4 replies to this topic

[diogenes227]

And now Alaska Airlines is doubling its operations in the little city that started it all.

SEATAC, WASHINGTON

Alaska Airlines Expansion

9 Months On, Koch Fears Realized After Town Raised Minimum Wage To $15


Author: Nathaniel Downes September 14, 2014 5:16 pm
Photo from 15 Now

In January (2014), the town of Seatac, Washington, put in to effect a new $15 per hour Minimum Wage. No ramp ups, no tiered implementation. One day it was the state standard, the next, the highest minimum wage in the nation. The Koch Brothers sank a fortune to fight this measure, which fell on deaf ears as the town rejected their trickle-down theories and instead voted for the measure. The result is that for one town, they became a test bed, to put the theories behind trickle-down economics to the test.

Now, nine months on, we are witnessing one of the most dramatic recoveries in the Pacific Northwest.

Last July, business owner Scott Ostrander claimed that the increased wage would force him to lay off staff, if not shut down his businesses.

I am shaking here tonight because I am going to be forced to lay people off. I’m going to take away their livelihood. That hurts. It really, really hurts. . . . And what I am going to have to do on Jan. 1 is to eliminate jobs, reduce hours — and as soon as hours are reduced, benefits are reduced.

Instead, his business, the Cedarbrook Lodge hotel, is expanding, adding 63 more beds to meet demand. Instead of layoffs, he needs to hire more people. And his story is not the only one.

Tom Douglas, who runs fifteen restaurants in the Seattle area, warned that a higher minimum wage law being considered by Seattle would force the shutdown of a quarter of his restaurants. Instead, after the results in Seatac, he is opening five new restaurants to meet demand. And this story is being repeated, over and over again, throughout the region.

Well paid employees pump money in to the local economies. This is basic economics, dating back to Adam Smith. Instead of slashing employees, which would impact any businesses ability to support their customers, they have turned to more direct approaches. A good example of this is MasterPark, an off-airport parking lot, which has added a $0.99 daily “Living Wage Surcharge“. Less than a dollar guarantees that MasterPark can give all of its employees a living wage, a small price to pay.

The biggest sign that the higher wage did not impact Seatac however comes with the news that the Seatac airport will be undergoing a half-billion dollar renovation and expansion. The growth of the airport, which as an extra-territorial administrative district does not require the higher minimum wage of the adjoining town, demonstrates that the fears pushed by the Koch Brothers and their multi-million dollar ad campaign are just nonsense.

They forgot the words of wisdom from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an address given in Cleveland, Ohio on October 16, 1936.

It is to the real advantage of every producer, every manufacturer and every merchant to cooperate in the improvement of working conditions, because the best customer of American industry is the well-paid worker.

Go HAWKS!

Edited by diogenes227, 30 January 2015 - 07:01 PM.

[Dex]

Where I live they have the 'Pink Plumber'. They raise their rates and say they will give the money to breast cancer research.

SeaTac workers “not happy” with $15 min. wage
http://shiftwa.org/s...th-15-min-wage/

[Rogerdodger]

Why only $15? That's not even a living wage. I say at least $30 with annual increases, full benefits and a cushy retirement after 20 years. And that's just for hamburger flipping high school dropouts with no education and no work ethic. Here come the illegals, soon to be replaced with the robots.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 01 February 2015 - 10:06 AM.

[AChartist]

The chant claims how can "they" raise a family on min wage? The cost of middle class is now $120k a year, probably because that might be 50k after tax and min statute liabilities. That is $60 an hour but since it is statute for the liberated two worker family with state child ownership, one can argue it is $30 an hour for two liberated slaves with state child rearing. But they don't want that. Upon getting into the extinct middle class cost structure which may be the top 5%, becomes more liability and less waste spending. There is a window of slavery to keep them out of grasp of liabilities that might be assumed in viability, below that window they tend to own and build nothing and just spend 100% at min sustenance, which is where they want them trapped. And the expanding numbers of illegal to work, unemployable below min wage, requires rising min wage for the min employed to cover the social losses. So that should be a self fulfilling spiral of rising min wage to cover rising taxes for rising social liabilities of the illegal to work. I imagine the lower levels with no viability-liability are the ones spending at retail trinketry. I notice the more I have for serious planning, the less I am able or willing to waste. So its a fine line for the mind control keeping them out of viability and into waste with gimmickry.

Edited by AChartist, 03 February 2015 - 09:03 PM.

[Rogerdodger]

I WAS WRONG!
It looks like I was way wrong with my $30 minimum wage idea.
Apparently artificially raising wages past the free market actually destroys businesses and JOBS!
I should have learned from Detroit, Cuba, and East Berlin.

In fact the CBO projected that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 could cost half-a-million jobs.


Local bookstore to close after San Fran jacks minimum wage...

When you increase the minimum wage, a business is forced to do one, or both, of the following things in order to continue earning a profit.
The first thing they can do is decrease the amount of labor they purchase and squeeze more efficiency out of said labor. Oftentimes, this is accomplished by automating work. This is why most fast food joints “allow” you to pour your own soda and bus your own table: They are getting you to perform the labor rather than paying someone to do the same. Similarly, this is why some burger joints are experimenting with machines that literally make the burgers automatically. Fewer people in the kitchen means less labor purchased. This is why the CBO projected that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 could cost half-a-million jobs.

After all the excess labor has been trimmed/replaced by mechanization, there’s a second thing that businesses can do: increase their prices. This is easier to do in some businesses than other. Starbucks adds 20 cents to everyone’s order, et voila. (Fast food outlets are in a slightly tighter spot than gourmet coffee shops; the whole reason to go to McDonald’s is because it’s quick and cheap.) Some businesses don’t really have that option, however. Consider, for instance, your friendly neighborhood bookstore.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 04 February 2015 - 09:19 AM.