Audacity of Truth
Rahmbo:
"Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."
-Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) on Obama's COS, 3/7/10
Velvet Lair- Legends March 18, 2010
- Some things are just not cute March 18, 2010
- The adventures of the lady spider killer continue March 11, 2010
- Intermission February 19, 2010
- People who allow their dogs to poop in other people’s yards February 16, 2010
Arizona’s new minimum wage law forcing employers to lay off staff, cut back hours
Via the Arizona Republic:
Oh, for the days when Arizona’s high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.
That’s certainly not the case under the state’s new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month.
Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they’re cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.
And teens are among the first workers to go.
Companies maintain the new wage was raised to $6.75 per hour from $5.15 per hour to help the breadwinners in working-poor families. Teens typically have other means of support.
Mark Messner, owner of Pepi’s Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school.
“I’ve had to go to some of my kids and say, ‘Look, my payroll just increased 13 percent,’ ” he said. ” ‘Sorry, I don’t have any hours for you.’ ”
Messner’s monthly cost to train an employee has jumped from $440 to $580 as the turnover rate remains high.
“We go to great lengths to hang on to our high school workers, but there are a lot of kids who come in and get one check in their pocket and feel like they’re living large and out the door they go,” he said. “We never get our return on investment when that happens.”
For years, economists have debated how minimum-wage increases impact the teenage workforce.
The Employment Policies Institute in Washington, which opposed the recent increases, cited 2003 data by Federal Reserve economists showing a 10 percent increase caused a 2 percent to 3 percent decrease in employment.
Layoffs and cutbacks and hours are ok, though, because it’s all for the greater good. Right?
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Hmmmm…more unhappy unemployed people means more Democrat voters, that’s the ticket! Got to derail that good economic news somehow, how can we paint this as the worst economy since the Hoover admin if unemployment is below 5%?
Golly, too bad nobody saw this coming! I mean, make it more expensive to employ people and some small businesses might have to make cuts…
It’s just so… counterintuitive!
Next, let’s have Congress pass a law mandating that no business can make more than, say ten percent profits! Any more than that they have to tithe to Al Gore’s Church of Gaia. And they have to, uh, give all their employees free gold plated Cadillacs! And back rubs! And free ice cream for everybody! Yaaaay!!!
This has to be crap because the left claimed it wouldn’t happen this way. They don’t lie because they know what’s best for us better than we do.
I have been a commissioned salesperson my whole life. I get paid based on my in my individual production and I like it like that.
Therefore, I’m going to leave the minimum wage subject alone for today.
Ok…here I go. Arguing with myself from a previous posting on the subject a few months back.
The reason for a minimum wage, whether it be local or national, is to ensure that employers do not engage in unfair labor practices, as was witnessed when the first immigrants were filling up the east coast and many were forced to work long hours for little pay.
Kind of like, but not as bad as, what goes on in China in today’s world.
G-Monster states:
Therefore, I’m going to leave the minimum wage subject alone for today.
Comment by G-Monster @ 2/12/2007 – 2:49 am
and then…..
Ok…here I go. Arguing with myself from a previous posting on the subject a few months back.
Comment by G-Monster @ 2/12/2007 – 3:04 am
Well G that lasted all of what…15 minutes?
The basic problem with the minimum wage is that the people that it most affects are those that are just entering the work force. As a teen years ago, my first job was in a grocery store making, I think at that time either $1.35 to 2.15 an hour. I was grateful for the extra money. I didn’t really need it, but it taught me how to save for my first car, and bought gas for that car.
When teens get forced out of the work force by minimum wage laws, that force small businesses to make hard decisions on staffing, the result is not only the loss of jobs, but the loss of learning how to be an effective employee, and how to be responsible. But I guess in our fast food mentality that we have today, that is just too big of a lesson to learn.
Arcman, that is an excellent point! The vast majority of minimum wage earners are people starting out in the work force, people with few marketable skills and usually little to no experience. These are the people who desperately need job experience even more than they need the money in many cases, they need to learn how to be a good employee, and need to garner experience of any kind so that future employers will consider them for better jobs. Jacking up the minimum wage to a point where they can’t get this experience is not doing them or society at large any favors, it’s not like most young people today are coming out of high school just perfectly educated and trained, depriving them of work experience just further handicaps them when it comes to being able to earn a living and become productive members of society.
Well IMHO this lefty understands full well that until this nation secures its borders teenagers are going to take it up the tailpipe when entering or trying to enter workforce. Until that changes and this nation truly gets serious stopping illegal immigration tyhis subject really ain’t worth the oxygen talking about. BTW I just smoked so I’m in a good mood.
Democrats just insist on proving they don’t know diddle squat about economic laws. They want a Command and Control government a la the Soviet 5 year plans that never worked and were environmental disasters.
Damn tommy, starting early aren’t you? Well, I guess the sun’s over the yardarm somewhere…
For once, though, you have managed to post something that makes sense, until we get the illegals under control the low wage earners and kids looking for new jobs are going to have a hard time. Witness what happened after the raids at the meat packing plants recently, US citizens were lining up for the jobs. It wasn’t that US citizens weren’t willing to do the work, it was that the company preferred cheaper illegals that they could abuse and the employees couldn’t complain about it. No breaks? Dangerous conditions, no problem, Jose can’t complain, he’s illegal. Which is pretty disgusting.
No doubt Sev no doubt this is off topic a bit I guess but as a Democrat I’m disgusted that no congresscritter from my party didn’t sign the petition to pardon those 2 border patrol agents
Em, you mean did sign the petition? You’re upset that no Democrat signed the petition to free the border patrol agents? I think they’ve been badly treated by both parties, and it’s apparent that the Homeland Security people have lied about the incident and facts, which is doubly disgusting. But I guess pandering to the Hispanic vote knows no bounds, but then the border patrol agents were Hispanic from what I gather.
Yeah Sev the whole story is just a disgrace it’s just as bad as the kids from Duke University this stuff really shouldn’t happen but sadly it does
wow, tommy – you really must be high if you’re agreeing with the right on anything!
Tommy, ever see a film called “Breaker Morant”? It’s about these Australian soldiers in the Boer War in South Africa who were railroaded in order to secure a peace treaty between the British and the Boers. They executed prisoners according to orders, and after the fact to placate the Boers and make a treaty possible they were thrown to the wolves, and the Brits lied thru their teeth about the issue, refused to make witnesses available, etc. A disgraceful episode, but as we see today all too common an occurrence sadly.
Yeah Sev I did see that movie and it was pretty kick-ass. My all time favorite movie BTW was a German flick called Das Boot. Also ST I’ll tell you something you don’t know about me. My Dad who is going to be 81 soon has voted republican since Dewey in 48 and he’s a real,real smart man so just because I like getting zooted doesn’t mean I’m uninformed.
Das Boot is an outstanding film tommy, but you have to watch it in German with subtitles, it’s a lot better than the poor dubbing job. That film, in a theater on a large screen, is about 3 hours of intense claustrophobia.
tommy, I’d consider you ill-informed whether you were getting ‘zooted’ or not. However, I’m encouraged by the fact that you keep visiting this blog, reading my posts, and participating in the comments, which shows me that you do have the desire to become better-informed on the issues
Yeah Sev I couldn’t watch the dubbed verison for more than 5 minutes because it aggrivated me.ST I don’t why you consider me ill-informed you can trash my viewpoints that’s fine but I certinly do read alot and keep on top of current events.
Sure, ST. Tommy’s not ill-informed, its just that the info doesn’t get processed properly through the haze. So he can’t handle the weed, or he gets better weed than I do. If I could afford some, I’d light up and ponder that.