4 hours ago, MidMoFo said:

I’m not necessarily in favor of a $15 minimum wage.

But I always want to question the memes/comments that a cheeseburger price will go to $10 or $25 or whatever level the poster decides to freak out to. 
If the free market is setting the price for a fast food sammich... aren’t companies selling said sammich for the maximum price customers are willing to pay vs the number of sammiches sold at a higher or lower price, so as to maximize profit, Correct? So raising the minimum wage would obviously raise the price to make sammich, possibly causing  certain sammich making feasible or not feasible, but isn’t the maximum price already set?

You’re missing the other side of the equation. By increasing wages, you will increase demand and purchasing power. So you can sell the same number of hamburgers at a higher price. 
 

Then there is the cost side. Assume you can’t raise prices, so you sell fewer hamburgers. Well, you aren’t going to operate at a loss, and you don’t need as many employees making hamburgers. So you lay people off to reduce costs. 
 

One last point. Think of gasoline. The price of oil rises, refiners increase prices to maintain margins. The increase in prices doesn’t have an immediate impact on demand because gasoline is an inelastic good - you need it. So is...food. 

28 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

You’re missing the other side of the equation. By increasing wages, you will increase demand and purchasing power. So you can sell the same number of hamburgers at a higher price. 
 

Then there is the cost side. Assume you can’t raise prices, so you sell fewer hamburgers. Well, you aren’t going to operate at a loss, and you don’t need as many employees making hamburgers. So you lay people off to reduce costs. 
 

One last point. Think of gasoline. The price of oil rises, refiners increase prices to maintain margins. The increase in prices doesn’t have an immediate impact on demand because gasoline is an inelastic good - you need it. So is...food. 

Isn't there a difference in that I can't refine my own crude oil into gas, but I can make my own burger if the cost of a fast food burger is too high? Sure the cost of raw food would be higher too in this scenario, but to a lesser degree I'd assume, no?

45 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

You’re missing the other side of the equation. By increasing wages, you will increase demand and purchasing power. So you can sell the same number of hamburgers at a higher price. 
 

Then there is the cost side. Assume you can’t raise prices, so you sell fewer hamburgers. Well, you aren’t going to operate at a loss, and you don’t need as many employees making hamburgers. So you lay people off to reduce costs. 
 

One last point. Think of gasoline. The price of oil rises, refiners increase prices to maintain margins. The increase in prices doesn’t have an immediate impact on demand because gasoline is an inelastic good - you need it. So is...food. 

I’m not missing it. I get it, and I agree with everything you’re saying. 
 

I work in the construction industry. We don’t hire people for less than $15 an hour, we don’t even waste our time with that. We also let people go and find new in a short amount of time when they aren’t worth it. People freak out about minimum wage where I just don’t see the significance. If minimum wage is going to affect your life that much, you’re a sloppy mess anyway. 
 

Building materials have double and in some cases tripled in the last year... not a meme or thread one. Over pricing materials will sink our industry faster than wage increases. Suppliers I deal with aren’t expecting prices to go back down when we get through the pandemic. Labor costs average 25-40% of the overall cost of a project and that’s falling due to price increases for materials and we pay well.

Places like Wawa and Sheetz are already paying $11 or $12 an hour now.  Because that’s what you have to pay to get reliable workers. 
 

10 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

Places like Wawa and Sheetz are already paying $11 or $12 an hour now.  Because that’s what you have to pay to get reliable workers. 
 

Like I said most companies have been planning for this for years. They have been raising starting wages practically every year, so.in way they have been creating their own minimum wage. 

On 1/21/2021 at 11:58 PM, Dave Moss said:

Places like Wawa and Sheetz are already paying $11 or $12 an hour now.  Because that’s what you have to pay to get reliable workers.

I know someone who is a manager at Sheetz, so I have some inside info....they're still not reliable, lol.

13 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

I know someone who is a manager at Sheetz, so I have some inside info....they're still not reliable, lol.

Bingo

and they wont be at 15 either. Its still the same pool of low quality people

7 hours ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

I know someone who is a manager at Sheetz, so I have some inside info....they're still not reliable, lol.

You could give them 20/hr you are either a worker and a go better or you are not. These people will just make a few more bucks more bouncing from one 15 dollar an HR job to another. When you can still get just as much or more to sit at home that's what people will do. 

This is why all of those $15 per hour minimum wage posts kept popping up:

I'm pretty sure it was part of Biden's platform running in the election... Now they're following through with it.

11 minutes ago, toolg said:

This is why all of those $15 per hour minimum wage posts kept popping up:

I'm pretty sure it was part of Biden's platform running in the election... Now they're following through with it.

Not a fan of this. States and cities can have their own minimum wage set at levels above the federal minimum wage, which makes sense to me as cost of living is highly variable. A federal "one size fits all" policy like this will have plenty of unintended consequences.

4 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Not a fan of this. States and cities can have their own minimum wage set at levels above the federal minimum wage, which makes sense to me as cost of living is highly variable. A federal "one size fits all" policy like this will have plenty of unintended consequences.

That is about the only thing I liked about trump was him letting the states figure out what wage scale works for them

20 minutes ago, toolg said:

This is why all of those $15 per hour minimum wage posts kept popping up:

I'm pretty sure it was part of Biden's platform running in the election... Now they're following through with it.

There is a lot of Democrats that don't really care for the 15 bucks an hour as well. So minimum wage will go up but it will be over time and I don't know that it will get to 15

12 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Not a fan of this. States and cities can have their own minimum wage set at levels above the federal minimum wage, which makes sense to me as cost of living is highly variable. A federal "one size fits all" policy like this will have plenty of unintended consequences.

It's only a matter of time before it passes in every state anyway.  Trumpism has essentially killed the popular opposition to this kind of proposal.  Look at Florida.  Went for Trump, but overwhelmingly went for $15/hr min wage.  The new populism of the right separates these sort of broad liberal economic ideas from the truly toxic (to rural America) social aspects of the left and makes them palatable again for middle America.

9 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

It's only a matter of time before it passes in every state anyway.  Trumpism has essentially killed the popular opposition to this kind of proposal.  Look at Florida.  Went for Trump, but overwhelmingly went for $15/hr min wage.  The new populism of the right separates these sort of broad liberal economic ideas from the truly toxic (to rural America) social aspects of the left and makes them palatable again for middle America.

Sad but true. Trump is closer to Sanders on economic policy than someone like Reagan.

Trump's complete murder of fiscal conservatism was a debacle. 

Can we do a minimum wage based off locality? Or should I shut up 

1 minute ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Can we do a minimum wage based off locality? Or should I shut up 

We do. Local governments handle it.

Minimum wage should be 1/10th a Vikas polo.

2 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Can we do a minimum wage based off locality? Or should I shut up 

I've often thought a reasonable compromise would be to peg Fed. minimum wage to local/state cost-of-living

20 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

It's only a matter of time before it passes in every state anyway.  Trumpism has essentially killed the popular opposition to this kind of proposal.  Look at Florida.  Went for Trump, but overwhelmingly went for $15/hr min wage.  The new populism of the right separates these sort of broad liberal economic ideas from the truly toxic (to rural America) social aspects of the left and makes them palatable again for middle America.

Yeah this is unfortunately true. The perils of letting unchecked populism engulf a supposedly fiscally conservative party. 

The optimal solution is simple -- abolish the minimum wage and let the market work. The obsession with nominal wages instead of real purchasing power is why we can inflate asset prices and no one really cares. Asset owners make out well, the wealth gap increases, but hey -- we gave you more paper currency!

Hey, it helps me, so whatever...

28 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

There is a lot of Democrats that don't really care for the 15 bucks an hour as well. So minimum wage will go up but it will be over time and I don't know that it will get to 15

Yeah federal minimum wage is already tethered to inflation (assessed every 2 years I believe?) so it would probably be a while before hitting $15.

4 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Yeah this is unfortunately true. The perils of letting unchecked populism engulf a supposedly fiscally conservative party. 

My memory's failing me, but I think someone posted not long ago about how Trumpism most closely aligns with pre-Civil Rights Dixiecrats.  And it's true.  You think Southern Democrats, who later became hard-core Republicans have an issue with federally mandated wages or heavy-handed federal spending?  Of course they don't.  The big-tent that Reagan built in the GOP had just been keeping them in line with threats of Democrats turning everyone ghey or harvesting baby organs.  But once they were given the opportunity to separate those issues, they took it.  No putting that genie back in the bottle now.

On 1/22/2021 at 12:12 AM, Bwestbrook36 said:

Like I said most companies have been planning for this for years. They have been raising starting wages practically every year, so.in way they have been creating their own minimum wage. 

That's what they have to do to try and get employees and so why is a $15 minimum wage needed? Minimum goes to 15 Sheetz will have to go to 18-20 other places higher yet, prices go up and now the $15 is more or less like 8 bucks was before. Minimum should go up  bit but anyone working at a minimum wage job ought to work their way into a better paying job (yes even Sheetz)

I mean who even pays minimum wage anymore?