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Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
381–390 of 582 posts
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shouldn't it be easier to look for new jobs if you have a financial buffer? If anything being more pinched => more time being stressed out and/or more time at work (trying to rack up OT) => less time/energy to spend looking for new jobs.
For one reason or another (all of which we must be empathetic to) many people resist change even to their own benefit. I think all humans are guilty of this in some form or another to varying degrees. For some people, change in job / career is met with severe resistance. It takes a catastrophe for people to get going into finding something better.
Extremely neoliberal perspective
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs, potentially causing them to leave if Applebees doesn't raise its pay. Normally inflation is associated with higher wages, not lower ones.
>It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs ...implying they weren't already doing so? I'm not sure about you, but I don't think applebees is the type of place you stick around for "the good work culture" or whatever.
People working at these places are highly dependent on transportation and hours.
When I worked retail, we were in sales and were top of the food chain. The restaurant people were a notch over regular mall workers in pay, but had to deal with different hours. Many people work multiple jobs… one line cook I remember did prep work starting at 6am at one place, painted, and closed the mall restaurant. He couldnt flip jobs easily due to bus schedules.
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#384I appreciate the quote from corporate: “We are still scratching our head about what this gentleman was thinking.”
this is probably uncharitable, but i can’t help but wonder if they’re true thoughts were with the addition of “We are still scratching head about what this gentleman was thinking saying this out loud.”
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs, potentially causing them to leave if Applebees doesn't raise its pay. Normally inflation is associated with higher wages, not lower ones.
In fact, high transit costs might make low paying jobs like Applebees completely untenable. Why take a job if the cost of getting there is higher than what they pay?
Cash flow.
Look at Uber… it wasn’t uncommon for drivers to pay Uber to work as comp was less than depreciation. They were basically working for free to cash out car equity.
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not understand what you are trying to convey through either of these points. Would you mind clarifying?
He's saying that if everyone has extra money, then everyone can afford higher prices. Since they can afford higher prices, people will charge those higher prices. And you are back where you started.
That’s not how market prices are generally set. Competition and demand keep them low. It might happen the way you describe sometimes but it’s far from a guarantee.
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
That sounds all well and good but I live in a desirable central coast city and thanks to SB9 I can now build 4 extra res units on my property. You are mistaken if you think anyone is going to spend that effort and charge anything less than current market ... maybe more, new houses are expensive. What we need is subsidized housing close to mass transit, single payer medicine, progressive tax reform and subsidized chil…
the trick is that landlords and property owners are not some closely linked cartel but are viciously competitive, so if everyone spends enough effort it can eventually cause a stabilization or even drop in prices.
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you hire a teenager for a relatively large amount of money?
I hire alot of people, I pay them based on the value of what they produce. One guy I work with has 8 children. Another is married to a partner in a law firm and lives in a home likely worth >$5M. I don’t pay them any different.
Okay, so you wouldn't hire anyone who produces less than minimum wage. What if a teen wants to learn about your profession and is willing to work, but wouldn't really contribute or produce that much?
If there was no exception to hiring people who are financial dependents you wouldn't be able to hire on such a person for a small rate. You'd either have to overpay, discouraging you from hiring them, or not hire them because you couldn't justify the expense.
Perhaps such labor is uncommon in your profession, but there are many professions where it is common. The kid at the mechanic's who answers phones and gets things for people may not actually be all that valuable compared to a wage high enough for two people to live off of. The job may be really valuable to the kid though giving experience and a bit of money.
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
1) UBI is not UBI unless everyone gets it. 2) Any income surplus generated by UBI is rapidly consumed by middle people and rent-seekers. That’s how we get inflation.
Does anyone have a good explanation (or resource) for why this wouldn’t happen?
The theory is just supply and demand, which is how prices are determined in a competitive market. If you give everyone $20k, would you expect grocery stores to raise the price of bananas to $20/lb? Probably not, since people can just go to the grocery store down the street. Now if everyone suddenly wanted to buy more bananas with their new cash that would have an effect, but that’s how markets are supposed to work.
In practice it probably depends on a lot of factors and would need empirical studies.
Re: Applebee’s exec urges using high gas prices to push lower wages, sparks walkout
#390I 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 anchor you're looking for is the median wage. In the US, the minimum wage tends to be around 35-45% of the median wage, and is mostly harmless to employment. In Chile, it hovers around 65% and the effects are more significant, while the distributional effects seem to be exhausted:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ilr.12007
https://take-profit.org/en/statistics/wages/chile/
Half the median wage is obviously the simplest answer, but some studies have suggested other numbers.
Now you're probably wondering: what does the median wage have to do with a "level of living"? It's simply the presently existing normal "level of living"! The median wage reflects various aspects of the local economy, and is responsive to things like housing prices.