Alabama Republicans

[BlueRaiderFan]

doing what Republicans do...

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/0...mselves-passes-highest-minimum-wage-in-south/

Birmingham Tells Alabama GOP To Go F**k Themselves, Passes Highest Minimum Wage In The South
February 24, 2016 4:58 pm ·
Alabama Republicans were quickly trying to ban all cities and counties from raising the minimum wage, but one city gave the GOP the finger and beat them to the punch.

Birmingham, Alabama now has the highest minimum wage in the South after the city council voted 6-2 to make the new wage $10.10 per hour, despite Republican efforts to kill it at the state level.

After the city council originally voted in August for the wage hike to gradually increase to $10.10 by July 2017, Alabama state GOP Rep. David Faulkner quickly introduced a bill to ban it from going into effect, along with banning cities and counties from trying to raise the minimum wage for their citizens in the future.

It’s not a surprise, frankly. After all, Republicans are more in favor of eliminating the minimum wage entirely than they are of raising it to help struggling workers and families pay the bills and put food on the table without having to rely on federal and state assistance.


Indeed, Alabama currently ranks as one of the worst welfare states in the nation, taking in $2.46 for every dollar they send to the federal government. So, one would think that Republicans would be happy to make sure that workers are paid so they don’t have to rely on the government. Sadly, that isn’t the case.

But the Birmingham city council chose to vote again to implement the new wage increase immediately, thereby cutting Alabama Republicans off at the pass and flipping them off along the way.

“We need to make sure our citizens are taken care of and that we’re making decisions in their best interest,” said Council President Johnathan Austin.

The minimum wage in Alabama currently stands at $7.25, because the federal wage applies since

 

[MTLynn]

meanwhile in Seattle...

http://poorrichardsnews.com/shock-seattles-new-minimum-wage-law-is-increasing-unemployment/

 

[TeKEraider]

Don't know what poor Richard is smoking but Seattle is 3.3% unemployment. 4% is considered full employment. Any fluctuations below 4 are negligible at best.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

Most of Lynn's info is biased and uniformed...

 

[MTLynn]

http://www.youngcons.com/liberals-in-la-vote-to-raise-the-minimum-wage-then-this-immediately/

From Breitbart:

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council passed a minimum wage law by a 14-to-1 vote margin that continually cranks-up wages for the next five years to $15 an hour. Meanwhile, employers are responding by investing in machines over people.

Four in 10 employers surveyed in the eighth annual poll by the Los Angeles County Business Federation say they expect to hire more people this year, up 10 percent over last year. But the numbers of employers that say they intend to make the type of capital investments that eliminate jobs through automation doubled, to 59 percent…

Due to anti-business burdens and costs, the City of Los Angeles won the booby-prize last year as America’s Poorest Big City, according to an analysis by the American Community Survey-based Census Bureau data. L.A.’s poverty rate of 17.6 percent made California the top poverty state overall, with a 16.8 percent rate.

Poll participants named Burbank and Long Beach as the most business-friendly cities in the county, followed by Glendale, El Segundo and Santa Clarita. Los Angeles was named by far the least friendly, with the People’s Republic of Santa Monica a close second-worst.

More from Thomas Sowell:

A survey of American economists found that 90 percent of them regarded minimum wage laws as increasing the rate of unemployment among low-skilled workers. Inexperience is often the problem. Only about two percent of Americans over the age of 24 earned the minimum wage.

Advocates of minimum wage laws usually base their support of such laws on their estimate of how much a worker “needs” in order to have “a living wage” — or on some other criterion that pays little or no attention to the worker’s skill level, experience or general productivity. So it is hardly surprising that minimum wage laws set wages that price many a young worker out of a job.

What is surprising is that, despite an accumulation of evidence over the years of the devastating effects of minimum wage laws on black teenage unemployment rates, members of the Congressional Black Caucus continue to vote for such laws.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

If you are working, you deserve to earn a living wage. The act of working qualifies you for this state. Even laborers with low skills deserve a living wage. It's called "compassion." As far as the automation, I highly doubt that number. No doubt it was a knee jerk response to a loaded question. Even if the 2% number is correct, which I doubt, that 2% of the population will need the help. This is just more spin and an attempt at justifying greed from the right. It's laughable.

 

[MTLynn]

The research backs up the basic message of the cartoon. A 2014 study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour would cost between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs. The costs of a $10.10 minimum wage were between 500,000 and 1 million jobs.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

Look, I'm not advocating a $15 an hour across the board increase. I think that we should have a national minimal standard that would effect most, and let states that need more set their own (or even a city). As far as they data, even the CBO admitted that there is a good chance that there would be little to no effect on employment.

here is about a two-thirds chance that the effect would be in the range between a very slight reduction in employment and a reduction in employment of 1.0 million workers.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

 

[MTLynn]

Minimum Wage Effects Already Evident in Seattle


excerpt:

“Emerald City MSA started experiencing a decline in restaurant employment around the first of the year (when the state minimum wage increased to $9.47 per hour, the highest state minimum wage in the country), and the 1,300 job losses between January and June is the largest decline over that period since 2009 during the Great Recession (data here. The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession.” So not only has the city lost 1,300 restaurant jobs, the vast majority of those happened after the new ordinance took effect. Meanwhile, Perry adds, “non-Seattle MSA restaurant employment in Washington increased 3.2% and by 2,800 jobs.” That makes it difficult to spin Seattle’s job losses as a mere coincidence. And for those who claim unrealistic minimum wage laws are good for fast food prices? Think again. To be clear: We want everyone to earn higher wages — just not by government mandate overriding the market. Otherwise, some workers get a raise, while others lose their paychecks altogether.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

Seattle's unemployment rate is around 4%. Try again.

https://ycharts.com/indicators/seattle_wa_unemployment_rate

 

[MTLynn]

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

Yeah, it's always a good idea to keep wages so low that the rest of us get to pick up the tab for food stamps etc when they can't afford to feed and house themselves.

 

[MTLynn]

UC Berkeley Touts $15 Minimum Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds Of Workers After It Passes

UC Berkeley announced that it was laying off 500 employees just a week after California Gov. Jerry Brown approved a $15 minimum wage. (AP)

excerpt:

A week after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s $15 minimum wage boost into law, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees announcing that 500 jobs were getting cut.

Coincidence? Not really.

Last year, University of California PresidentJanet Napolitano announced plans to boost its minimum wage to $15 at the start of next school year, independent of the state law.Since UC Berkeley was already in financial trouble — it ran a $109 million deficit last year and is projecting a deficit of $150 million this year — number crunchers there had to have factored in the higher mandated wage when making their layoff decisions.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

Looks like they were going to do it regardless.

 

[MTLynn]

Wendy’s Serves Up Big Kiosk Expansion As Wage Hikes Hit Fast Food

Wendy’s (WEN) said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages.

It will be up to franchisees whether to deploy the labor-saving technology, but Wendy’s President Todd Penegor did note that some franchise locations have been raising prices to offset wage hikes.

McDonald’s (MCD) has been testing self-service kiosks. But Wendy’s, which has been vocal about embracing labor-saving technology, is launching the biggest potential expansion.

Wendy’s Penegor said company-operated stores, only about 10% of the total, are seeing wage inflation of 5% to 6%, driven both by the minimum wage and some by the need to offer a competitive wage “to access good labor.”

It’s not surprising that some franchisees might face more of a labor-cost squeeze than company restaurants. All 258 Wendy’s restaurants in California, where the minimum wage rose to $10 an hour this year and will gradually rise to $15, are franchise-operated. Likewise, about 75% of 200-plus restaurants in New York are run by franchisees. New York’s fast-food industry wage rose to $10.50 in New York City and $9.75 in the rest of the state at the start of 2016, also on the way to $15.

Wendy’s plans to cut company-owned stores to just 5% of the total.

Still, Penegor said that increased customer counts more than price hikes drove the chain’s 3.6% same-store sales increase in the first quarter.

Although profit exceeded Wall Street estimates, Wendy’s shares dived nearly 9% Wednesday because of weak second-quarter sales.

“We are seeing a bit of a softer overall category in April” relative to the past two quarters, Penegor said on an earnings call, implying more of an industrywide trend than an issue specific to Wendy’s.

Penegor said the reason for softer growth was hard to pinpoint, but he listed a cautious consumer, tougher spring weather in the Northeast, and a wider gap between the cost of food at home vs. food away from home as possible contributors.

While Wendy’s management was upbeat about company prospects, noting that it just experienced its first year with a net increase in restaurants since 2010, its downbeat comments about sector growth were contagious. McDonald’s eased 1.7% after touching a new record high on Tuesday. Yum Brands (YUM), which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, slipped 2.6% andRestaurant Brands International (QSR) fell 3.4%.

For now, Penegor said, wage pressures have been manageable both because of falling commodity prices and better operating leverage due to an increase in customer counts. Still, the company is wary about both wage hikes and a possible recovery in commodity prices and is “working so hard to find efficiencies” so it can deliver “a new QSR experience but at traditional QSR prices.”

In addition to self-order kiosks, the company is also getting ready to move beyond the testing phase with labor-saving mobile ordering and mobile payment available systemwide by the end of the year. Yum Brands and McDonald’s already have mobile ordering apps.

 

[MTLynn]

McDonald's ex-CEO just revealed a terrifying reality for fast-food workers

Kate Taylor

Fast-food industry veterans are coming out against raising the minimum wage.

"It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who's inefficient making $15 an hour bagging french fries," former McDonald's USA CEO Ed Rensi said in an interview on Tuesday on the Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria." "It's nonsense and it's very destructive and it's inflationary and it's going to cause a job loss across this country like you're not going to believe."

According to Rensi, rising labor costs are forcing chains to cut entry-level jobs and replace workers with machines. Currently, Wendy's, McDonald's, and Panera are rolling out kiosks across the US, in part because of the rising cost of labor.

This isn't the first time Rensi, who served as McDonald's USA's president and chief executive from 1991 to 1997, has spoken out against increasing the minimum wage.

"I can assure you that a $15 minimum wage won't spell the end of the brand," Rensi wrote of McDonald's in Forbes in April. "However it will mean wiping out thousands of entry-level opportunities for people without many other options."

Rensi isn't alone in this belief.

"With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs," Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, told Business Insider. "You're going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants."

But there is some evidence that concern regarding rising wages may be overblown.

In the past year, McDonald's investment in employee wages and benefits has already had a significant impact on customer service — one of the most problematic parts of McDonald's business. According to CEO Steve Easterbrook, customer satisfaction scores were up 6% in the first quarter, compared to the same period last year.

Even if Rensi is convinced that increased pay could doom entry-level employees, it seems as though Easterbrook is seeing returns on McDonald's investment in workers. Rising costs may convince some chains to invest in machines, but they're also helping make business more efficient and improving the customer experience.

 

[BlueRaiderFan]

Costco’s CEO furnishes his boardroom with faux-wood tables, has no PR staff, and doesn’t offer customers shopping bags—but he does pay employees a fair wage. Now that his formula is pleasing Wall Street, will other companies follow?
Brad Stone BradStone
June 7, 2013 — 4:54 PM EDT

Joe Carcello has a great job. The 59-year-old has an annual salary of $52,700, gets five weeks of vacation a year, and is looking forward to retiring on the sizable nest egg in his 401(k), which his employer augments with matching funds. After 26 years at his company, he’s not worried about layoffs. In 2009, as the recession deepened, his bosses handed out raises. “I’m just grateful to come here to work every day,” he says.
This wouldn’t be remarkable except that Carcello works in retail, one of the stingiest industries in America, with some of the most dissatisfied workers. On May 29, Wal-Mart Stores employees in Miami, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area began a weeklong strike. (A Walmart spokesman told MSNBC the strike was a “publicity stunt.”) Workers at an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Leipzig, Germany, also recently held strikes to demand higher pay and better benefits. (An Amazon spokesman says its employees earn more than the average warehouse worker.) In its 30-year history, Carcello’s employer, Costco, has never had significant labor troubles.

Costco Wholesale, the second-largest retailer in the U.S. behind Walmart, is an anomaly in an age marked by turmoil and downsizing. Known for its $55-a-year membership fee and its massive, austere warehouses stocked floor to ceiling with indulgent portions of everything from tilapia to toilet paper, Costco has thrived over the last five years. While competitors lost customers to the Internet and weathered a wave of investor pessimism, Costco’s sales have grown 39 percent and its stock price has doubled since 2009. The hot streak continued through last year’s retirement of widely admired co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jim Sinegal. The share price is up 30 percent under the leadership of its new, plain-spoken CEO, Craig Jelinek.

Despite the sagging economy and challenges to the industry, Costco pays its hourly workers an average of $20.89 an hour, not including overtime (vs. the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour). By comparison, Walmart said its average wage for full-time employees in the U.S. is $12.67 an hour, according to a letter it sent in April to activist Ralph Nader. Eighty-eight percent of Costco employees have company-sponsored health insurance; Walmart says that “more than half” of its do. Costco workers with coverage pay premiums that amount to less than 10 percent of the overall cost of their plans. It treats its employees well in the belief that a happier work environment will result in a more profitable company. “I just think people need to make a living wage with health benefits,” says Jelinek. “It also puts more money back into the economy and creates a healthier country. It’s really that simple.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ds-the-cheapest-happiest-company-in-the-world