Minimum Wage or Minimum Accountability???
As most of you are aware – I started working around 13 –
back when the Minimum wage was $3.10 (which according to inflationdata.com – is
equal to $8.76 today.) Since I was 16 I
have received more than minimum wage for my work – even though I have always
worked in either retail or restaurants – and do you know why??? Because – I worked hard and did my job well.
In 1990, Minimum wage
went from $3.35 to $3.80 then $4.25 in 1991.
I was a server at the time and had hit the server ceiling at my
restaurant of $5.00 an hour. On both
occasions – my wages didn’t raise at all.
But yet 95% of the other servers did receive an increase due to these
changes. Now my question of the day is –
if everyone else got an increase because the cost of living had increased, then
didn’t mine? President Bush (the First… J ) didn’t take that
into account.
Also – In 2007 – I took a job getting almost double minimum
wage, I left on good terms in June of 2008 and moved out of town for 16 months
– I returned in September of 2009 – the minimum wage had gone up by $2.10 – but
I still returned at the same wage I had left at – and was the 3rd
highest paid in my department – the other two had been there before me, during
my absence, and were still there. So
all the hard work I had put in to getting the raises and all my experience gets
punished – now the ones who have no experience or work ethic get raises thanks
to the US Government, while those of us that have worked our way up to the top
of the pay scale receive nothing – when raise time came we heard “because costs
have gone up – we can’t give raises for a while.” Well costs didn’t just
increase for Minimum Wage workers – it increased for everyone!
Speaking of business costs – If Maryland increases the minimum
wage to $10.00 – that is a 27.5% increase from our current minimum wage of
$7.25 – Approximately 50% of entry level employees would get an increase of
some kind to get everyone to $10.00.
Being that I know restaurants – I know that in the food business, it is
a delicate balance between the cost of the product and the price of the
item. In Maryland, you try to keep all
costs below 75% of what the store takes in every day. Usually a cost breakdown is 20% food cost
(price the business pays for the food and beverages they serve), 40% towards
recurring costs (maintenance, Rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc.) and
15% unforeseen and advertising costs.
The 25% that is profit – it gets broken up into management salaries,
owner profit and some put back into the business to expand or remodel. Trust me – the owner’s profit isn’t as big as
most people think. Some owners never see
a true profit. But now that minimum wage
jumps up 27.5% that balance is thrown off.
The only choice most owners have is to either increase prices or cut the
number of employees on staff. Neither of
these choices are what we are looking for with our current economy. Also – morale in the store among the
employees tends to drop. Now the top
paid employees see the “Nugs” (New Useless Guy/Girl) getting paid closer to
their rate even though they have no knowledge of the job which got the
“Old-timers” the money they now make.
And even worse – the “Lugs” (Loser Useless Guys/Girls) – and we have all
worked with these people, the ones who are just there to get that check – are
now receiving a raise that they really don’t deserve. Morale drops – job performance drops –
profits drop – more cuts…. A deadly
cycle for a business. I have watched way
too many be choked to death because they can never get a solid financial base.
Our current governments – both State and Federal – have no
idea how bad raising the taxes on the “rich” – you know, the ones who sign the
pay checks – and raising minimum wage will hurt the small businesses. We have joked for years that Wal-Mart,
McDonald’s and Starbucks would run everything – but the more we destroy the
chance for small business to succeed, the more likely this will happen. Taxes are constantly being raised on
everything we buy, every penny we make, everything we do for
entertainment. Our Government keep
sending our money to everyone that has a hand out, spending more money than
they can even hope to collect – but what is the answer to fix that problem to
them – “Make the “rich” give even more to the ‘poor’” – but the rich are rich
for a reason – they don’t give away their money – so they raise their prices
and rates to make up for the loss. Prices and rates that the poor still have to
pay – pushing the “not quite poor” even closer to be the poor. Soon there will only be two classes of people
left – the rich and the poor. Sound
familiar?? Like the Royals and the
peasants? Didn’t that cause at least one
revolution?? Learn from the past people
– or you are doomed to repeat it…
Just Sayin’
