loss in California has been proven. San Francisco is a very unique and desirable place and will always have allure for people.
I enjoy visiting cities like San Fran and New York. I also know to bring a fat wallet because everything is going to cost a ton. Taxes and minimum wage laws are driving out all but the very rich and the very poor. The Chef that runs the restaurant in the article likely makes a decent middle class living from his business. He is likely in the 99%. But every year, the federal, state, and local government make it harder for him to make a living. Sous chefs make decent livings. So does experienced wait staff and wine sommeliers and pastry chefs, etc. etc. At some point, the owner of the business can't make it or he decides it is too much trouble and gets a job at a hotel in Las Vegas. Misguided economic policies have just cost a couple of dozen jobs. Think about the people that own the dry cleaners, the delis, the small grocery stores, the landscaping business, the home improvement business, the hardware store, the McDonald's franchise ( San Fran has reserved a special place in hell for McDonalds). Silly liberal policies have a very real impact on the middle class that liberals claim to care so much about.
My wife and I raised 2 sons on less than $34,000/year TOTAL, NO WELFARE, NO FREE LUNCHES, NO FOOD STAMPS. Now our sons are PAYING THEIR OWN WAY.
Until the liberals get off their @$$ and start WORKING, earning their way, they are nothing but a drain.
Over the years, until I became disabled, I have worked as many as 4 jobs at any one times. I started paying my way when I was 15, paying into the MANDATORY INSURANCE called Medicare and Social Security for 20 years before I became disabled shortly before my 36th birthday. And then I kept trying to work until my heart attacks. Now I still volunteer for 4-5 differant organizations as my health allows, having earned the Presidential Volunteer Service award for the last 2 years.
As an RN, I never made more than $19/hour, and after 32 years at the same institution, my wife has a takehome of only $2,000 a month. Our TOTAL debt is less than $40,000 - and that is mostly our house. Our "new vehicle" is a 94 - and it is 100% paid for.
And while growing up, my sons did not get an allowance. If they wanted "spending" cash, they had to go out and earn it - mowing lawns, shoveling snow, babysitting (we got calls from around the neighborhood all the time).
Quit your pissing and moaning, and just work. If you cannot "make a living wage" - either spend less or work more. You were never promised "happieness and contentment" in the constitution, only the "pursuit of happieness". If you think a business owner should pay you more, go out ans start your own business! It is not hard to do, just comply with all the laws you have supportted, pay the taxes you supported, and either do ALL the work yourself, or pay someone else to do it with the wages you supportd. I did just that, one of my "part time" jobs for many years, and that is what paid for Christmas and birthday presents.
Tiny1pj.... shhhhhh.. You're speaking about individual responsibility and accountability. It's so much easier to to complain about how bad your life is while asking others to support you so you can pursue 'your dreams'.
I wish you well and success in the future. Take care of yourself.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and SAFE new Year.
Tiny1pj ummmm but now you're using the system? Right? Probably on disability?
"Quit your pissing and moaning, and just work." Right? until you're 36 years old? Then start taking?
No wonder you had heart attacks so young working 4 jobs? What kind of world is this that you have to work FOUR jobs? Or what exactly did you feel you needed to buy might be a better question?
I have no problem with social programs for those who need it. I find it so ironic that you criticize a system that you now need and eagerly partake of.
Shark -- he said he paid into the stupid system. Why would you criticize someone for working hard? It doesn't matter what his motivations were for working. He worked hard for it.
The real fallacy, of course, is that people are paying into an unsustainable system. If he had been able to put the same money aside each paycheck that was stolen from him by our beloved government, and invested it wisely (not in U.S.-denominated assets), he would have been OK in the event of disability. If that were not enough, there would have been individuals, private organizations, and family who would have been happy to help out a person who worked hard but had a genuine disability. People use these government-run social programs for two reasons: 1) they are parasites feeding off another parasite or 2) they accept that after having either been forced to pay into this system or having others forced to pay into this system, there are no better alternatives since the funding for the alternatives have already been sapped by uncle sam.
Gary 420,
I agree with you on all points you make. But stop it with the "silly liberals" thing. It's distractingly annoying. The fact that you're not at school right now tells me you're at least 16 years old. Anyone over 16 should know that name-calling is not constructive and will, on the contrary, make people less likely to agree with you. I like your arguments, so I'd like you to be more respectful to others in order for your arguments to be heard. Don't be so childish. There are silly liberals, silly conservatives, silly liberal policies, and silly conservative policies. Stupidity is not endemic to one side of the spectrum.
Point Taken AndresTM. Thanks for the constructive reminder of civility.
Gary were you high when making those comments? Studies show that raised minimum wage has a minimal negative impact on job opportunities. Bottom line, no place should have a minimum wage less than livable wage. Blame the "evil libbys" all you want, your anger should rest with the FED when they print so much money the inflation rate skyrockets.......
about time some states show some respect for workers, congrats to the $10 hr minimum wage, im glad to see theres a place that understands the cost of living and respects the workers.
Maybe if the Top was to take less pay then they could pay a higher minimum wage after all who really does the real work, sure as hell ain't that person behind the desk ....
Sam, I was not high and the studies clearly show a negative impact on ENTRY LEVEL WORKERS, teens, and African Americans.
As wages rise beyond the value of the work, the following things happen: 1) It gets outsourced to India or another low wage country ( that's why many customer service reps have foreign accents) , 2) The cost benefit of automation starts tilting towards automation. I have done some work for various manufacturers over the years. 25 years ago, products were placed in boxes by hand, boxes were placed on pallets by hand, pallets were shrink wrapped by hand. Now, all 3 of those entry level jobs have been mechanized in nearly every plant. 3) The work gets pushed to others, or does not get done. Instead of having 7 workers on a shift at McDonald's, they try to get by with 6. Customers wait a little longer, but no one really notices, except the kid that was let go.
True story in a liberal municipality here in Illinois. The state mandated wage is above the national minimum wage. Every summer, a dozen teens were hired to help out with recreation programs. They tried to hire minority kids and most of the participants in the rec programs were minorities. When our state legislature cranked up the minimum wage, the town budget could not afford as many summer workers. Minority kids that really needed work experience were not hired. They reduced staff and reduced the summer programs.
This is not theory, this is real! The minimum wage is not meant to be a "living wage". The minimum wage is a a "training wage" for teens, new workers, minorities, and people with minimum job skills. Kids that spend summers flipping burgers and stocking shelves will be far more productive than the kids playing X Box.
Tiny1pj, like all masochistic people, wants everyone to punish themselves. 4 jobs at once? Seriously? Now instead of using that self inflicted punishment to become more enlightened, you go to bat for a system that required you to do so? It's obvious that you spent none of that time becoming a more intelligent person. I pity you.
well 1 thing SF has gotten right
as it should be everywhere in this country. and would be if minimum wage hadn't been frozen for years by Rebublican presidents.
You get paid what you're worth- if you are a marginal worker, you get marginal wage. Calif. is BROKE- get it? This will just make employers move to another state. DUH!
Or lay off workers.
$10 is still beneath 'marginal'. Higher wages mean more in tax revenue. What don't you get about that?
What don't YOU get about the fact that higher personnel expenses means fewer people employed.
But you're a liberal, and the liberal philosophy is "business owners need to get used to making lower profits, so that more money can go to employees."
I'm sure that the next step for SF is to make it illegal for a business to fire someone.
dudogger... do you get more "tax" revenue from someone working at $7 or $8 dollar an hour or from the unemployed NOT earning $10 an hour?
I wish every one of you LAZY anti-minimum wage people had to work for that. You would be screaming your butts off about how little it was and you couldn't live on it. And yes you ARE lazy because you have never had to scrape by on virtually nothing.
People like you elitest conservatives and elitist republicans will never get it until they actually have to live on something like a minimum wage.
With the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and a person working a 40 hour week after taxes, social security and medicare are deductec you have less than $900 a month to live on. I want to see every one of you ELITIST REPUBLICANS live on $900 a month and cover rent, utilities, food and transportation costs to and from work. After a CHEAP (if you live in some southern and mid-western towns) $500 rent for a 1-2 bedroom apartment and $150 for utilities (again the very low end of the scale) that only gives you around $250 a month to pay for FOOD and other necessities for work. It's a SUBSISTENCE level of pay not much above slave labor wages.
Heaven help you if you get sick because no republican would offer to help. They would rather you just crawl off and die. The Republican Party represents greed and everything Jesus railed against in the bible. And these people call themselves religious. They are disgusting and represent everything that is currently WRONG with America.
ALL OF YOU would be whining your butts off about how little you have. Conservatives are some of the most pampered babies out there and the ones that complain the most are the ones you tend to have the most and never had to struggle.
I worked for minimum wage in my lifetime. Funny, I never expected to be able to buy a house, rent a place on my own (I knew I'd need roommates)a new car, start a family, etc. I knew for that I would have to get educated, work hard, find a field I could make good money OR start my own business. To think otherwise was silly. As a a fry cook at McDonalds, I did not expect to pull down $30,000 a year or more - nor should I have. Minimum wage jobs are entry level jobs - not careers.
Elvoid, there are many people with GOOD college educations, don't bring up some silly degree to try and discount what I am saying it just makes you look silly and petty, working minimum wage jobs because the so-called job creators are too busy enjoying their profits and almost non-existent taxes to create anything.
Sandy - my point was thinking that "minimum wage jobs" should provide more than they already do is silly. Again, how much should I be paid as a fry cook at McDonalds? Granted, that isn't me anymore - I have my own business, and while not rich am doing OK and employing a few people as well (none at minimum wage, by the way). The question is -"What should minimum wage jobs pay?" and they have never paid a "living wage" nor should they be expected to do so. Minimum wage jobs are not meant to be careers.
Sandy,
Who expects to have a career at minimum wage? Maybe the current crop of high school dropouts, but until the last 30-40 years everyone thought that you had to work at some "entry level" positions to get experience and develop your work habits before you could expect to earn higher pay.
I've had multiple "minimum wage" jobs in my life. In every single one I received at least one raise within 3 months, and in several I was promoted at least 1 time in six. I went into those minimum wage jobs expecting to work hard and prove myself to the company. As soon as they realized that I was worth employing they started raising my pay and responsibilites.
Now with the minimum wage so high, companiers are less willing to take chances. They can't go out and hire 10 kids expecting 6 to drop out and 2 to switch to part time just to find the 2 that can eventually be promoted to manager. They have to sift through their applicants and figure out which 2 are definitely the right ones. They might hire 3, but the other 7 kids have to try at the next place.
It's economically inefficient and it means that you have a lot of unemployed people desperate to get a job, but all but unemployable because they don't have enough of a job record to tempt companies to take a chance, or they have too much experience and the company figures they won't stay.
But it seems taht there is a group of people who cannot comprehend the problem with minimum wages. Their only view is that you can't live on it alone so it isn't high enough.
Originally these jobs were for teenagers living at home, housewives who wanted a part time job while the kids were in school and retirees looking to supplement their income and stay busy. For them minimum wage isn't exactly a disaster, they are just earning money for luxuries.
Its only when you try to force these entry level minimum wage jobs to be ones you can live on that you have problems. Instead why don't you encourage real vocational training in high schools so kids graduate at 18 and can immediately find a job that pays a real wage?
Sandy is correct. But @ Mvargus - The point you don't see is that jobs that shouldn't be minimum wage are turning into them. I'm a computer repair technician(by all means a career). I have 5+ years experience, and hold most of the comptia certifications. Yet I make $13 an hour, which might sound excellent, until you factor in the area that I live in has a high cost of living. Courtesy clerks start at $12 here(for example). Which is all nice and dandy until you realize that a 1br apt is $1200 + utils + elec + parking spot. Apts outside of teh city still range close to $950, and what you save in rent will be killed in gas. My overal point, is that a person i'm my position, shouldn't get less than $17 an hour. Hell the new guy is getting payed $9hr. Jobs that once payed decent no longer do. I was shocked when I learned my mechanic was getting $10 and hour (a shop a pay $110 per hr bills to).
Start my own business? Sure have! I do repairs in my free time, the only thing I can do to sqeeze by. Wages in the country are extremely screwed up. Inflation is out of conrtol
Finally someone gets it. YES. That's exactly it. You've got it. NO ONE should be buying their third 500K car when their employees don't make a living wage.
If Big Business had their way we'd go back to slavery. Some of them are getting dangerously close to it today. Wake up. Those people raking in all the money--they don't produce anything--they are overhead. They sit in offices and figure out ways to squeeze the revenue generators(this is a gross generalization but many companies today, like my own, have more management than revenue generators)
Greed is NOT good.
Sorry, Sam, but repairing computers requires little more than the ability to use a screwdriver. Not exactly a career, and not exactly something that should be paid highly.
Hey Sandy, I started life out working for Sub minimum wage as a teenager......I learned real quick that this was no way to succeed in life or to obtain the things I wanted and it taught me to make good life choices and obtain education and skills otherwise minimum wage working would be a lifestyle not a life lesson......I have never workd for minimum since those days.
You cleary have no idea what your talking about. Dont down play good jobs. When your computer get infected by a virus and you hire some "cheap" kid to remove it for you, dont come crying to me when it gets @!$%#ed up.
Prices will just go up accordingly. Minimum wage is just a "feel good" policy that has no real effect other than raising prices, preventing people from getting hired, and maybe putting a few more bucks in high schoolers' pockets
It has one real effect - increasing federal, state, and local tax revenues. The house always takes a cut from individual paychecks.
Prices will go thru the roof. It will add approximately 10 cents per item to break even and if the customers leave over 10 cents an item the food must not be that good. if he has ten wait staff, full time, that's 2 grand a year. How much is a steak in this place? What does this poor impoverished executive chef in a big name SF restaurant pull down in a year? I consider myself an old fashioned conservative, from before those with no self control and unquenchable greed grabbed the word for themselves. Capitalism is being destroyed by the capitalists in some death march to the inevitable end. Like that monkey in the conditioning experiment who just keeps pushing that cocaine button. All the people who decry the fact that those who you are so much better than get just a little shallower in poverty have to really ask yourselves when your ship in coming in. Because until it does, like it or not, you are in the same boat with these folks. And that ship you are waiting for is an illusion. Sure, go to computer school. By the time yous skill become worthless, you will have the loan paid off. Is it a sin to live one's life bringing food. Your wife brings you food but you get to do her, so that makes her ok, but the table server at the restaurant does not provide those extra services so he she is so far beneath your stature that they must not only put up with your wining, but should do so for next to nothing and like it. Usually, I think the s#it they do in SF is the model for backwards, but in this case, legislating some of the greed away is the right thing to do. 2 grand a year, yeah, I'm sure this restaurant is going to pull up shop, and layout 3/4 million to set up shop elsewhere.
Liberals are so stupid. Raising the minimum wage will not help people at the bottom. Raising the minimum wage is purely inflationary. Everyone who used to be making $9/hr will now desire $11/hour (as they should be paid above minimum wage), those formerly at $10/hr will now be worth $12/hr, those at $11/hr now go to $13/hr, etc. Raising the minimum wage is not the solution. The answer is getting people at the bottom the necessary training so that their skills are desired in society. Training and education solves the poverty problem, not forced levels of wages.
Well said. Finally someone who makes sense. When you raise the minimum wage, everyone will want higher wages which only adds to inflation. It only temporarily adds more money in your pocket, because with higher wages prices start creeping up and no one is ahead.
So tell me Jeff, if the problem is us people on the bottom with undesirable skills who then is going to clean up after you or cook for you or do any of the other menial tasks that you deem beneath you? You and the rest of the holier than thou crowd need to try living for just 1 month on the federal minimum wage and see how you like it. You cannot train and educate everyone because there are not enough high level jobs to go around and STILL you will need someone to to the crap work. You tried to make yourself sound smart but all you did was prove how stupid you are.
David, you don't seem to get it. Your economic problems are YOUR problems. I really don't care what happens to you. You can starve for all it matters to me.
All I know is that forcing companies to pay you more only makes everything more expensive, AND lowers employment.
With the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and a person working a 40 hour week after taxes, social security and medicare are deductec you have less than $900 a month to live on. I want to see every one of you ELITIST REPUBLICANS live on $900 a month and cover rent, utilities, food and transportation costs to and from work. After a CHEAP (if you live in some southern and mid-western towns) $500 rent for a 1-2 bedroom apartment and $150 for utilities (again the very low end of the scale) that only gives you around $250 a month to pay for FOOD and other necessities for work. It's a SUBSISTENCE level of pay not much above slave labor wages.
tom8896 proves my point perfectly with his "I really don't care what happens to you." remark. It's all about how much he can take and screw everyone else.
Hey Jeff, in Chicago -- Have you noticed that the USA is in a recession? That means, econ101 here, a shrinking money supply. Raising the minwage might be a small-biz hardship, but it's as likely to cause inflation as it is to cause the flu. We have a money shortage (a recession) because 1% of the US pop has 90% of the currency --that's actually normal, see "Benford's Law". It needs to be adjusted for. See: Miminum wage. It doesn't help that 50% of the M2 is in the hands of Chinese banks. Hire more US-economy workers, at a decent living wage! The only solution...tax cuts don't actually make that big a difference, compared to raising emploment, which you do by keeping interest rates down. Assuming you can get the 1%ers to actually invest in their country.
Well, you sir are 1/2 right. A raise in the minimum wage, if applied to the whole country would (because of stronger, overriding market factors) would raise the cost of things slightly, but not that much. What you are seeing is that people refuse to pay much more for most things, and that many higher consumer goods are actually dropping in price. Of course they all come from China. I am among those who believe a vast increase to the minimum wage is in order, to pull more money into the live economy, and improve the situation that is actually being caused by deflation.
Jeff -
Unions love to push for increases to minimum wage because they have been using a trick in their contract negotiations. They don't say that the company will be $X per hour for each employee level instead they have the contract read that each paygrade will be determined by the formula of (minimum wage x Y). So if they can get the government to raise the minimum wage $1.00 per hour it increases all the wagse of all the union workers under contract without having to renegotiate.
And PGM you are very incorrect about what a recession is. There actually is no shortage in the money supply in the US and a recession does not mean that one is. This recession is actually caused by a combination of too much capacity and productivity pushout out ineffiencies at a time that business barriers to entry are at an all time high. The businesses that are operating are cutting their labor costs as much as they can while there are no new companies forming to take advantage of the massive increase in the unemployed labor pool. Part of the problem is that wages aren't able to go down due to minimum wages and living costs that are frozen due to government interventions. Global competition has reduced the value of 1 hour of labor by an American to its lowest level in some time when compared to that of other nations. If I as a businessman could hire 10 workers in China for $1.00 per hour to make a part and even at the higher productivity US workers offer, I would have to hire 3 workers at minimum wage plus the health care and SS costs tacked on by government, I'm going to move my work to China.
The only thing keeping many companies where they are is the sunk costs of setting up sometimes very expensive equipment, the fact that they often can use legal accounting tricks to reduce their overall tax exposure by keeping factories open in high cost zones, and the fact that in the case of service companies like restaurants they can often raise prices when competitors shut duwn due to the increased labor costs. All that this high minimum wage in SF will do is close many marginal shops and drive up prices in the ones that remain.
But as someone posted here, the largely liberal denizens of SF have plenty of disposible income and don't appear to mind paying more for less.
Again, most of you who try and act smart, just don't get it. ALOT of people have degrees but aren't able to find jobs. High paying jobs, heck even jobs that pay livable wage is getting harder and harder to find. As posted above, I'm a computer repair technician. I currently work 3 jobs to pay all my bills. Yes I get by. Yes I have looked for a better paying job in the same field. Microsoft pays great, yet it subcontracts to companies that import 1000+ indians to work for 6mo and then go back. I refuse to sub contract, you don't know when you job will be over or how long it will be till your paid back. But like all you "geniuses" say its my problem right? There are 3 spots at my local "geek squad" with elevated pay grades, all have been filled for years. A minimum wage increase does not auto adjust your pay. At least not where I live.
@tom, just stop talking..... Inflation from the Fed printing more bills causes prices to go up, not raising minimum wage. Minimum wage should be living wage. Period.
So who here is not getting that moving the minimum wage UP moves people off the public safety net???
Every day on this board it is yada-yada-yada about how much it's costing the taxpayers to support poor working people, and a city moves to make the higher wages mandatory and it's yada-yada-yada about why that's bad. MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!! You can't have BOTH.
If it's inflationary - TOUGH! It's being truhful about what it costs for a human being to survive. If businesses can't afford it - TOUGH! It's the truth about the actual cost of doing business that has been shoved on the taxpayer. If a business can't cut it THEY SHOULDN'T! You think I'm crazy to say let them fold in this economy, but the fact is - many markets are diluted. The only way many companies can even stay in the race is by cheaper, cheaper, cheaper cost of business by shoving more and more onto the taxpayer. Guess what - there are OTHER ways besides wages to be competitive, and raising wages turns the tables on who is and is not a consumer and participant in the economy.
Energy is a huge expense for businesses. There is no incentive to get serious about cheaper, renewable, sustainable energy if a company can cut corners by making the taxpayer absorb their cost of labor. Infrastructure improvement, technology improvement and transportation efficiency all become part of becoming profitable when wages have to be paid at an appropriate level.
For those of you who are not making minimum wage and will see the wage gap narrow - you are in EXACTLY the same situation as your employer...except now it's up to you to show your employer why you are worth even more by doing your job more efficiently, because if your employer is going to stay competitive and healthy, that's what it takes.
It's about time we all took a good hard look at what the race to the bottom has done. It's about time employers started looking at their employees as potential consumers (AGAIN) rather than a drain on their operations.
More illegals will be hired and our federal goverment will do nothing about it.
San Fran is a sanctuary city along with the entire state. So this will certainly benefit the harder workers, the ones with dreams, goals and hard work ethic who want to come here to work and send their money back to Mexico to build a home for the future. So why stop at $10.24! What is not mentioned here is what business now have to pay for long term unemployment premiums. You layoff an employee today and you are on the hook for 3 years of premiums to cover the possibility that the laid off employee will suffer long term unemployment at 2/3 wages the states' UE insurance pool has to pay. Talk about extending UE is in the works again. So as a business owner myself I am on the state of Ohio has a sharp hook in me. I can not raise my rents to make the difference.
A great way to make sure that fewer young people will get summer and part-time jobs, and the valuable work experience, pride and discipline that accompanies them.
So in other words older people with families won't lose their jobs to young people who are looking for summer work?
I'm ok with that :)
Not at all. Summer jobs are typically offered by businesses attempting to fill a temporary need. An adult worker in a full-time position earning minimum wage is not going to be displaced by a teenager looking to make some money in July and August. The ADEA has something to say about that, and it makes no sense.
Jeff, Chicago - You forgot to tell Obama that, can you take him back to Chicago and teach him how it works
It's a psychological boost," said Frias, who is a 34-year-old usher at a movie theater and a security guard for a crowd control firm. "It means that I'll have more money in my wallet to pay my bills and money to spend in the city to help the economy."
And the price to see a movie goes up proportionally.
Did you ever think that more people will be able to afford to go to the movies and they will make more money?
Feel good policies are worthless if they accomplish nothing as a law like this does.
For all of the people crying about not making what they used to make (like computer technicians) what you need to do is NOT work in a field that has a glut of people in it.
Sometimes when an economy makes shifts - such as industrial / manufacturing vs technology you need to make changes in your skill set to compete and survive.
I worked for $1.65 an hour as minimum wage in high school. As stated by others - No adult in their right mind would have expected to be solely making that as a wage to live on.
The problem is these people have a distorted sense of "liveable". Cable / satellite tv, 2 cars, high end clothing, video games are NOT necessary to live. I've never had cable, my car is 10 years old with 215,000 miles on it, I do have a small boat and we do own our home. On less than $60,000 a year gross for 2 people working 3 jobs family of 4. I HAVE NO REASON TO BITCH AND WON'T! Unlike the rest of these morons who haven't the common sense to realize what they are doing or where they are living isn't working.
During the depression, my grandfather and many other men temporarily moved away from their families to places far away because there was no work where they lived. Entire families packed up and left because there were no jobs where they lived. They did whatever they could find to do until things got better. And they eventually did. Same as mow. Things are down now but barring a move to more "fundamental transformation" of the system of government to quote Obama - I have complete faith that things will come back as they did before.
Hey, $30 an hour is a good wage, why don't we pay everyone that amount ......duh.........I give SF about a year to total bankruptcy.....and they all deserve it .....
Pure stupidity
if $10 is good, would $12 be better, maybe $20, how about $30.
Of course MacDonald's will be selling burgers at $8 and groceries will double in price, milk will cost $14 a gallon......
To..Mark"""
And it isn't going too anyway..we saw the last decade of tax cut's and the price of everything go up except peoples pay...
I obvioulsy have sympathy for the small business operators, but a minimum wage that's tied to inflation and cost of living is good policy and only fair. Besides, as many have pointed out, $10/hr in SF is still poverty.
That said, the article makes a good point that tipped employees should have a sub-minimum wage as they do in most cities.
When wages, prices, taxes, and COLAs are tied to inflation, the whole process becomes a self-fulfilling spiral (upward, of course.)
You have to measure wages in purchasing power to see if the reward for work is changing. How many minutes must one work to buy a loaf of bread, a movie ticket, a hotel room, or an hour with a hooker?
I once spent several hours with a hooker. We came back with four tuna and a swordfish. :)
I wonder why they didn't raise it to $15/hr. They must not love the poor. Or...maybe it is Bush's fault.
Stagnating minimum wage was Bush's fault - really fuzzy math favoring those donor corporations, eh?
raising the min. wage puts people out of work. minimum wage jobs are not intended to support a family.
Kiki for a long time minimum wage jobs did allow you to support at least yourself outside of the California. I don't know if it's still like that out of state, but my friends in Austin actually do pretty well and they are not working high paying jobs. In California they wouldn't even be able to afford rent, gas, and groceries to survive.
Houses here that cost over $1 Million cost only $350k in Austin from the same builder with the same supplies and options. Just shows the cost of living changes between states and even cities.
No raise or cost of living here in over 5 years! We're educated and middle management. Due to rising healthcare cost, groceries, gas, utilities, we're now working for substantially less than we did 5 years ago. But, I guess we're not as valuable as waiters. Pretty soon, we'll be working for LESS money than SF "minimum wage" workers!
wait, he needs to pay the people with tips more?...because they are making too much? huh? as long as a waiter is making at least minimum after tips, he owes them nothing. he can hire a waiter for $.01 an hour before tips as long as that waiter is at least getting minimum wage after tips. unless every single waiter is getting all tips as cash and underreporting all of it, it didnt matter what the minimum wage is for them.
its just an idiot that doesnt want to pay the kitchen staff. period.
In California, they do not have the tipped employees credit. They must pay at least the minimum wage for servers just like for any other worker.
At $10.24/hour, the wage is still less than half of what it should be indexed to inflation and productivity. Minimum wage is supposed to be around $23-$25/hour. Only government pay has kept up with inflation.
i work for the govt. my paycheck has gotten smaller for AT LEAST the last 3 yrs.
If you pay your minimum wage employees $25\hr, then I'm coming to work for you. Then again, at that wage you wouldn't be able to afford payroll for long, so that's a moot point. Plus I don't feel like paying $17 for a loaf of bread.
You can't keep raising minimum wage. If you raise it then companies raise their prices to make up for it (why don't liberals already know that?). And then what happens? YOU GET INFLATION. Companies don't always raise prices to increase profits (they can lower operating costs for example), but when their operating costs are guaranteed to go up (i.e. their workers are paid more) then they will be forced to raise the cost to the consumer. Businesses have to stay in business after all. They will do that through raising costs and/or laying off people. When you lose your job because of this be sure to thank the city of SF.
Many of the people who were initially unemployed in this recent recession were teenagers who typically get minimum wage jobs because businesses got rid of those positions first. Minimum wage jobs exist for a reason. They are not intended to live on (and yes, I know, some people have to live on them but that doesn't justify a min. wage of $10) because they are intended for unskilled workers to use for entering the workforce. That means that an unskilled worker shouldn't be able to earn $20k+. If anything it is the fact the employer must PAY for that is what CAUSES inflation rather than compensating for it. As someone suggested, why stop at $10.24? Why not 15? Businesses will raise prices accordingly and then people will realize they are no better off because the extra money they now earn will just go toward covering the hike in prices. Get it?
This will cause costs to rise and people to be laid off, just as it did around the country when the federal minimum wage was increased. No wonder it can cost up to $6-7 for ONE value meal at McDonald's now (in addition to being caused by high fuel costs).
To..Brandon """
It was the minimum wage that done that ...right
The ability to raise prices depends on the elasticity of the product or service being sold... And of course this only applies to companies who pay less than $10 and of course the reality is that if their competitors already pay more than $10 you have a whole different dynamic.
So whether or not this has an inflationary impact, IMHO, is reaching way to far...
As for the cost of food at McDonald's - given how much the obesity issues is costing this country in health care claims - both at the Medicare level and with private insurance companies - having people priced out of buying what McDonald's claims as being "food" may not be a bad thing...
Partially. Economics is extremely complex and many factors play into prices and wages. However, the link between minimum wage, prices, wages, and unemployment is extremely simple and clear.
Increased minimum wages causes increased prices and/or decreased wages and/or higher unemployment.
I'm not arguing for or against the law, but everything costs and surface level, feel-good solutions like raising the minimum wage often cause worse ramifications than doing nothing.
simple solution here as corporate americia claims they have so many job openings and not enough skilled people that they have to farm the jobs out over seas as they cannot wait to have a pool of skilled people. Solution how about corporate amoericai start training un-skilled people to be skilled people and have a pay scale like the a trade union as you learn and become skilled you wages goes up. 1st year plumbers don't start at 40.00 an hour but each year they learn and get skilled thier pay goes up this I think works for the people and the corporations and all is happy
that sounds great, but then the costs of the products go up. i don't want to pay more.
Because they will continue to outsource whatever can be outsourced. High wages are not the only reason corporations began moving jobs overseas, particularly to countries like Mexico, China and S. Korea. Wages are much lower there, but so is the rest of their operating costs. They pay someone 2 dollars an hour there what they would be paying the same person 15 dollars an hour for here, and they also don't have to pay into Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment or Worker's Comp. In most of these factories, they can get away with never paying over time (which in the US is time and a half-double time depending on what state you work in), etc... Their rents are cheaper, supply costs are cheaper because they don't have to import (and thus pay customs fees and taxes) on parts, and they get what amounts to practically free labor. They ship it all back to the US and stock the shelves of WalMart and Target, where we happily pay 30 dollars for something that cost them 2.50 to make and import.
As for everyone that says we liberals should just work harder consider this: I am almost 30 years old. I have 3 children. I have been working since I was 15, sometimes 2 and 3 jobs at a time. I have a college education (BA in business administration). I was laid off due to no fault of my own because of this recession. I have sent out no less than 30 applications or resumes PER DAY from my location in Southern California, to New York and everywhere in between since the day I was laid off. . I have excellent references going back more than 10 years, I've never committed a crime, been convicted of anything and up until this recession had excellent credit. I know how to scrimp and save. I have applied for everything from flipping burgers or answering phones to mid-level management positions. The minimum wage jobs that I actually got call backs on, I was flat out told that I had way too much experience, despite my best efforts to appease employers that I will not turn around and run at the first offer in my field, that pays a decent wage, they would rather not take the risk. I can't lie about my experience because when they do the background check, they'll find out anyway and not hire me because I lied on the application. The management jobs I have applied to have all hired someone with a masters degree or direct experience in that particular field. So just how would you suggest that I "work harder"?
jenn
How about North Dakota? If you can use a shovel and pass a drug test your hired. Have you looked there? How about Alabama? There is plenty of work in the fields there I under stand. Not much skill involved in pickin' vegis. I know I did when I was in High School. Then there is Huston and Austin Texas. They are booming. I'm sure you could find a job in those cities.
Every single company in San Francisco has the option to close up shop and go somewhere else if they don't like it - no one is forcing any business to stay in SF.
Of course SF has a fairly well compensated work force and it resides in a fairly well off area of region of the country so I suspect that even those that now have to pay a little more will not jump ship...
Rob, the alternative option is also available. Fire the workers and decrease the payroll.
If I had a business in SF and this impacted me, that is exactly what I would do. They might be able to force me to pay x dollars to each employee, but they can't tell me how many I should have on my payroll.
It's feel good policies like this that put a smile on someones face, but can wind up kicking them in the ass. It's all political theatre to placate the people into voting for another lying politician.
The flaw in that logic is that the employees that are left will be doing more work to make up for the absence of the employees that are fired, which in turn will give them the impression that they should make more then the $10.24 to make up for the extra work , which gets more people layed off (or they just get burnt out and leave on their own).....see how that works. It's a vicious cycle
Yet.
congrats. now more people will be out of work.
ideally we'd just go back to having slaves again, and we wouldn't have to have any kind of minimum wage at all.
And yes that's sarcasm. point being that minimum wage is simply a decent thing to do. if you have a job, any job, you won't actually go hungry. it's not supposed to be a desirable or comfortable wage, just a bare subsistence wage.
I agree on an emotional level. I think it's too far to argue against a minimum wage. However, it's not really a problem solver. It's just solving a problem at the end of the chain instead of at the beginning, much like affirmative action did or illegal amnesty does.
Raising the minimum wage does barely anything for the individuals making minimum wage. Yes, you have a few more bucks a week, but an extra $10/week is not going to help you pay your $600-$1000+ rent in SF. What raising the wage DOES do is force the local businesses to fork out an extra $10/week (plus the additional taxes) for every employee. So now, these businesses barely scraping by have another increased expense. They have to raise prices, cut hours, cut jobs, etc to pay for it. The money doesn't just come out of nowhere.
I'd say that 10 dollars an hour more adequately reflects what a single person would need to earn without going on government assistance. I've often remarked that welfare programs (subsidized healthcare, food stamps, rent assistance, ect) is nothing more than an indirect subsidy to businesses. If businesses do not want to pay people enough money so they don't have to rely on the government than maybe businesses should get a bill in the mail from the government for said assistance.
So every job ever created is supposed to support you? Workers hsould be paid based on thier value to the business. If you think it's worth $10 an hour to stick popcorn in a bag at a movie theater, find someone willing to pay it.
Reyregal, I see you mispelled your name again, rereg Al. How are things in Tennessee? tic, toc, tic, toc..Pack those bags for Costa Rico, yet? Bon Voyage! ;-)