Comments on: Full Steam Ahead On "100 Hours" Express
House Approves Minimum Wage Hike; Thursday Vote On Stem Cells
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- OK Let's hope Bush Vetoes it
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- It's about time the minimum wage was raised, and you know what, if you can't afford to pay it, or don't want to pay it - tough. That's business. Have some respect for the employee's that keep your business up and running...
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- OK, Minimum wage passed, on to IMPEACHMENT!
Unless the Bu$h administration pulls off another 9/11..... - Reply to this comment
- Productivity
I have a factory that builds widgets. I have two employees that I pay $1.00/hr to make my widgets. They can make one widget an hour. My cost is $1.00 and I make $.50 profit. My widgets sell for $2.50 My worker must work 2.5 hours to purchase a widget. My workers and i brainstorm. We come up with a way to make 2 widgets/worker/hr. Now wages have not gone up so my cost (Matrials and shipping) have not gone up - $1.00 per widget. My labor has dropped to $.50/widget and I can Maintain at $.25/widget. This gives me an extra $.75/widget to work with. I can give my workers a $.25 raise, give myself $.25 extra profit, and lower my price by $.25. Now My Widget cost $2.25. My workers only need to work 1.8 hours to buy a widget. The have increased spending power, I have increased profits. I am competing with the $2.00 widgets from China. My price is closer so i sell more. I need to make more. i have to hire
another widget maker. - Reply to this comment
- Minimum wage.
I have a factory that builds widgets. I have two employees that I pay $1.00/hr to make my widgets. They can make one widget/hour. My cost is $1.00 and I make $.50 profit. My widgets sell for $2.50 My worker must work 2.5 hours to purchase a widget. Minimum wage goes up $.50/hour. Everything goes up with it. Now my cost is $2.00 (Cost increase from supplier by 50% and shipping raises) and I must increase my profit so I do not lose purchasing power. My profit is now $1.00 (i now need to pay 50% more + shipping for everything i buy) Now my widget will cost $4.75. My worker must work 3 hours to by a widget. My worker (while making more money) has lost spending power. This is just in a local economy. I am competing with widgets from China at $2.00 a widget. My widgets did OK at $2.50 but now at $4.75 each. My widgets don't sell. Orders drop, I have to let go of one of my employees. - Reply to this comment
- To saxonmor:
The Swedish economy has only recently been growing in the 4-5% range, after stagnating for a very long period (see the article that is attached in the previous posting). This stagnation has caused Swedish salaries, especially for those with an education, to be very low by international standards (an argument against the minimum wage), leading to some brain drain, but also to reducing the cost of doing business in Sweden enabling it to compete again.
Sweden still has a GDP per capita that is far below the United States and most Swedes cannot afford what most Americans can.
Swedish education is largely free, but Sweden has also endorsed school choice (vouchers) that the American left is opposed to and the general feeling is that this has improved secondary education standards in Sweden. Sweden still has no Harvard, Caltech, MIT, in terms of elite tertiary education.
Healthcare in Sweden is terrible due to a shortage of doctors due to brain drain to England and Norway where they get much higher salaries.
I agree that pork in America is a huge problem.
In any regard, I think government mandated salaries in general and a minimum wage increase are bad ideas. The government should focus on having a well functioning economic system with lots of competition rather than micromanaging the salaries and employee decisions (H1B caps) of companies. - Reply to this comment
- Yeah, that's right. Everyone who is going to see a raise in minimum wage is going to be laid off. And if we DON'T raise minimum wage, no one will ever be laid off again!
The simplicity of your argument is absurd.
Tell me, is it easier to dig your heels in when you have your head stuck in the sand? - Reply to this comment
- A $2/hour increase times 40 hrs/week times 52 weeks/year equals $4,160 PER employee PER year in extra labor costs.
If you have 11 employees (which I have), that's $45,760 per year increase in labor cost to my business.
THEREFORE, in order to pay for the minimum wage increase, I will have to lay off 3 employees in order to pay for said increase.
[3 employees times 7.15/hr (new rate) times 40 hours/week times 52 weeks/year equals 44,616]
I still come up short
Posted by processor2 at 11:15 AM : Jan 10, 2007
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I don't know what business your in. but isn't it possible to raise you price just enough to cover costs?
Posted by rharrin1 at 11:32 AM : Jan 10, 2007
ANSWER
and lose all my customers to the competition who has lower prices....yeah,,right
Posted by processor2 at 11:35 AM : Jan 10, 2007
ONCE AGAIN PROCESSOR2, YOU HAVE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK - Reply to this comment
- Davidlar, I don't know wher you get YOUR facts. Through the later part of the 90's until now, while American headlines talked of economic recession, Sweden was touting their sustained 5% economic growth. AND Sweden provides higher education to all of it's citizens (in that I agree the importance cannot be understated); the US - no. Sweden provides healthcare to all its citizens; the US - no. Sweden also does not have the extensive lobby industry that America has constantly throwing millions at congress that could be better spent on what? education, health care. America also has a bad habit of awarding members of its multi-millionaires clubs golden parachutes, as with Home Depot and Pfizer most recently. $200 million distributed amonst Home Depot's employees would be a nice bonus. Greed, one of the dealiest of sins.
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- When the lower classes have more money to spend, they eat out more often; they buy those extra few little toys they couldn't afford before. And, oh, yes, people are generally HAPPIER when they are not economically depressed and stymied. Posted by saxonmor at 04:10 PM : Jan 10, 2007
Do you honestly think minimum wage earners are going to have enough money for this. They're still going to be poor and possibly unemployed. - Reply to this comment
- Here's a better experiment, saxonmor, how about he gets laid off and spends the next few months waiting in line for foodstamps, homeless shelter, and welfare.
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- If you can't afford to do that then you are a lousy business person who should go out of business because of incompetence.
Posted by RandalDS at 04:14 PM : Jan 10, 2007
Well,(yawn) again you miss the point. Before businesses go under they will strip down lean and mean. And again (yawn) they will cut workers or benefits. - Reply to this comment
- nikosk1:
Does America have salaries that are too low or a cost of living that is too high in comparison with most other countries in the world? Make sure you are attacking the right problem. - Reply to this comment
- What is the proof that heavily redistributionist economies ("trickle up economics") perform better than freer ones? Take a look at http://www.heritage.org/index/.
Seems to me Sweden tried this in the 1960s and 1970s and is still paying the price for it. Take a look at http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/books.asp?isbn=9175665891
Seems to me that it is the poor who suffer the most in economies that stagnate.
We live in a globalized world. When we make the cost of labor artificially more expensive than other countries, we lose. When we place H1B visa caps on importing the labor the economy needs (because we spend our money on higher salaries for the uneducated instead of on education), we lose.
Want another reason for not raising the minimum wage: Its bad economics and America will pay a price for it. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by saxonmor at 04:03 PM : Jan 10, 2007
Bravo! Well stated! - Reply to this comment
- And that's exactly what's going to happen Randal, small business will just close up and you'll be left with Walmart, Starbucks,McDonalds, and whatever airline survives the acquisitions. Done deal. Corporate America wins the world.
Posted by bellaL at 03:35 PM : Jan 10, 2007
(Yawn) That's they same song and dance we've been hearing for decades from business owners. get over it. There's nothing immoral about paying people enough to live on. If you can't afford to do that then you are a lousy business person who should go out of business because of incompetence. - Reply to this comment
- And by the way, I think Mike Flynn is full of *** too.
In fact, I took the time to write to him and challenge him to "put his money where someone else's mouth is."
"As Director of Legislative Affairs," I wrote "you undoubtedly draw a 6-figure salary." I proposed that for the next 60-days, he live off the equivalent of $5.15/hr. minimum wage (less taxes), pay rent, food, utilities, etc.; no credit cards, no outside resources, and donate the rest of his salary to his local food bank. Ivory tower elitists like him couldn't do it for 2 days, let alone 2 months. Before anyone gripes about the impact of raising minimum wage, let them walk a mile in minimum wage boots.
(By the way, I make far more than minimum; that does not mean I am unmindful of those who make minimum.) - Reply to this comment
- There are only two reasons for not raising minimum wage: greed on the part of business owners and oppression on the part of the rich and powerful elite.
Business will adapt to a higher minimum wage, as it always has. Business owners are not simply going to "close up shop" and go to work for WalMart because the minimum wage goes up. They are going to find ways to make their businesses work better and smarter.
And the fact is that Trickle UP economics works far better than Trickle DOWN. When the lower classes have more money to spend, they eat out more often; they buy those extra few little toys they couldn't afford before. And, oh, yes, people are generally HAPPIER when they are not economically depressed and stymied. Heaven forbid we should consider the human factor in the economic equation. Let's make it all about dollars. And how's that working for America nowadays? WalMarts everywhere, jobs streaming overseas. As in any case, the RIGHT solution needs to consider a helluva lot more than just the bottom line. - Reply to this comment
- North Carolina has already taken the step and raised it's minimum wage to $6.15 an hour, my 16 year old son was pretty happy about that until they cut his hours in half and now is making less than he did before...I see a trend here
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- A $2/hour increase times 40 hrs/week times 52 weeks/year equals $4,160 PER employee PER year in extra labor costs.
If you have 11 employees (which I have), that's $45,760 per year increase in labor cost to my business.
THEREFORE, in order to pay for the minimum wage increase, I will have to lay off 3 employees in order to pay for said increase.
[3 employees times 7.15/hr (new rate) times 40 hours/week times 52 weeks/year equals 44,616]
I still come up short
Posted by processor2 at 11:15 AM : Jan 10, 2007
...........
I don't know what business your in. but isn't it possible to raise you price just enough to cover costs?
Posted by rharrin1 at 11:32 AM : Jan 10, 2007
ANSWER
and lose all my customers to the competition who has lower prices....yeah,,right
Posted by processor2 at 11:35 AM : Jan 10, 2007
ONCE AGAIN PROCESSOR2, YOU HAVE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK - Reply to this comment
