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Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

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Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#271

Post by syshum »

quantum_magpie wrote: post #64
endisneigh wrote: post #3

I wonder what the USA would look like if minimum wage was defined as; two people being able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment within a 1 hour drive without traffic. The static (both in the nominal and inflation adjusted sense) for minimum wage doesn't make sense imo. Minimum wage should be tied to some level of living (not necessarily a great living, but something ) This guy smh

>two people being able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment within a 1 hour drive without traffic. My immediate reaction to this statement was.. it's insane? In my opinion it should read 'a single person able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment within an hour of public transport commute.' Otherwise it sounds like you don't think anyone should be able to live anywhere reasonable without roommates?

Why is it reasonable to expect people to live alone. I would think people would desire people to have roommate for environmental and other reasons?

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#272

Post by astrange »

frumper wrote: post #203
dlbucci wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, have a Cost of Living/Inflation adjustment every year. That's such a simple idea to me and it's sort of insane to me that not only is that not something that happens, but no one seems to be even suggesting it (or at least, no politicians are campaigning on it). Hell, adjusting the 70's minimum wage to today's dollars puts it at like $24, so just hearing that, I don't know how it shouldn't be around ther…

Maybe a source? I was curious and using federal minimum wages from either 1970($1.45/hr) or 1979($2.90/hr) would yield less than $12/hr. I know you can contest how inflation is calculated, or use shadow stats, but then you're getting into murky waters. The official numbers are no where near the claim of $24/hr though.

Australia's minimum wage actually is around 21USD/hour, but it helps to be a petro state.

(It's usually written $15 an hour, but IMO you should count casual loading to compare to the US.)

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#273

Post by willcipriano »

jasonhansel wrote: post #91

At least he was being honest. I think that many corporate executives have thoughts along these lines: they want employees to be so desperate that they'll accept low wages and bad working conditions. That is, of course, why they tend to campaign against e.g. minimum wages, food stamps, and reforms that would make it easier to unionize. The only difference is that other execs have the good sense not to put such thought…

People like this love food stamps. They are quite happy to have the taxpayer feed their workers for them.

Many years ago I applied to work at Kmart. The wages were lower than I could get elsewhere so I pass and the manager offers to go over "the benefits", he tells me that I can get healthcare (Medicaid) and money towards groceries (Food stamps) as well as rent assistance (another government program). They had systems in place to help you apply to these programs.

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#274

Post by burntwater »

InitialLastName wrote: post #165
eatonphil wrote: post #26

I don't think it's an Applebee's exec it's an Applebee's franchise exec. Unless I'm misunderstanding.

Actions of the franchisees reflect on the brand (that's the point of franchise agreements). In case I want to avoid giving this guy money (as is my right as a consumer under capitalism), how can I easily confirm which franchises his company owns? I can't, you say? Well, next time I want to eat mediocre food in a bland corporate environment, I'll have to go to Chili's instead.

In case anyone is wondering, Applebee's and Chili's are in fact two separate companies, not owned by the same head corporation. https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/happy-hour-showd...

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#275

Post by trentnix »

endisneigh wrote: post #3

I wonder what the USA would look like if minimum wage was defined as; two people being able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment within a 1 hour drive without traffic. The static (both in the nominal and inflation adjusted sense) for minimum wage doesn't make sense imo. Minimum wage should be tied to some level of living (not necessarily a great living, but something ) This guy smh

The US would import lots more illegal immigrants (because they aren’t subject to wage laws, being illegal and all that), unemployment of unskilled labor would go up, and everything would cost more. And whoever owns Boston Dynamics would get really, really rich.

You can play as many games as you like, but if people aren’t able to generate enough value to justify their pay, Stein’s Law will bring things to an abrupt halt.

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#276

Post by throwawaylinux »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #180
imgabe wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mass confusion. Every location has to have a custom minimum wage based on the local real estate market? How are you going to enforce that? How about people figure out how much money they need to afford the lifestyle they want and then get a job that pays that much?

That was my initial reaction, but the more I think about it—is it really so unreasonable? Right now, we force employees to deal with the burden of ever-changing real-estate markets. Why not make employers do that? And if it's too much of a hassle for the employer, just pay your employees substantially above the minimum.

Not sure if you're being facetious but "we" don't force anybody to deal with anything.

All markets change because people buying something and people selling something have changing ideas of what it is worth when they trade. Business owners are subject to fluctuating prices for everything they buy and sell as well, labor, energy, materials, product... and real-estate of course.

The complaint I assume is about transactions affecting someone who is not party to it. I'm not sure how valid that is -- a region based minimum wage effectively already exists due to different costs of living so presumably it could be made to follow some region based formula like the one proposed that is updated every few years...

I don't know enough to know whether it would be workable or not, but your force employees argument is not a justification for it.

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#277

Post by a4isms »

rileyphone wrote: post #212

Title is wrong, wasn’t a corporate executive but instead “Wayne Pankratz, executive director of operations for Applebee’s franchisee Apple Central LLC”, from franchisee that has 47 locations, out of 1787 total. In conclusion, this was corporate sabotage by Chili’s.

When you run a business, you choose a location. If the landlord does something that causes a noxious smell, it's on you to fix it. We don't say, "Well, that's the landlord's fault." Your business, your leasing arrangements.

When you run a business, you choose employees. If an employee does something noxious, it's on you to fix it. We don't say, "Well, that's the employee's fault." Your business, your employee hiring, firing, and training.

In conclusion:

When you run a business, you choose franchisees and set standards of behaviour. If a franchise does something noxious, it's on you to fix it. We don't say, "Well, that's the franchisee's fault." Your business, your franchisee selection, training, and standards enforcement.

There's no weaseling out. You run a business, the buck stops at your desk. If you don't like that, don't run a business. It's 100% on you to choose your vendors, landlords, employees, franchisees, contractors, &c.

All your responsibility. In exchange for which, you enjoy the benefits when you get it right.

p.s. Your conclusion is speculation. It's fine to speculate, but I reject the claim that your conclusion follows from your argument. Your speculation could be correct, maybe Chillis bribed the manager to send a bad email, or heard about the ruckus and put their PR machine into high gear to publicize it. All possible, but it doesn't follow in any way from the relationship between franchisor and employee of a franchisee.

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#278

Post by imgabe »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #242
imgabe wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are more than capable of dealing with the burden of managing their personal finances and budgeting. The more responsibility you want to shove off on institutions to take care of for you, the greater you increase your dependence on them and the more susceptible you make yourself to their control.

I suppose people are poor because they are irresponsible and it's important they remain that way for freedom is an interesting take.

> I suppose people are poor because they are irresponsible

Some of them, certainly

> it's important they remain that way for freedom

How exactly does deciding on your own desired housing budget force anyone to remain poor?

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#279

Post by ben_w »

colechristensen wrote: post #255
nostrademons wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation, probably followed by corruption. Minimum wage would rise to the point where a person could afford a 1BR apartment within a 1 hour drive without traffic. Then the rents of those 1BR apartments would rise to capture that new minimum wage. Then minimum wage would rise to afford the new rent, and so on. Eventually someone's going to say "Hey, I own an apartment block downtown, I'm supposed to rent it out to th…

Zoning. You link the "zones which employ people" and "zones which house people" to balance so you don't have significantly more jobs than homes. Next you zone for type of housing, where you only allow a certain percentage of the most profitable 1BR apartments to be built, and require those to be above certain size thresholds so that a variety of life situations can actually live in your city. You don't need to "incen…

From what I’ve seen in and outside America, my gut feeling (I don’t claim expertise) is that zoning can make things worse.

The apartment directly under mine is used as an office. Down and to one side is a psychiatrist. Ground floor is a cafe and a pizza takeaway. The apartment opposite me has a grocery store on the ground floor, an office on the second, a dentist on the third, and it looks like the rest of the units are residential. I may be missing something important about the rules here because I can’t read German well enough, but it feels self-balancing.

America… well, this is a tourist perspective, but I didn’t realise how realistic SimCity was before I visited.

Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout

#280

Post by [deleted] »

endisneigh wrote: post #3

I wonder what the USA would look like if minimum wage was defined as; two people being able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment within a 1 hour drive without traffic. The static (both in the nominal and inflation adjusted sense) for minimum wage doesn't make sense imo. Minimum wage should be tied to some level of living (not necessarily a great living, but something ) This guy smh

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