$15 Minimum Wage - Real World Results

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

For to throw the hoolihan?

Or to raise dental floss?

a reply to: Phage

Huh?

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: MteWamp

No, but I do get sick leave, paid vacation, paid holidays (double time and a half if I work holidays), stress leave, time and a half for anything over 8 and a half hours a day, affordable health insurance, dental insurance, they also require a pay raise after so many hours worked. I've gotten nearly a $3 raise per hour since I started here just over a year ago.

Those things are only possible because the union makes them possible. When I moved I stayed in the same field of work, I didn't have those benefits with my non-unionized job before moving. My previous job provided me a paycheck and insurance that cost twice as much as it does now and that's all, so yeah, I love having a union to back me up.

Congratulations. Seriously.

If that makes you happy, and provides for your family, then you've arrived.

Be sated. Go make your paper. Be proud that you've rooted out your spot in the middle.

I guess that's good enough.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I ride an old Paint, I'm leadin' old Dan
I'm goin' to Montana just to throw the houlihan
They feed in the coulees, they water in the draw
Their tails are all matted, their backs are all raw

-Guthrie

I might be movin' to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of
Dental Floss

-Zappa

a reply to: Phage

Ah, both I guess.

a reply to: MteWamp

Thanks.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Kids

a reply to: Xtrozero

I'd mow about 15 lawns a day
Including weedwacking and a full clean up
For 15$ an hour in the Vancouver bc area.
Boss charged about 45 dollars a lawn.
45 x 15 = 675 (bosses total a day)
8 x 15 = 120$ / day (my pay)
Gas. Insurance. Equipment matinence.
Maybe 100 a day
675 - 220 = 555$ / day
555 x 5 = 2775$ a week

Keep in mind my boss was younger then me
And started his business on his own.
I agree that if you wanna be successful you have to go out and get it, take some risks.
But not everyone can be a business owner.
Until we can automate every job
There will always be a need for workers.
Is their any jobs that cannot be automated?

I was not unhappy with my pay because I was a new start in the trade.
And with the experience I gained I could easily take my skills to another company and recieve compensation that correlates to my knowledge and expertise.

I just wanted to throw in some context lol

Oh and btw..
Since when was washing cars considered
"Labour intensive" lol
Any of you ever done roofing in 40 degrees Celsius +?
Funny thing is I was getting paid less doing that then I was landscaping.

What I'm saying is service rendered doesn't always correlate with compensation recieved

a reply to: eriktheawful
Bingo!

We are facing that very thing ourselves. Alberta has had 2 minimum wage hikes recently.

Due to employee dissatisfaction, we lost close to 50% of the employees in the store. What was left of us were expected to continue to do the work of a full store roster, but not get any overtime AND on less than 40 hours per week most of the time. I've been working there for over a year and am still held down to part time. I was told at 6 months I'd be made full time. Nope. That was BS. They're keeping me at part so they don't have to give me more hours and pay me more.

They've since hired a bunch of new people, but just as Erik stated, they're now slashing the hours of employees that have been there for many years. So again, they're creating a situation where there are fewer employees on shift each day because of slashed hours, but expectations that those fewer employees will do the work of a full crew.

It's the stress and feeling of anxiety that was driving employees away before and they're starting the cycle again. There is something seriously demeaning about being told you're essentially useless because you can't do the work of 3 people because you're being short staffed day after day until your body is tired and sore and you're emotionally frazzled. The customers are upset because there are not enough employees to assist them. There are not enough employees to get stock out regularly, so shelves are empty. Ultimately, we get chewed out for being slow and nonproductive, when it's decisions waaay up the food chain that's driving this insanity.

I don't know what the solution is. I wish I did. I just know that it makes no sense to go and hire more people then start slashing hours so that the situation repeats itself over and over. It's counter productive.

a reply to: Subrosabelow

You'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone,
For the times they are a changin'.


But I don't think Bob figured on these times.

originally posted by: SupermassiveBlackHOLE

675 - 220 = 555$ / day
555 x 5 = 2775$ a week

Actually its 455 so 2,275 per week...do you mow in the winter too? My lawn doesn't need mowing from Nov to May and I live in Vancouver Washington a little below you. That would be 54,600 for him per year.

I was not unhappy with my pay because I was a new start in the trade.
And with the experience I gained I could easily take my skills to another company and recieve compensation that correlates to my knowledge and expertise.

Or start your own...Get the knowledge and skill and do it yourself.

a reply to: Phage

What this means is that an employer will either look for ways to reduce the total labor cost (fringes), or will close shop.

Not just those tho, many employers i've talked to absorb the extra cost , sometimes they are stuck in a hard place can't raise prices but don't wanna cut peoples hours , and they will and i've seen many do absorb the costs. Alot of them say they just been incurring a bonus all these years by it being at slave labour prices and its time to pay back the piper .

Secondly ! Alot of them whom do incurr the extra costs , also now look for new ways to produce the income lost . Many times they come out with new sources of revenue which makes them even more profitable then before ! Also minimum wage in ontario canada was suppose to hit 15 . jan 2019. But pc government put a freeze and locked it in to 14. I talked to alot of businesses and they told me regardless of freeze they will still raise it to 15! Goodness of their heart ? Or companies do have the slack to slip billy another couple of bux

We can't dismiss these options either . We really need living wages . Especially that comparison of 1968 money till today. Everything has skyrocketed but wages not so much . Its not fair , something is seriously wrong , and there seems to be alot of hoarding going on


I like to ask , if there was no minimum wage ....what would companies pay employees from the goodness of their heart ...If we let markets dictate , it would automatically go to low . 5-6 an hour i imagine and yes people will gladly do it when they get desperate .

a reply to: Phage

I'm almost 30, but yes I'm pretty much a kid at heart. I'm more of a Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley kinda kid though.

a reply to: seedofchucky

Not just those tho, many employers i've talked to absorb the extra cost , sometimes they are stuck in a hard place can't raise prices but don't wanna cut peoples hours , and they will and i've seen many do absorb the costs.

Sure, right up until they don't make any money.

Alot of them say they just been incurring a bonus all these years by it being at slave labour prices and its time to pay back the piper .

I have no idea what that means.

I like to ask , if there was no minimum wage ....what would companies pay employees from the goodness of their heart ...If we let markets dictate , it would automatically go to low . 5-6 an hour i imagine and yes people will gladly do it when they get desperate .

I don't think a minimum wage is a bad idea. But I don't think paying a kid $15/hr to sweep the warehouse makes sense.

a reply to: toysforadults

I agree with everything in your post.

However, we should pass a law setting the minimum wage as a percentage of a companies median wage. This way a low class car wash can pay squat and CEOs have a reason to justify raising workers wages. Everyone in the company has a stake in raising everyone's wages. Or as a percentage of the worker making the highest wage.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Is that your idea? I haven't had a chance to think hard about it but it seems to make an awful lot of sense.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Oops my math was garbage.
Thanks for pointing that out
And for him the season ends early November and starts up late February (can't put a timeline on the weather though)
So yeah that's 4-5 months of no lawn cuts
Which is something that has to be worked around.

But yeah my point exactly with the knowledge I gained I could start my own buisness.
Though the risk is high it is possible.
And that goes for pretty much any industry.
Once again sorry for the bad math.
It was a long day

How is the labor not worth $15/hour? How many cars are washed in an hour?

I get the OP, try to at least. But personally, outside of when I lived a year in NY and also another year in the deep South...I didn't even know car washes manual with people was a thing before that.

Like why? So strange. A dozen guys scrubbing your car by hand when we have autonomous car washes. Lol. Like wtf. That shouldn't even exist as a job anymore in the first place. Nobody should have to work like that with modern technology. 'Detailing' is another thing. Imo.

a reply to: Phage

but it seems to make an awful lot of sense.

Welp, I guess that means it'll never work.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Yeah.

The unions would never allow it.