Universal living wage or locally adjusted minimum wage. Employer liability protection or does everyone become an independent contractor? Minimum wage is civilisationally necessary, wage slaves do not help the function of an open, efficient market, as the market is there to serve people, human beings. Doing the right thing actually turns out to be the profitable thing, both long and short term...
Purely anecdotal: I employ about 300 people in my restaurant group. 200 of those in CA, the rest evenly between NV/FL/NY. All 4 states have different minimum wages, especially if you consider tip credit laws. From my perspective a higher minimum wage tends to create more productive workers. Yes, labor is higher in CA but in FL I spend a ton of money on hiring because the workforce is crap and unreliable. And it is too the point that I now pay CA wages in FL to attract better people.
With that said the cost of living in CA is spiraling so far out of control that the minimum wage increases are useless. Localities are trying to tie minimum wage to CPI but the majority of cost increases are caused by excessive government regulation. What become tough for me is that a true entry level position becomes so expensive that it is difficult for me to raise my more skilled crew. Even the best cashier in the world simply isn't going to return the wage increase in productivity. I used to reward my middle level with OT. Full time employees would get put onto good salaried positions (75k+ as assistant manager for fast food). This is now more difficult as money gets driven to the least skilled employees.
But the greatest threat to small businesses in a state like CA isn't minimum wage! It's all the other labor related regulations. The break laws are insane, and rarely actually desired by staff. Over time and double time are wild. Work comp is outrageous. Unemployment claims are an automatic win for employees. Cost of state mandated training of all new hires regarding sexual harassment. The ease with which employees can sue employers is crazy. I probably receive requests for records once a week from "law firms" that are basically call centers that go on fishing expeditions under the guise of "time clock auditing". There is basically ZERO protections for employers. And it is getting to the point that to maintain decent labor % you schedule employees for no more than 5hrs, which means that people I used to give 45hrs per week now have to work 2-3 jobs.
Since the cost of living is skyrocketing, I can't increase my prices either because price elasticity has been artificially tightened. So there is no real way to offset these costs.
And I haven't even gotten to start up costs. $60k in traffic mitigation fees to the city for a taco shop!!
Bottom line is that minimum wage isn't why we're expanding outside of CA, it's everything else that just gets piled on.
I would be very interested in your thoughts on minimum wage in the context of small business vs large corp.
Just as different localities should have a minimum wage based on local cost of living, should legislation differntiate and local clothing store and Walmart?
Universal living wage or locally adjusted minimum wage. Employer liability protection or does everyone become an independent contractor? Minimum wage is civilisationally necessary, wage slaves do not help the function of an open, efficient market, as the market is there to serve people, human beings. Doing the right thing actually turns out to be the profitable thing, both long and short term...
Purely anecdotal: I employ about 300 people in my restaurant group. 200 of those in CA, the rest evenly between NV/FL/NY. All 4 states have different minimum wages, especially if you consider tip credit laws. From my perspective a higher minimum wage tends to create more productive workers. Yes, labor is higher in CA but in FL I spend a ton of money on hiring because the workforce is crap and unreliable. And it is too the point that I now pay CA wages in FL to attract better people.
With that said the cost of living in CA is spiraling so far out of control that the minimum wage increases are useless. Localities are trying to tie minimum wage to CPI but the majority of cost increases are caused by excessive government regulation. What become tough for me is that a true entry level position becomes so expensive that it is difficult for me to raise my more skilled crew. Even the best cashier in the world simply isn't going to return the wage increase in productivity. I used to reward my middle level with OT. Full time employees would get put onto good salaried positions (75k+ as assistant manager for fast food). This is now more difficult as money gets driven to the least skilled employees.
But the greatest threat to small businesses in a state like CA isn't minimum wage! It's all the other labor related regulations. The break laws are insane, and rarely actually desired by staff. Over time and double time are wild. Work comp is outrageous. Unemployment claims are an automatic win for employees. Cost of state mandated training of all new hires regarding sexual harassment. The ease with which employees can sue employers is crazy. I probably receive requests for records once a week from "law firms" that are basically call centers that go on fishing expeditions under the guise of "time clock auditing". There is basically ZERO protections for employers. And it is getting to the point that to maintain decent labor % you schedule employees for no more than 5hrs, which means that people I used to give 45hrs per week now have to work 2-3 jobs.
Since the cost of living is skyrocketing, I can't increase my prices either because price elasticity has been artificially tightened. So there is no real way to offset these costs.
And I haven't even gotten to start up costs. $60k in traffic mitigation fees to the city for a taco shop!!
Bottom line is that minimum wage isn't why we're expanding outside of CA, it's everything else that just gets piled on.
(Written on my phone, hence spelling/ grammar)
I would be very interested in your thoughts on minimum wage in the context of small business vs large corp.
Just as different localities should have a minimum wage based on local cost of living, should legislation differntiate and local clothing store and Walmart?