Seattle Enacts $15 Minimum Wage

All those things mentioned were also mentioned in the article in the OP. Was I the only person who read it?

$15/hour basically just returns people to where we were prior to WWII. The caps on worker salary during WWII meant that employers had to invent new incentives to entice and retain valued employees, so they started providing health insurance, among other non-wage/salary benefits. The habit continued into the present day.

That said, however, how many minimum wage jobs offer health insurance I wonder. Anyone know? I know several employers made big headlines for removing health insurance from their employment policy last year as a result of the ACA mandate (without increasing employee wage by a commensurate amount, I might add -- because corporations are ***).

What, somebody known to not show up when s/he feels like it and also very likely to leave in a heartbeat?

That's your counterargument? That's pretty weak, even for your standards.

Since when does being a high school graduate necessitate that they don't show up, or have issues with time-tables?

Most people that want higher min wage are unskilled. Even those with college degrees.

The answer to this question is always yes.

Well I worked in restaurants through high school and college and I know for a fact that illegals worked in those establishments for low wages under the table and didn't pay taxes. Are you suggesting that the millions of people here illegally aren't making money in some manner or are you just being facetious? Other than that, I have no additional first hand experience. Are you also saying a larger supply of low skilled uneducated labor doesn't retard the natural wage that would exist with similar demand yet smaller supply?

The money is still on the books for the business. It's just not handed over to a payroll company for obvious reasons.

The original people who organized the unions 100 years ago were already recanting about them on their deathbeds just a few short years after they succeeded. It amazes me that the damned things are still around.

I live in a very non-union city, but virtually every other city in the area is either unionized or formerly unionized such that the old habits are still there. I also do a lot of subcontracting for people who work all over the multi-state area. They comment repeatedly on the quality and effort of work provided here where I live as compared to other places. Having grown up in a heavily unionized city (GM plant was and is still a major employer), I was already all too familiar with the "Do 15 minutes of work, jack off for 7 hours, get 8 hours' worth of pay" routine. As a hard-working New Englander transplanted to this miserable state, it turns my stomach.

Sorry, mostly just needed to rant. I hate unions and how they've sapped work ethic and whatever passes for the American spirit.

You're both slightly wrong.

Forbes said "graduate." They didn't say "recent graduate," although that was strongly implied in the scenario for the degree-holding person. In general, low wage jobs look askance on someone with a university degree applying there because they don't expect them to stick around (and rightly so!), which has made my personal job-seeking a bit of a nuisance.

At the same time, though, younger people haven't yet learned what appropriate work is. I see it altogether too often where a job that my pale, fat, nerdy *** can handle with ease is complained about as "too hard" by some of my younger cohorts since it involves actually doing something.

Maybe employers should stop *** taking applications? I remember when I started college back in 2000, I needed a job that would be flexible and I had restaurant experience. So I called a local restaurant chain (Eat'n Park, for those familiar -- think Denny's for those unfamiliar), explained that I was a college student and had worked in a similar restaurant before. They asked me to stop in that evening for an interview. That seemed like the sensible method: just get to know me and move on from there.

I swear that bureaucracy has been fueled deliberately by people like me who really dislike having to talk to other human beings. I'm at least cognizant of and honest about my quirk, but I feel certain that of the hundreds of applications I've thrown at various employers in the past 15 years, maybe 50% of them have even been glanced at, much less scanned for content.

That's my main problem I have with people in unions that I've met.

It's all they *** brag about.

Farms, I would agree with you on, because it would be hard for state officials (and by extension, IRS) to track that information.

Restaurants, on the other hand, would track that information, and are required by law to maintain a payroll schedule for all employees if they want to keep their franchise status. This law is by state, and some states have different terminologies in regards to this, but every state has the same basic set of laws that enable special status for restaurants, but also have special reporting standards when it comes to payroll, in order for them to stay in business.

And state officials (at least in Texas) do keep up with maintaining restaurants and keeping them in regulations. Businesses have closed down and owners have lost everything for not complying to these simple set of rules and filing requirements. And they audit often, especially for fictitious books.

So no, I don't believe you one bit. I see this happen in my profession, I have seen these audits, heck, I have defended my clients on these audits on occasion.

Well according to the Beatles all you need is love.

I told you earlier I can't read. I can only recognize logos and symbols...

Some jobs just aren't worth even the current minimum wage in the eyes of potential employers. That is the market, and there is no law that can change that. Don't like it? Tough. You shouldn't have majored in Swahili LGBTWTFBBQ Haikus.

My art history degree is paying off well...all the people at Starbucks love my critique of Jasper Johns Paul Gauguin Monet Manet Matisse Henri Rousseau Van Gogh...

Name some of them.

People grossly overestimate how many minimum wage jobs there actually are out there. Pushing a broom at a construction site for 8 hours is generally at $10/hour job. Mopping floors rarely pays minimum wage even as a fresh hire. About the only no-skill job that remotely comes to mind is running a cash register: a monkey could practically do that and it's part of why self-scans are being implemented around the country. Everything else, though... for all the noise people make about the process by which McDonald's food is made, it still involves working with dangerous kitchen equipment and operating them safely, which elevates it above "no-skill."

I've used a deep fryer, an oven, and a microwave with no training whatsoever. I guess I must be special.

Mircrowave oven you must work at the French Laundry.

I've even washed dishes, cleaned out a sink, and ran a dishwasher. No training either.

I spent three weeks learning how to wash dishes. Turns out you have to wash the soap off.

Damn, I've been doing it backwards.

If you define "skill" as being able to open the door when faced with the classic "push or pull" conundrum. Most people referring to "skilled labor" refer to something that isn't mastered after 4 hours on the job.

For example, I could easily hire a student to do some light office work for me, could spend probably 45 minutes out of every hour reading or studying, and the value to me would be about $5/hr. It's not worth the $7.25 wage to me, even if you excluded the additional payroll taxes and any other regulations to which I may have to adhere. Besides, the added payroll expenses are a good chunk of the reason we have had so many people losing their jobs, so it's not that hard to figure out how the graph goes on wages vs. employment.

I actually washed dished at a restaurant in high school. If that doesn't convince you to get an education nothing will.

And cutting the grass... wtf? People want it to grow, then they want it to be cut... Makes NO sense...

Yo alphabetizing, stapling, and filing takes like 4 years of college plus 4 years to get your masters. That's hardcore skill. Forget the shredder. Need a PhD for that thing.

Well I know for a fact that sometimes dishwashers, cleaning and maintenance were paid off the books, so you believing me or not is immaterial. Many employees with legal status would offer out the services of illegal friends/family to do yard work, renovations, auto maintenance. I've seen ICE come in and remove illegal workers who used fake info during a shift. You are kind of a fool if you really don't think it happens on a regular basis. Again I ask, how are the 30million illegals in the country making money? You think they are all farmers?

Fast-food chains are already replacing some of their workers with machines. Chase is now taking the next step and replacing bank tellers.



And no this isn't an ATM machine. This thing is a fully functional bank teller with respects to currency exchange, traveler's/cashier's checks, exact change withdrawl, etc...

So you are saying marine biology is an actual profession. And not just a fancy way of saying I work at Seaworld ?

If I can't train dolphins what is the point of living ?

Drugs.

If those are anything like the supermarket self-checkout machines, they won't be replacing people for too long as the public is too stupid to work them.