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Biden/Schumer/Pelosi Accountability Thread

So, counterpoint here. My mother runs a restaurant in SC. Small place in a small town, around a dozen employees total. They make enough money to pay the staff and keep the place open, but they certainly aren't raking it in. My mother isn't the most politically savvy and gets most of her information from the local news, but she says that the $15 minimum wage will kill her restaurant. Not so much in the wage itself, but the corresponding workman's comp payments are the real culprit. I haven't looked into this that deeply, as none of it really matters until it passes, but is this a real concern for small businesses, or is she just over-reacting?

She is not over reacting. I have a buddy who owns a small business in a rural area who feels the same way.
I would guess that in 75%-80% of the Country, a $15 minimum is more than fair but smaller, more rural areas it is a struggle for small businesses to survive, especially in these times.
 
$15/hr at 40/hr week for 52 weeks in $31,200/year

If your predatory business model can’t afford to pay people that, should it even exist in a decent modern society?
 
$15/hr at 40/hr week for 52 weeks in $31,200/year

If your predatory business model can’t afford to pay people that, should it even exist in a decent modern society?

Stupid small businesses should buy more money
 
cool, so redwing's mom should just stop being a slave owner and everything will be fine
 
She is not over reacting. I have a buddy who owns a small business in a rural area who feels the same way.
I would guess that in 75%-80% of the Country, a $15 minimum is more than fair but smaller, more rural areas it is a struggle for small businesses to survive, especially in these times.

To your point, the median hourly wage across all sectors of the economy in West Virginia is $16.31. Setting a nationwide baseline of $15/hr would be a disaster for West Virginia's economy. This is a state-by-state issue, and a federal "one size fits all" solution is not the answer.
 
Pop, Bored, you don't get it. If they sign the $15 minimum wage bill, the minimum wage doesn't go from $7.25 to $15 the day or the next month or even next year. It will be phased in over 4-5 years. Even in restaurants labor costs are rarely over 30%. In other businesses, the wage would have less impact.

Every time raising the minimum wage in brought up the trots out their big lie that it will cost jobs. It does the opposite. The demand increases due to having more money in people's pockets adds jobs.

The right doesn't understand (or more accurately doesn't care) how market economies work. They have never and will never work from the top down. Cutting taxes will never create jobs. The only way to create jobs in a market based economy is to create more demand. The people at the top can already buy what they want. There are tens of millions of people at the bottom and lower-middle class who create demand and thus jobs if they earn more.

Raising the minimum wage grows the economy in addition to be morally correct.
 
To your point, the median hourly wage across all sectors of the economy in West Virginia is $16.31. Setting a nationwide baseline of $15/hr would be a disaster for West Virginia's economy. This is a state-by-state issue, and a federal "one size fits all" solution is not the answer.

If it were a state by state issue do you think all states would have a minimum wage in line with the living wage in their state?
 
I think this is more nuanced than people are treating it.

Does the 16 year old bagging my groceries need a living wage or the teenager scanning my ticket at the movie theater?

But if we make those exceptions then McDonald’s will hire two teenagers instead of one single mother trying to raise a child.

What’s a living wage for a cohabitating couple with no kids vs the single mother?
 
You think a 16 year old living at home with their parents deserves to make a $15 minimum wage doing some kind of mindless job?
 
Assuming all 16 year olds are being supported by their parents and don’t need to make a meaningful contribution to their family’s finances is probably not accurate.

We either value work or we don’t. Whether someone is 16 and living at home or 25 and a single parent shouldn’t really matte.
 
Assuming all 16 year olds are being supported by their parents and don’t need to make a meaningful contribution to their family’s finances is probably not accurate.

We either value work or we don’t. Whether someone is 16 and living at home or 25 and a single parent shouldn’t really matte.

If their parent(s) earns livable wage then their livable wage is $0.
 
Did you need a living wage when you were in high school?

But if I had made a living wage during my summer jobs in high school it would’ve really helped out my parents not have to borrow so much money for me to go to my fancy ass prep school.
 
cool, so redwing's mom should just stop being a slave owner and everything will be fine

There’s a way to run a small business and not keep your workers in poverty. People will pay an extra 50 cents for their hamburger, and far more locals will be willing customers because they will now have actual disposable income to spend.

The only people who get punished by a minimum wage hike are the investor class, who don’t make or sell anything. It raises everyone else up.
 
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