Social Minimum Wage now at $20 an hour in California

[MicroBrew]

They count hispanic as white. Not sure if you know that and are being disingenuous or you're just misinformed.

How do you know Hispanic workers are counted as White?

If all Hispanic workers were counted as White there would be no Hispanic category. When my Hispanic/Latino employees tick the demograhic box, they pick the Hispanic option, not the White option. Now, some of them are White, but Hispanic is a linguistic and cultural category not a racial one.

All forms I have had to fill out for government or private business has had a White category and a seperate Hispanic category. Sometimes the White category says "Non Hispanic White".

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

Why because this one guy shut down his business? That's fine and he won't be the only one. I'm sure plenty of companies are relying on paying slave wages to turn a profit.

If that's your business model go ahead and fail then. Plenty of other businesses waiting to replace you, and hey maybe some of them will actually be GOOD at what they do!

actually, no, there will not be new businesses wanting to replace them.

MSN

California’s $20 Minimum Wage Forces Mass Fast Food Layoffs​

 

[Mike]

actually, no, there will not be new businesses wanting to replace them.

MSN

California’s $20 Minimum Wage Forces Mass Fast Food Layoffs​

Yeah these places are throwing a tantrum right now but this isn't going away. I don't believe we should just NEVER raise the minimum wage because corporations are going to throw a fit. That's the mindset we've been operating under for generations in this country and all it's led to is widespread poverty among the working class. Eventually we were going to raise the minimum substantially. When we did, this was ALWAYS going to happen. It's a fear mongering tactic. These companies can afford to pay it they just don't want to and hope they can get it reversed if they throw a fit long enough.

 

[Spounman]

But low IQ libs say haha you're complaining about a 50 cent increase in coffee, that's about as far as they can take a topic

 

[Lucas1980]

They count hispanic as white. Not sure if you know that and are being disingenuous or you're just misinformed.

But you can identify as any race you want if you feel that way...that's how it works I'm told.

 

[DrDune]

Why because this one guy shut down his business? That's fine and he won't be the only one. I'm sure plenty of companies are relying on paying slave wages to turn a profit.

If that's your business model go ahead and fail then. Plenty of other businesses waiting to replace you, and hey maybe some of them will actually be GOOD at what they do!

Why do I feel bad for the workers who showed up for work and found out the business was closed? Is that what you're asking me?

 

[Mike]

Why do I feel bad for the workers who showed up for work and found out the business was closed? Is that what you're asking me?

Nah nvm, I think I misread the point you were making.

 

[helltoupee]

Yeah I realized that a couple years ago. Some companies are keeping up with inflation and giving regular increases and some aren't. Convenience stores out here pay $16+ too and I was actually working at one for a few months when I got burned out from 5 years of overtime. Now I'm back in manufacturing making just under $25 an hour. 12 hour overnights because that shift pays the most. I got this place when I was broke and in debt so hopefully if I can continue to do this work I can get debt free again and move once my lease is up. It's like living in a jail cell here which is motivating me to do whatever it takes to get out and never be this poor again. I'll do it or I'll destroy myself trying.


There's good jobs here but Reno is a cesspool. Being surrounded by low lives and mentally ill drug addicts and homeless people is real sobering. I don't want to end up like those people.

Try to get a job at a casino, if not in Reno, in Las Vegas. I was a change clerk (for the slot machines) at a local Indian casino in San Diego and although I was paid minimum wage, that's just the gravy. I was making between $300-$400 a night in cash no tax tips 20 years ago. And this was at a dumpy little casino. Money in casinos is easy come easy go with most of the patrons and when someone hits a jackpot on banked machines (about 20 slots that are all connected and share a progressive jackpot), you get tipped if it's in your section - I had a guy hit a $197,000 jackpot on $100/hand Keno and when I went to bring him his money he told me "just give me $180,000 - this resulted in a $17,000 tip, and again this was 20 years ago.

My wife started out as a simple drink server at the same casino as me, she taught herself how to deal BlackJack and cut chips (easy with practice at home), and was easily making about $8000/month and that was more than 20 years ago.

Here's the thing, just get your foot in the door at the casino and that allows you to move up. Even if you can't deal, there are all kinds of middle management positions that pay decently that you can work your way in to. I've always told my friends and daughter, if you don't have a college degree or trade skill, go get a job at a casino. Work in the slot department or table games. Poker dealers get tipped after every single dealt hand - maybe not huge amounts, but the winner of the hand always throws the dealer something and they hit jackpots too.

My best friend who started working as a change clerk in the casino worked his was up to floor manager, then became director of slots, then became the casino manager making several hundred thousand a year - and he has no college education and in all honestly is not the brightest of guys - he's not stupid, but it's not like he was a genius. He simply worked his way up over the years and I can tell by the way you write you could easily do what he did.

I would've stayed at the casino my whole life however in my mid 20's I formed a production company with a buddy on a whim and started selling motorcycle stunt videos to distributors, so I got really lucky with that, otherwise I'd probably still be there.

 

[Mike]

Try to get a job at a casino, if not in Reno, in Las Vegas. I was a change clerk (for the slot machines) at a local Indian casino in San Diego and although I was paid minimum wage, that's just the gravy. I was making between $300-$400 a night in cash no tax tips 20 years ago. And this was at a dumpy little casino. Money in casinos is easy come easy go with most of the patrons and when someone hits a jackpot on banked machines (about 20 slots that are all connected and share a progressive jackpot), you get tipped if it's in your section - I had a guy hit a $197,000 jackpot on $100/hand Keno and when I went to bring him his money he told me "just give me $180,000 - this resulted in a $17,000 tip, and again this was 20 years ago.

My wife started out as a simple drink server at the same casino as me, she taught herself how to deal BlackJack and cut chips (easy with practice at home), and was easily making about $8000/month and that was more than 20 years ago.

Here's the thing, just get your foot in the door at the casino and that allows you to move up. Even if you can't deal, there are all kinds of middle management positions that pay decently that you can work your way in to. I've always told my friends and daughter, if you don't have a college degree or trade skill, go get a job at a casino. Work in the slot department or table games. Poker dealers get tipped after every single dealt hand - maybe not huge amounts, but the winner of the hand always throws the dealer something and they hit jackpots too.

My best friend who started working as a change clerk in the casino worked his was up to floor manager, then became director of slots, then became the casino manager making several hundred thousand a year - and he has no college education and in all honestly is not the brightest of guys - he's not stupid, but it's not like he was a genius. He simply worked his way up over the years and I can tell by the way you write you could easily do what he did.

I would've stayed at the casino my whole life however in my mid 20's I formed a production company with a buddy on a whim and started selling motorcycle stunt videos to distributors, so I got really lucky with that, otherwise I'd probably still be there.

I looked into them but the base pay is far less than what I make right now, benefits are much worse as well. I also despise customer service and am not the type of person to get promotions in customer service roles.

 

[helltoupee]

I looked into them but the base pay is far less than what I make right now, benefits are much worse as well. I also despise customer service and am not the type of person to get promotions in customer service roles.

Ya, base pay is shit, but the money is in tips.

You could deal a table game - if you know how to chit chat with people, that's all it takes - it's not really customer service, per say, some dealers don't talk to customers at all. But I get it if that isn't your thing. Was just trying to help a fellow sherdogger out.

 

[Sinister]

But low IQ libs say haha you're complaining about a 50 cent increase in coffee, that's about as far as they can take a topic

No, this is just the same classist disparity right wingers always use in some weird attempt to claim solidarity with the working class while simultaneously painting the non-working class or corporations as "the real victims." The idea that because businesses MUST now pay the market cost for labor, its justifiable that corporations take any means to not do that, and blame is laid on the working class who voted for these regulations. Pizza Hut posts quarterly profits of more than a billion dollars. MOD Pizza posted a revenue of nearly $400 million with only 400 locations, and yet you dimwits will have the nerve to imply that this hurts operating costs when there's not a chance that operating costs are anywhere even close to $100m per location. They also shut down 27 locations Nationwide in what looks more like an attempt to scale back rapid expansion, and no righties are politicizing the other 22 closures. Vitality Bowls is a niche market, and just a quick look at their franchise model, the operating cost is over $100k per year, and then around 10% of revenue has to go to licensing and marketing. Revenue averages at $411k per year. Less than $300k in revenue per year is not very good, especially when their own statements indicate the initial investment of franchising to be $376k. So your first year or two is almost guaranteed to be in the negative barring your store is an outlier.

Though its comical how fast right wingers will go to bat for corporate exploitation and sh*tty business models of the non-working class. If a business cannot afford to pay their employees then they should get lost. There is literally zero reason to argue on behalf of paying sub-par wages in an area of the Country with a high cost of living, by corporations who post hundreds of millions, or billions in revenue, or by companies whose models rely on fleecing franchise owners and employees with an unsustainable model.

BTW, if pay increased with worker productivity, the minimum wage would be between $30-$40 per hour. My wife makes the higher end of that, and if both of us did, we'd still be able to barely afford a comfortable middle-class existence where we live while thinking of how to put kids through College, or save for retirement.

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

Yeah these places are throwing a tantrum right now but this isn't going away. I don't believe we should just NEVER raise the minimum wage because corporations are going to throw a fit. That's the mindset we've been operating under for generations in this country and all it's led to is widespread poverty among the working class. Eventually we were going to raise the minimum substantially. When we did, this was ALWAYS going to happen. It's a fear mongering tactic. These companies can afford to pay it they just don't want to and hope they can get it reversed if they throw a fit long enough.

I don't think it's fair to dismiss the mass firings as "fear mongering". they are literally replacing the people with self-service kiosks and/or closing down all together. Those business that close down will be moving to another state.

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

 

[Mike]

I don't think it's fair to dismiss the mass firings as "fear mongering". they are literally replacing the people with self-service kiosks and/or closing down all together. Those business that close down will be moving to another state.

Ok so what do we do? Never ever raise wages because corporations are used to indentured servitude and are going to throw a fit? Like I said earlier fast food places in Nevada are already starting to reach around $17 to $18 and that's without anyone forcing them. They're going to run out of major cities to flee to. There really aren't any where people can live on what they're paying. I think it's better to have less jobs but people can actually support themselves on those jobs, than to have a market absolutely flooded with jobs that don't pay people enough to live. Inflating the employment stats with underemployment garbage isn't helping anyone except the corporations.


We allowed them to pay people a criminally low wage while price gouging and dodging taxes for generations, It's bad for America and we have to take a stand against it at some point. Doing that was NEVER going to be free. These are wealthy, influential businesses. Real change is never easy and never free, you always have to fight for it. I'd rather start that fight now than have 3 or 4 more generations of institutionalized poverty in this country.

 

[pinger]

Again, fuck the corporations that try to pay their grunts as little as possible while paying their CEOs more money than all their workers in California combined. The amount of profits some of these companies make while continuing to raise the prices makes me sick and if I ever had the fortuitous opportunity to meet the ceo of exxon or amazon, I would love to absolutely whoop their ass for their extreme arrogance to think they merit making millions of times the amount that their average worker makes.

Is not only that. They are a parasitic leach taking your resources and paying virtually nothing for it via tax.

Its ridiculous that people seem to be in the corner of grinding the poor to dust so McCeo can get another G4 Gulfstream.

Your whole system is upside down

 

[Spounman]

But you can identify as any race you want if you feel that way...that's how it works I'm told.

Sometimes the gov will do it for you, or the media

 

[Mike]

Is not only that. They are a parasitic leach taking your resources and paying virtually nothing for it via tax.

Its ridiculous that people seem to be in the corner of grinding the poor to dust so McCeo can get another G4 Gulfstream.

Your whole system is upside down

America is filled with poor to middle class people that idolize the rich so much they actively support behavior that harms everyone but the wealthy in this country. It's a well known phenomenon here.







The attitude in this country for the entirety of my 42 years here.

 

[panamaican]

There is a difference between McDonald salaries and In and Out.

Not sure what your point is? Are you saying that increases in McDonald's are so significant that regular people will be forced to sacrifice something essential for them?

I think I saw $2 increases mentioned somewhere. That's a big percentage over the prior price but is $2 enough to prevent someone from affording the meal? As in, if they could afford $7 for a hamburger, is $9 actually going to push them into economic insolvency? And if itwill, I would argue that they probably shouldn't have been spending the $7 either.

 

[panamaican]

You're not wrong. The bulk of manufacturered goods are produced in what we would consider sweat shops. The conditions of factory farms are terrible and rely on imigrants and even prison labor. The clerks who sell us goods are quite low paid.

Good luck getting the middle class on board with lowering their standard of living though. Leftists talk about making the rich pay for more but it is always the middle class and below that get squeezed.

What does leftists have to do with your general sentiment? Leftists don't endorse tax cuts for the upper 1% or corporations (well, they do to some extent).

And while you might be offended by this specific increase in wages, it puts the onus on the corporation, the wealthy in this dynamic, to pay employees more. You can't bitch about squeezing the middle class and also bitch about raising people's pay. When you do, it sounds like you're not interested in making the rich pay either.

I don't need the middle class to get on board with anything. I just ask people to stop being ignorant about the economics under which they live. They'll complain about a minimum wage increase for the poor but be indifferent to tax cuts to the rich.

Let me give you a well-known example that illustrates how people who claim to care about this stuff really have no interest in the real world details. Wal-Mart notoriously underpays its staff. Why? Because they know that the staff will qualify for government assistance and food stamps. Why does Walmart care about food stamps? Because they accept food stamps for groceries.

So, Walmart makes a shit ton by paying people low wages. Then they make another shit ton when the low wage employee spends government money to buy groceries. And who is funding the government money? You and I the tax payer.

Yet people would rather complain about Walmart having to pay a higher wage than ask themselves why Walmart is allowed to cheat the working man in 2 different ways? Once on his wages and again through his taxes.

Fuck outta here with the leftist/rightist bullshit. Focus on the economics and how people are screwing themselves by ignoring the details so they can peddle empty political tribesmanship.

 

[Mike]

What does leftists have to do with your general sentiment? Leftists don't endorse tax cuts for the upper 1% or corporations (well, they do to some extent).

And while you might be offended by this specific increase in wages, it puts the onus on the corporation, the wealthy in this dynamic, to pay employees more. You can't bitch about squeezing the middle class and also bitch about raising people's pay. When you do, it sounds like you're not interested in making the rich pay either.

I don't need the middle class to get on board with anything. I just ask people to stop being ignorant about the economics under which they live. They'll complain about a minimum wage increase for the poor but be indifferent to tax cuts to the rich.

Let me give you a well-known example that illustrates how people who claim to care about this stuff really have no interest in the real world details. Wal-Mart notoriously underpays its staff. Why? Because they know that the staff will qualify for government assistance and food stamps. Why does Walmart care about food stamps? Because they accept food stamps for groceries.

So, Walmart makes a shit ton by paying people low wages. Then they make another shit ton when the low wage employee spends government money to buy groceries. And who is funding the government money? You and I the tax payer.

Yet people would rather complain about Walmart having to pay a higher wage than ask themselves why Walmart is allowed to cheat the working man in 2 different ways? Once on his wages and again through his taxes.

Fuck outta here with the leftist/rightist bullshit. Focus on the economics and how people are screwing themselves by ignoring the details so they can peddle empty political tribesmanship.

Hey now don't forget the wal-mart employee discount to encourage the already impoverished employees not to go anywhere else. Or that Wal-mart has big signs and banners in their break rooms telling employees how to apply for welfare and food stamps. (I worked for them many years ago in my early 20s)