Businesses find creative ways to cope with minimum wage hikes

[Bronzeage]

What is the incentive to reduce service? Service is what brings in the money. If a bar doesn't make money after 11pm, it's not a reduction in service to close at 11. You aren't serving anyone.

If a business is working at full capacity and can't pay the bills, that's one thing, but a business which could easily accommodate more customers and doesn't have them is not a viable business, if it can't cover it's expenses.

Would dropping the minimum wage saved any of these businesses? What point do we go to keep a business open? Would a crew which consisted of six family members who work full time just to cover the fixed costs be a tenable business model?

A bar makes money after 11pm. The question is if it makes enough to meet costs. The higher those costs the less likely this is to be true and the earlier it will close.

Is the bar shoulder to shoulder after 11pm? I don't think so.

But. I'll ask the question again. If the minimum wage dropped a buck, would it save the business?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

You have little faith in demand. We really need to employ everybody who needs work. Your idea is that the only thing that deserves to survive is some model of business that devalues human labor. That is really what this is all about...treating people as if they were merely disposable things to shuck at the first sign of discomfort. Your prediction is wrong in the first place. Of course the Republicans can still make it come true.

Yeah, I have little faith in demand that doesn't exist. Existing businesses are more than adequate to supply the current demand, increasing the demand will have very little effect on the number of businesses and little effect on the hours worked.

And your focus on the value of human labor shows that you're aiming for a fantasy land rather than reality. There aren't enough good jobs to go around, you can't handwave that away. The route to good jobs is improving the economy.