I don’t think you actually read my post that closely.
“Not that hard” refers to finding people that can do that work, not the actual work itself.
Not that I am shocked at this.
I was addressing your view of how CEO envision these jobs… They don’t think they are “hard” because they aren’t skilled… I agreed with you actually. CEOs are a myopic bunch.
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most of the federal welfare programs are remarkably well-managed with surprisingly little drain for overhead. this is especially true for those programs that are most closely run by the federal government. programs which have been block-granted and administered by states run the gamut although typically states with traditionally republican majorities tend to be run the most poorly. imo, it’s because most republicans in government would prefer the poor, the disabled, and the needy to die and do so quickly so they can give more tax breaks and direct subsidies to wealthy individuals and corporations.
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I made no statement of that kind.
Right, “hard work” need not be work that requires a highly refined skill set. You can pick up the basics of picking and packaging strawberries in an afternoon, but it’s still a damn hard job that most people wouldn’t be willing to do.
Besides, there will always be menial work that needs doing. Even if every American was able to attain a Doctorate in the field of their choice we’d still need people to take out the garbage. If those people are willing to work full-time, why shouldn’t they be able to earn a decent living wage?
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My bad. I thought we had a point of agreement there… So, do you agree with the CEOs? That paying unskilled laborers a living wage is not workable? I don’t think the point is the raise wages to be competitive with an engineer, but to raise wages to be a living wage… and the CEO doesn’t seem to understand why that’s a good idea. Do you think he’s correct that $15 bucks an hour would wreck the economy?
[ETA] Also, as far as companies looking for a rare skill set, what’s going to happen (and has already happened with off shoring and bringing in HB1 Visa applicants) is that the market for programmers is going to get flooded. In reality, they care far less about skill (as much as they harp on about it) as they do about finding people who can do the job (however poorly) and churn out a product. They talk a good game about quality and craftmanship, etc, but at the end of the day, if they can drive down the costs of paying engineers by funding computer science programs in colleges and flood the market with cheaper labor, they will do that. You have an entire generation coming up that fancies themselves digital natives, and will be willing to get their foot in the door at a cheap price… I’m assuming here that we are of a similar age (Gen X? 30s or 40s), but the job market is about to change dramatically for the kind of work you’re talking about, given the numbers of millennials about to burst onto the job market. It’s kind of scary to think about…
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$15/hr is workable, which I said in another post. Granted, it was lumped in with some speculation on whether the CEO is under franchisee pressure or not.
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Uh - that is just one program under a very large umbrella.
Okay… good deal. I think that’s the key element.
I do think talking about the structure of a company is fair. However, I’d argue that many things are forced to be similar across Franchises - you can’t go with a different font or color scheme, for example. I’d suspect if the parent corporation wrote some stuff into its franchise agreement about wages, they’d have to comply at the end of the day.
Labor costs, from a 45 second Google search at fast food restaurants run about 30%. So you bump up your cost to 40%, then offset it with what, a 4% price increase?
So to be generous the McDonald’s dollar menu either has loss leaders removed or they cost a buck and a nickel. Let’s say for arguments sake $1.25.
Oh and this doesn’t affect full service, since you keep wages artificially low and still cover them with tips. Spending power of consumers who shop at price sensitive stores are also increased, raising revenue.
If that breaks the economy I’ll eat my hat and your hat.
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I’m unclear on if that is the case. Some people have mentioned that the franchise structure has the advantage (and some say, purpose) of isolating the parent corporation from such dirty laundry. We know for a fact, of course, that this is the case with outsourcing and layered contracting.
I wouldn’t be shocked if a wage decision on DD’s part did or did not filter down to the franchises, either way.
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yes… Fortunately, I think our hats are safe! [ETA] I don’t even know where my hat is, come to think of it…
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Tell that to my ex-wife (ha!)
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I think the point is that they COULD if the parent corporation wanted them too. I know someone who owns a franchise, and they forced her to update her restaurant recently. They could put labor stipulation into the franchise contracts if they can mandate things like the way the stores look, the uniforms the employees wear, the type of food they serve, etc. The point is they don’t and as you say, I do think it’s about isolating the parent company…
Yeah, that was kind of my point. Just because it’s not skilled doesn’t mean its easy. [ETA] Also, no wonder she’s your ex-wife… if she was mopping all the floors and cleaning all your toilets… (found a better gif).
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So, my opinion is thus: mandating a single employer in a region, by whatever mechanism, to increase minimum wages is… Kinda crazy. That will create substantial competitive disadvantages. But at a state or federal level, bring it.
It kinda screws over say the $19/hour assistant managers–they ain’t gonna get a raise unless same store revenue increases at a faster pace than price increases.
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No, actually I did a majority of the cleaning, especially the bathrooms. And she couldn’t load a dish washer right if her life depended on it.
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People have pointed to Europe for living wages, and I will point again here. Europe gets by with living wages for servers at full service restaraunts and the food is relatively cheap.
(Except the UK. Everything costs a lot in the UK.)
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Oh… yeah, a last marriage depends on both sides picking up their load of house work. That’s a rarity, though. Usually it’s the other way around (women, even those doing the majority bread winning, are the ones who do the majority of housework)…
Yep. Wages in the US have several discrete battles to wage.
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