Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Right up to the moment he lost his Seattle $15 an hour minimum wage job. Because he is no longer competitive in the market. Because the $11 an hour he was making was what his employer could afford. Pizza franchise business owner Ritu Shah Burnham said she just can’t afford the city’s mandated wage hikes. “I’ve let one person go since April 1, I’ve cut hours since April 1, I’ve taken them myself because I don’t pay myself,” she said. She's working for nothing just to keep her business in business. How wrong is that?

http://www.dailywire.com/news/15913/may-day-tale-seattle-worker-loves-15-minimum-wage-joseph-curl?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=050217-news&utm_campaign=position1

When will they learn? Government intervention in economic decisions never ends well. As this minimum wage phases in, Seattle will become even more expensive to live in and as a result, even less populated. All because some politicians felt the need to interfere in private enterprise.

PeterS

One, wages went from 13 to 15 not 11 to 15. Two, how much has been added to costs? When I owned a Pizza restaurant we used to bring in people based on how busy we were so the increase in business always covered the cost of employees. What this owner doesn't seem to understand is that she doesn't pay the wages of her employees but her customers do. The only way she can lose money is if price increases caused her customer curve to go negative and so long as she sells quality pies and gives good customer service her customers will tolerate moderate price increases.

It's not government who is her problem but her lack of understanding on how business works. So long as she has good food and service her customers will tolerate a price increase. What they won't tolerate is shitty food and lousy service because she has no employees to prepare their food and serve them.

scottsatrucker Loc: southern Oregon

It's a shame when the only reason for the blind to exist is a refusal to see. I live in Oregon and have talked to Washingtonians who know of people in Seattle who will not go to work due to losing some part of their welfare at $15.00 an hour.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

If you had read the article, you would not have posted any of that because you would have known a lot more than you currently do. Go read the effing article.

PeterS

Okay I read your effing article and it doesn't change a single thing that I said. Customers pay the employees salary not the business owner. Every time I had costs go up I raised the over all price of a ticket enough to cover them. Never did I see my customer count go down because of a price increase. The main thing was to make sure that the product you gave them was the best possible. That meant great ingredients coupled cooked correctly with superior service. If ZPizza is going out of business it not because the cost to do business increased but because purchasing the product isn't justified by the price. Business is business and if you don't understand it then you should get out...

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

You got it exactly backwards. The cost to do business is increased to the tune of $4 an hour per employee. Therefore the price of the pizza has to go up to compensate for the rising cost, otherwise the store goes bankrupt. This happens across many businesses all at once. Suddenly the cost of living sees a substantial increase across the entire population, much to everybody's consternation. The customers, seeing their money buy less product, reduce their consumption to compensate for the higher costs. Since the demand for product is reduced, the business owner sees a falling income and is once again unable to pay the higher wages and is thus forced to close or raise prices still further and hope to arrive at some equilibrium point before there are no customers left to sell to.

This can all be summed up in just a few short statements. The business owner has a profitable operation and all is well. The government arbitrarily decides that the business owner is not paying the staff enough money and mandates a general rise in wages. The business owner is faced with a cash crunch and raises prices. Customers reduce demand due to higher prices. The business goes bankrupt and everybody is now out of work.

All because some politicians decided the business wasn't paying its employees enough.

crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island

Oh, come on, Larry. PeterS is a liberal. He knows everything. He doesn't have to justify anything. He is better than us.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Sure made a fool of himself this time.

jack sequim wa Loc: Blanchard, Idaho

From the Seattle Metro , since three years relocated. The required min wage was then putting business owners out, and preventing new business startups.
Who wants to pay $40.00 for a Pizza, or $25.00 lunch for two at Mc Donalds. .....
Seattle was one of the first cities to impose a living wage, minimum wage, that failed on every level.
Somehow this snowflake generation is incapable of understanding what entry level jobs are.