Seattle passes minimum wage of $15.

[Bukowski82]

Assuming you get the job when there will be people with college degrees applying for the same position. Assuming BK stays in business after being forced to raise prices.

This whole thread is filled with socialist, liberal flowery thinking. I have really, really grown tired and angry reading about their fantasies. This is only going to end in one way, and that's bad. In one fell swoop a bunch of morons has eliminated small business with the Seattle city limits and forced prices to go up for everything, as well as make unrealistic incentives for people to move into the area, who will only wind up unemployed as demand for positions will be non-existent.

Good job, morons.

Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Homie.

 

[RandomForumUser]

Layoffs and a skyrocketing cost of living.

 

[Bay Area]

Its a bad thing because it gets rid of the incentive to work harder or learn a valuable skill.

Do you have any evidence or studies to back this up? Or are you just talking out of your ass?

 

[Groundswell]

At $15/hr, we can expect to see fewer baristas doing MMA as a second job.

 

[ExquisitExamplE]

Its a bad thing because it gets rid of the incentive to work harder or learn a valuable skill. I can pay a bunch of money and bust my ass learning some skill and be able to make 15/hour doing something difficult, or I can skip that and start making 15/hour at a job that takes no effort. Which are you gonna choose?

Firstly, this idea that minimum wage jobs are easy or "take no effort" needs to go. Minimum wage jobs are often amongst the most monotonous and unrewarding jobs around. Thank god I've never had to stand in front of a fryolator for 8 hours, I can only imagine how much that would suck.

Secondly, I don't see how it effectively removes the incentive to learn a new skill or trade, I have several acquaintances who make 15 an hour or more, and they are still going to school or exploring other avenues to further their skillset.

Finally, I'm not sure how many people you've met in the million+ tax bracket, but let me assure you, they don't work any harder than my (our?) fellow Mexicans who pick strawberries in the fields every day. They work smarter certainly, but that's easy when you're born into a rich family who can afford to send you to the best schools. That said, I can virtually guarantee you that if you use the literal definition of "work", you'd find you expend far more energy picking strawberries in a field all day than sitting in an office chair going over quarterly earnings reports. Ipso facto, not only does their job take more effort, it actually requires more work to accomplish.

 

[Bay Area]

Shit, why not make everyone in the country millionaires by this way of logic, you know, more money for the economy is a good thing, right?

 

[AdamL]

Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Homie.

Enjoy your $15 burgers.

 

[AdamL]

Firstly, this idea that minimum wage jobs are easy or "take no effort" needs to go. Minimum wage jobs are often amongst the most monotonous and unrewarding jobs around. Thank god I've never had to stand in front of a fryolator for 8 hours, I can only imagine how much that would suck.

Secondly, I don't see how it effectively removes the incentive to learn a new skill or trade, I have several acquaintances who make 15 an hour or more, and they are still going to school or exploring other avenues to further their skillset.

Finally, I'm not sure how many people you've met in the million+ tax bracket, but let me assure you, they don't work any harder than my (our?) fellow Mexicans who pick strawberries in the fields every day. They work smarter certainly, but that's easy when you're born into a rich family who can afford to send you to the best schools. That said, I can virtually guarantee you that if you use the literal definition of "work", you'd find you expend far more energy picking strawberries in a field all day than sitting in an office chair going over quarterly earnings reports. Ipso facto, not only does their job take more effort, it actually requires more work to accomplish.

So with your line of reasoning, the more you sweat the more you should earn. Screw those people with phd's sitting in their offices who just type on a keyboard writing code for a living. The real people who should be getting those $150,000+ salaries are the guys digging ditches.

 

[ExquisitExamplE]

In one fell swoop a bunch of morons has eliminated small business with the Seattle city limits

Typically I don't call people out for syntax mistakes, but the irony is just too much when it's preceded by someone calling other people morons.

On the bright side, at least you spelled morons correctly ;D

As an aside, disregard this post if you are a cat, as we all know that in Catanese, has is actually syntactically correct in the aforementioned post.

 

[drstrangelov]

Layoffs and a skyrocketing cost of living.

How is cost of living going to skyrocket? Like what costs are tied that closely to minimum wage? Maybe lower end rents? Not inside the city necessarily, since those are already likely too high to afford at 15 an hour, but I'm sure in some places that extra low end income will cause rents to jump from very low a only kind of low.

Other things like food, healthcare, education, durable goods, why would those prices rise due to an increase in pay among the poorest employed people in a single city?

But yeah, some businesses are going to need to cut staff or close altogether. Probably not as many as small business owners would have us fear, but I'm sure there are plenty of companies struggling to get by paying people 9 bucks an hour.

 

[Bukowski82]

Typically I don't call people out for syntax mistakes, but the irony is just too much when it's preceded by someone calling other people morons.

On the bright side, at least you spelled morons correctly ;D

As an aside, disregard this post if you are a cat, as we all know that in Catanese, has is actually syntactically correct in the aforementioned post.

I lol'd.

 

[AdamL]

Typically I don't call people out for syntax mistakes, but the irony is just too much when it's preceded by someone calling other people morons.

On the bright side, at least you spelled morons correctly ;D

As an aside, disregard this post if you are a cat, as we all know that in Catanese, has is actually syntactically correct in the aforementioned post.

Thanks for the grammatical scrutiny. I'd already fixed it as I'm not keen on making mistakes like that. Since I'm juggling work and sherdog my focus leans towards work and sometimes mistakes are made when typing on forums.

 

[GhostZ06]

That is one of the stupidest ideas ever. The cost of living will go up so damn high, its gonna be more expansive then cali over there.

 

[ExquisitExamplE]

So with your line of reasoning, the more you sweat the more you should earn. Screw those people with phd's sitting in their offices who just type on a keyboard writing code for a living. The real people who should be getting those $150,000+ salaries are the guys digging ditches.

I'm actually not arguing that at all, it was to further illustrate my point that minimum wage jobs are not easy and often times take just as much if not more effort to accomplish. But yes, were I in charge, I would bring the ditch diggers wage much closer in line to the doctor's wage, although the doctor would still make more due to his/her specialized, harder to attain skill-set.

All that aside, it's not really doctors and programmers that are fucking things up for everyone, because as much money as they might make, they are nowhere near the upper echelon of earners who are fleecing the populace at large via their corporate practices. It's those people for whom my fury is reserved.

 

[Tigerknee]

That is one of the stupidest ideas ever. The cost of living will go up so damn high, its gonna be more expansive then cali over there.

I think the low skilled worker is going to find that jobs are harder to come by, as now they will be competing with more people who want those jobs

 

[mister who]

Minimum wage is about 9 right now I believe in Seattle but federally in the US is like 7.25.
A gallon of gas here is 4.10 and rent for a single bedroom apt is about 1100+ away from the city

I was living in a 500 sq ft apartment in Belltown until just recently for $1300. You can easily find places for $1000 flat in the city.

 

[ChainFlow]

That is one of the stupidest ideas ever. The cost of living will go up so damn high, its gonna be more expansive then cali over there.

Do you have any thoughts about drstrangelov's post a few before yours?

People always think increasing the minimum wage increases cost of living by an significant or tremendous amount but I've never seen any evidence that it does.

If anything it seems more likely that highly prosperous areas tend to raise their minimum wages after the fact.

 

[AdamL]

All that aside, it's not really doctors and programmers that are fucking things up for everyone, because as much money as they might make, they are nowhere near the upper echelon of earners who are fleecing the populace at large via their corporate practices. It's those people for whom my fury is reserved.

What are your feelings on entertainers who rake in hundreds of millions?

 

[Merlotte's]

Last year I rented a huge 3br townhouse in Carson City for $500/mo. Now a small 2br condo for $1400/mo just outside Seattle. Cost of living here has already skyrocketed. Wage needs to follow.

 

[sickc0d3r]

Pretty big increase, but 3 - 7 years to phase it in helps. Still, the percentage of workers falling within the affected wages will likely be higher than anyone has tried before. Evidence for the effects of mw increases is plentiful, but probably nothing exists with similar numbers. It will be interesting to see how it works out.