The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
A new law goes into effect in April that will boost minimum wage to $20 per hour for fast food workers, which is $4 more than the state minimum wage of $16 that will be effective Jan. 1.
QUESTION: Do you think this will eventually help or hurt employees, and do you think minimum wage should be the same across the board for all industries?
Talk about it….
32 comments
There is absolutely no reason someone making fast food should be making $20 an hour. It’s an entry level job and should have entry level pay.
Which is why we have $15 burritos and burgers when they were less than $5 a few years ago.
A lot of places will eventually have to close. Just think of all the other employees above the entry level person that will also expect a raise. Businesses that are struggling a bit are most likely doomed.
@Anon – There’s absolutely no reason an apartment rental should be $3000 per month and for PG&E+water+sewer+garbage to be $500 per month. $3500/month works out to $21 per hour for someone working full time. If you are paid $21/hour then you end up with zero money in your pocket after paying the rent and basic utilities. Zero money means you can’t buy food, clothes, etc. Zero money means you can’t afford a car, or any form of transportation. Zero money means you can’t afford any form of education or training to improve your life. If you want a job it’s probably useful to have a phone so that potential employers can reach you. Can you get a phone plus monthly service for zero? Minimum wage workers are very much in a bad place.
Get a roommate and share …. Or get a job that pays more money … or move to a cheaper location. Sorry, there is no requirement that everyone should have their own single bedroom apt in Walnut Creeek.
If you’re a landlord and have to pay insurance/HOA’s ( HOA’s for mine are 729.00$/mo) repairs ( so you hire people) often times attorney’s if you have to evict, and then if you have to redo because of damages. So just the example of the handyman or contractor. There fee’s have gone up because of minimum wage going up, and the people they pay. They pay above minimum wage. So now the landlords cost have increased significantly. Same with Insurance. All those people who work at Insurance companies aren’t going to be happy with 20$ an hour anymore, because now it’s “minimum wage”, so they have to pay them much more. The Insurance Co. isn’t going to absorb the pay increases, payroll tax increases and medical insurance increases ( same thing happens in that industry and the cost gets passed on to the Insurance Co., a viscous cycle) nope, they pass it on to me, and to everyone else. So ALL GOODS AND SERVICES increase. That means rent increases, food increases and the cycle continues. The government does not HELP, they are screwing this up. The majority of businesses already pay above minimum wage without the government getting involved.
Hurt employees. It’s another round of inflation. The prices of things they might now be able to afford to will go up in price. Idiocracy from the moronic “feelgood” democrats. Too bad they weren’t smart enough to stay awake in their economics courses (though doubtful they had any). The “minimum wage” is not a “magical solution”. Only idiots believe that. Economics are more complicated than that.
A wage increase is great BUT when everything else goes up. It is a wash.
But don’t worry. The govt will now get their cut with more taxes being taken out as well.
It should be the same across all industries, and min. wage will hurt some employees. One pizza chain is getting rid of delivery drivers. Some will lose hours/their job. Others will benefit with a wage increase which is absurd. Fast food prices will rise, but I don’t eat fast food. Why should fast food workers benefit 25% more than other min. wage employees?
As someone that works retail I kind of agree with that, although I do make more than minimum wage, and also have other income.
These ENTRY LEVEL positions were Never intended to be a career (unless you’re the Manager). Things seemed to work just Fine when high school or college kids held these jobs.
That is kind of true, but not for everyone. Perhaps that is all someone is capable of, does not mean they are not good workers. Often, especially for women, when they come out of a divorce or abusive relationship, that is all they can get, since they don’t have recent experience, eventually they might get enough experience and can move up or on. Sometimes you need a little extra money to move your life ahead. when I decided to get my insurance license and start to sell Long Term Care Insurance, I oould never have done that on a minimum wage with barely making ends meet. Since it cost money to get your license, and you have to take time off to study for it, and then if you sign on with an insurance company, since it is commission only it might be a few months before you see some money. I was lucky, I had savings and other income so I could do it. Not everyone can.
The state’s minimum at $16 is just over twice the federal minimum. For new entry level employees, $16 will do until they prove they can do the job properly. All the companies I ever worked for started at a set lower wage. If you were still there after 3 to 6 months, you got a small increase. After a year on the job you may or may not get another raise.
Working at a fast food joint was never intended to be a lifelong career. Places like McDonald’s, Jack in the Box, etc. were originally built to offer fast, and cheap food for people on the go. They were places where a high school kid could get a part-time job, learn work ethics, and earn a few dollars.
Fast food workers are pricing themselves out of a job, and Newsom isn’t helping them. When eating fast food cost just as much as a regular restaurant, people will go to the regular restaurant. Fast food owners realize this, and will do whatever they have to do to keep prices down. There are already some places experimenting with robots. The customer drives up to the kiosk, touches the buttons to place their order, and a robot will cook the food, and another robot will deliver it to the customer, It won’t be long before most, if not all fast food joints start using robots, and it won’t be long before the unemployment line gets longer.
Gavin Newsom is an astute businessman, he must realize his $20.00 minimum wage will do more harm than good. I don’t know what he has up his sleeve, but I certainly don’t trust him.
Using deep pockets to get low skilled workers off welfare programs.
Reality, as pay goes up and welfare is withdrawn due to income increase employees will demand fewer hours to lower income. Happened up in Washington state when minimum wage rate was raised. Liberal politicians simplistically believe whatever they think up will work perfectly but that very rarely happens.
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Minimum wage is a starting point and is low to reflect employees lacking skills set. Low pay is an incentive to learn skills set employers are willing to pay up for. The more skills the better job and higher pay you’ll get.
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What will accelerate is replacement of expensive human labor with automation.
Already seeing ordering kiosks.
World’s first restaurant exclusively staffed by robotic cooks
that flip burgers and make fries says it’s ready to launch in California’
dailymail http://tinyurl.com/h5eu5nkz
.
‘Millions of fast food workers could lose their jobs
in the next five years because of AI, expert claims’
dailymail http://tinyurl.com/5954fzke
.
Dim witted DEM politicians are putting people out of work.
‘Pizza Hut Fires Over 1,200 Drivers In California Before New $20 Minimum Wage Comes Into Effect’
caglobe http://tinyurl.com/f5kejted
.
Vote DEMs out of office
Ridiculous
The customer will decide . Inflation the last couple of years has made it difficult for many. These wage and price increases to come won’t help.
Sorry, bur some employees just aren’t worth that much.
I was at a fast food place earlier this week, The kid behind the counter didn’t have the skill or experience to earn $20. I wouldn’t pay him that. I fear most people will see the $20 and not be motivated to educate themselves.
Cowellian, That is true, I have worked with some. However, they are in the minority. I noticed this year at Macy’s the people the hired for the Holidays is of much better quality than previous years, I can disclose what they are paid, nor do I know, but I know it went up and it show. The are fast learners and hard workers.
Fast food prices are already ridiculous.
How much more can they go up?
I won’t pay outrageous prices, so I gave it up (wasn’t good for me anyway).
I wonder how they expect to pay anyone $20 per hour if their customers stop going there?
Complete bull/horse manufactured fertilizing material. Not sure it is worth $20/hour to listen to a customer request certain food items, hit the button on the register, and at the end make change if paying cash. Not a tremendous amount of effort nor talent required for this. To make it worth paying this role/position, the profit has to be a certain amount, so that higher price being paid for what used to be a few dollars burger, we, the customer, have to pay a premium, because some politician thought he could get a voting bloc by making innkeepers have to pay unnecessarily more for staff. This has nothing to do with labor, commerce and business, and only redistribution.
This is all about getting votes. The Democrats do this and they get votes from the low income workers. Prepare yourself for the $15 Big Mac meal. Even more, so prepare yourself for more fast food automation. it’s already coming and you can see it all over town in the new ordering kiosks.
Fast food jobs are not meant to be career jobs… prices are too high now – when they raise them again, they’ll lose business.. either close or lay off more employees… yup, sounds like a dem model all right
Whenever the Government dictates the economic marketplace, the economy fails.
This is his plan to support his favorite gene pool. Not coincidentally, next Monday illegal aliens become eligible for tax-payer funded health insurance.
See a pattern yet? He’s investing in future votes and forcing us to finance it.
Gavin Newsom: Nefarious right down to his toenails.
Why is there a minimum wage? You should get paid what your services are worth. If you don’t like what you are getting paid, improve your skills and get a better job. Just make the minimum wage $250 per hour so everybody can live in luxury………………..
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” Karl Marx
I would like to hear the reasoning on why Fast Food workers are the ones getting more instead of any other entry level position. Sure does appear like favoritism to certain people which is the very thing they claim to be fighting against
When is the last time anyone seen a teenager from a local suburban home working at a fast food place? Now the fast food workers I see are largely Hispanic immigrants
Guess it’s time to Invest some money into robotic kitchen companies.
Self serve vending machines are just around the corner for fast food establishments. So for those who want a career in fast food, better get trained in management.
I guess my only question is who are the unruly tweakers going to throw their food at?
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