Seattle Approves $15/Hour Min Wage

.I read somewhere this generation of kids is the first to be less educated than their parents (in the U.S.). Why does the standard need to continuously be lowered in education and expectations?

Hard work has been down played and even degraded over the last few generations. Education has been over hyped as the only way to succeed. It has led to a generation of idiots who have the delusion that they are educated because they have sat in classrooms for years doing very little who have no skills to survive but sure do have lots of ignorant opinions.

Starbucks, one of the most progressive companies out there on treating employees well, was not in favor of this wage and has announced that they will cut benefits to compensate.

I still prefer capitalism to socialism.

Germlat wrote:

I still prefer capitalism to socialism.

Socialism is the philosophy of robbers.

Do you really want to go back to the old system under which insureds are excluded

Good to know that you live in an all or nothing world. So it's either the ACA or the old system? Well based on that, I want the old system back. It sure beat the hell out of the new prices that I have seen since the enactment of the ACA. I'm paying about what Obama said I would be saving. I'm -$2400 a year instead of +%2400 per year in income. Next month we get to see where next years prices will go.

Is it selfish to think this way? Yes it is, but I'm the only person looking out for me and mine. You guys are doing it.

In the heart of North Dakota's Bakken Formation lies a free-market poster child—a spot where fast-food workers earn multiples of the $7.25 federal minimum hourly wage.

"Our starting wage out there is $11, and that's just to start," Jon Munger said about his Williston, North Dakota, Hardee's franchise. "We've got people at $13, $14, $15 at the crew level." Management positions fetch as much as $20 per hour.
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Two miles away at Buffalo Wild Wings, franchise owner Dani Reichenberger said she pays "more than twice the minimum wage for kitchen staff."

Because the housing market is so pricey, Reichenberger provides a housing allowance for her general manager and rents a home to other managers for submarket rates.

At the Williston McDonald's, pay starts at no less than $11 per hour, said Mike Kelley, a franchisee for 40 years who's seen the ebb and flow of the area's fortunes. His employees are also guaranteed a wage review every 750 hours worked, which almost always results in a raise.

Kelley's hiring pool would dry up if he tried to pay someone minimum wage
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To counteract higher wages, franchise operators have pared down and priced up.

At Hardee's, Munger uses labor-saving devices, like self-ordering kiosks and automated training systems to cut down on costs. He also eliminated a hostess program and a roast beef slicer position. Customers feel the pinch too — prices are about 20 percent to 30 percent higher in Williston than his average restaurant.

Buffalo Wild Wings has adjusted its labor structure and become "very strict with inventory," Reichenberger said.

McDonald's makes up for bigger labor costs with increased volume and higher prices.

"A lot of McDonald's in the nation have a dollar menu," Kelley said. "Well, our dollar menu is $1.39."

Still, expensive labor makes Kelley's business difficult to run — a reality that other franchisees may soon face in places that have passed higher minimum wages.

Putting in these artificial wage floors hampers an economy and prices unskilled workers out of the market, Perry said.

As for $15, the hourly wage Seattle just passed, Perry says, "That, I think, is kind of an economic death wish."

must be nice to live in a fantasy world. Hows the weather there?