It is impossible to....
According to many of the fast-food and other minimum wage workers who are striking today for a minimum wage increase to $15 per hour, the reason they should be paid more is that it is "impossible to raise a family on $7.25 an hour (the current Federal minimum wage).
No disagreement there. An individual working full-time at minimum wage in California (a moderately higher $8 per hour) working an average of 35 hours per week will gross $14,560 per year in wages. From that they pay out $823 in Social Insecurity and Medicare taxes, and another $160 in State Disability Insurance tax. It doesn't leave much, does it?
But why is it the responsibility of an employer to pay someone more because they can't support themselves, let alone a family, on what they earn? Employers offer employment. They pay what the market bears for labor, as long as they are complying with the minimum wage laws.
The notion that McDonald's could raise the pay of its employees to $10.50 per hour by just increasing the price of their Big Mac and other "premium" sandwiches by a nickel has already been debunked. But let's look at what's really involved in putting that Big Mac on a customer's tray.
A franchisee has to come up with somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 in non-borrowed cash just to open the doors. McDonald's owns the facility and charges rent equivalent to 12% of sales. They also charge a "service fee" of 4% of sales.
When I worked in the fast food industry, wages for labor were 17% of sales. So before we look at the cost of making that Big Mac (materials, utilities, liability insurance and more) more than a third of the money going into that cash register on the counter is already spoken for.
People who are supporting the concept of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour point out that the McDonald's corporation is seeing huge profits. That's true. But there is a disconnect here. That corporation isn't employing the people on the front line of fast food. The franchisees are. And those record profits are coming because rents on the locations were increased from 8.5% to 12%. Corporate profits have little actual correlation to labor costs born by the franchisees.
If wages for labor represent 17% of the cost of that "value meal" and 85% of the employees see their wages double, how do you keep that fixed cost at 17%? You have to either decrease the man-hours involved in making and selling that sandwich (can't be done) or increase the price. The price of a Big Mac won't double, but it will be more than just a few cents higher. Plus if first-line managers are earning only $10 or $12 an hour and suddenly the people they manage are earning $15, how much do you have to then pay these managers to offer them an incentive to take on a job with more challenges and stress? $18 per hour? $20 per hour?
Minimum wage increases trickle upwards, causing the salaries of more highly compensated employees to also demand more money.
* * *
I'm having one of those days where my get up and go got up and went before I got out of bed. Normally by this time of the day my pedometer will show that I'm past the 2/3rds point of whatever daily goal I've set for the day. So far today I'm just past the 1/6th mark.
I didn't go to bed until very, very late, but I slept in to try to make up for it. Apparently that didn't work. I had lunch plans with a friend but I'm actually glad he had to cancel. He hit me up for some advice via telephone instead. It's alright, he'll end up paying for lunch next time. :) At least he should do that.
My cable service is getting worse and it's becoming more than a little bothersome. I've had problems since moving in here with the audio feed getting bad and then disappearing. Normally just changing the channel up and down one selection will restore the audio and it usually remains good after that for a good long while. Today I've had to do this three times in the last ten minutes.
I have had the technicians out before and they can find nothing wrong. Clearly something is wrong. One tech said it might be the wiring inside the building and in that case it is probably not repairable. Oh well. If this annoyance is the worst part of my day, I'm going to have a good day even with minimal energy.
Update: I went on a walk and tripled my daily step count. Still well short of goal but I broke a sweat and I feel better.
* * *
Imagine an outbreak of common sense at the Internal Revenue Service. You don't have to imagine it because it is doing on right now. The IRS is going to treat same-sex couples who marry anywhere in the U.S. where they can do so legally, as married, regardless of what state they currently reside in. As an example of what this actually means, consider a same-sex couple living in Mississippi.
Voters in Mississippi defined marriage in a referendum in 2004, outlawing same-sex marriage. But if a same-sex couple living in Mississippi were to travel to a state where same-sex marriage is legal, the IRS will recognize them as married. They can file a joint income tax return. All of the other privileges and responsibilities of an opposite-sex married couple will apply.
But in Mississippi, where they have a state income tax, this couple will have to file as single individuals. So that means that they will have to also prepare individual federal returns, because the Mississippi state income tax return takes data directly from the federal return. In essence, this couple will have to prepare five separate income tax returns.
I congratulate these couples on being treated equally in tax matters by the federal government, at long last. I feel sorry for those who will try to do their own income tax returns when their state of residence has an income tax and refuses to recognize their marriage.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Now the news comes in that Valerie Harper's "terminal" brain cancer may be in remission. She's going to do Dancing With the Stars. That is terrific news and just shows attitude can make a difference (now if I could just remember that applies to me too).
If someone is arrested but the charges are dropped, should that arrest be held against them forever? Does it matter if the charge was speeding or murder? I ask only because the media in North Carolina is making an issue of the fact the man who has just been appointed to be Director of Veterans Affairs for the state was once charged with the murder of two civilians during the Iraq war. He was never brought to trial due to "insufficient evidence."
Maybe Clint Eastwood and his wife of 17 years are "working" on their marriage like Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones?? (probably just the prelim to a divorce).
So far this year's U.S. Open Tennis Championships have had not just one, but two underhanded serves. In different matches no less. Wow.
Don't normally watch the late night talk shows but Selena Gomez looked very "hot" last night on one of them. Ah, to be young again...
Being fired in public is just wrong. Bosses who do that have no concept of humanity.
Did I just see a New York Post headline calling the South Carolina Gamecocks and the UNC Tar Heels "in-state rivals?" Yes I did.
Is Tiger Woods going to follow his girlfriend to Chile as she trains for the next Winter Olympics (probably not)?
40 lashes with the proverbial wet noodle to Cincinnati Reds player Brandon Phillips for calling a reporter who covers the team for a local newspaper a "fat mother-f****r."
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 708, copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
On this date in 1261, Pope Urban IV succeeds Pope Alexander IV, becoming the last man to become Pope without having first been a Cardinal.
On this date in 1498, Vasco da Gama decides to sail home to Portugal from Calicut.
On this date in 1756, Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years War.
On this date in 1786, Shay's Rebellion begins.
On this date in 1825, the Kingdom of Portugal recognizes the independence of Brazil.
On this date in 1831, Michael Farraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
On this date in 1842, the signing of the Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War.
On this date in 1898, the Goodyear tire company is founded.
On this date in 1922, the first advertisement on radio in the U.S. is broadcast on WEAF in New York City.
On this date in 1949, the Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
On this date in 1958, the United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, CO.
On this date in 1965, the Gemini V spacecraft splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean.
On this date in 1966, the Beatles perform their last concert in front of a paying audience at Candlestick Park, San Francisco.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
John Locke
Charles Townshend
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Charles F. Kettering
Preston Sturges
Barry Sullivan
Ingrid Bergman
George Montgomery
Isabel Sanford
Charlie Parker
Richard Attenborough
Dinah Washington
Charles Gray
William Friedkin
John McCain
Elliot Gould
Robert Rubin
Joel Schumacher (wonder if George Clooney blames him for "Batman and Robin")
Robin Leach
Wyomia Tyus
Bob Beamon
James Hunt (watch for "Rush", a new film from Ron Howard that features parts of his story)
Jack Lew
Michael Jackson
Rebecca DeMornay
Will Perdue
Carla Gugino
Lea Michele
Courtney Stodden
Movie quotes today come from 1996's "The Rock" just because the Beatles reference above reminded me of it:
Paul (hotel barber): Okay, I don't want to know nothing. I never saw you throw that gentleman off the balcony. All I care about is: are you happy with your haircut?
#2
General Hummel: Did they bother to tell you who I am and why I'm doing this or are they just using you like they do everybody else?
John Mason: All I know is that you were big in Vietnam, I saw the highlights on television.
General Hummel: Then you probably have no idea what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into combat and then watch their memories get betrayed by their own fucking government.
John Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million. And, this is not combat, it's an act of lunacy, General Sir. Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot.
General Hummel: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
John Mason: "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious," according to Oscar Wilde.
[Hummel strikes him, and he falls to his knees]
John Mason: Thank you for making my point.
General Hummel: Where are the guidance chips?
[Points his gun at Mason's head]
General Hummel: WHERE ARE THE GUIDANCE CHIPS?
John Mason: I've destroyed them.
General Hummel: That was a bad move, soldier.
#3
John Mason: When all this is over, you'll go back home driving Carla and your baby insane in your beige Volvo. And I'll be dead, or back in prison which is the same thing.
#4
Carla: [after telling Stanley she's pregnant] You didn't mean what you just said, did you?
Stanley Goodspeed: When?
Carla: Just right now, when you were talking about bringing a child into the world, and having it be an act of cruelty.
Stanley Goodspeed: I meant it at the time.
Carla: Stanley, "at the time"? You said it seven and a half seconds ago!
Stanley Goodspeed: Well... gosh, kind of a lot's happened since then.
#5
John Mason: Are you sure you're ready for this?
Stanley Goodspeed: I'll do my best.
John Mason: Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.
Stanley Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen.
John Mason: Really?
Stanley Goodspeed: [cocks his gun] Yeah.
No disagreement there. An individual working full-time at minimum wage in California (a moderately higher $8 per hour) working an average of 35 hours per week will gross $14,560 per year in wages. From that they pay out $823 in Social Insecurity and Medicare taxes, and another $160 in State Disability Insurance tax. It doesn't leave much, does it?
But why is it the responsibility of an employer to pay someone more because they can't support themselves, let alone a family, on what they earn? Employers offer employment. They pay what the market bears for labor, as long as they are complying with the minimum wage laws.
The notion that McDonald's could raise the pay of its employees to $10.50 per hour by just increasing the price of their Big Mac and other "premium" sandwiches by a nickel has already been debunked. But let's look at what's really involved in putting that Big Mac on a customer's tray.
A franchisee has to come up with somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 in non-borrowed cash just to open the doors. McDonald's owns the facility and charges rent equivalent to 12% of sales. They also charge a "service fee" of 4% of sales.
When I worked in the fast food industry, wages for labor were 17% of sales. So before we look at the cost of making that Big Mac (materials, utilities, liability insurance and more) more than a third of the money going into that cash register on the counter is already spoken for.
People who are supporting the concept of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour point out that the McDonald's corporation is seeing huge profits. That's true. But there is a disconnect here. That corporation isn't employing the people on the front line of fast food. The franchisees are. And those record profits are coming because rents on the locations were increased from 8.5% to 12%. Corporate profits have little actual correlation to labor costs born by the franchisees.
If wages for labor represent 17% of the cost of that "value meal" and 85% of the employees see their wages double, how do you keep that fixed cost at 17%? You have to either decrease the man-hours involved in making and selling that sandwich (can't be done) or increase the price. The price of a Big Mac won't double, but it will be more than just a few cents higher. Plus if first-line managers are earning only $10 or $12 an hour and suddenly the people they manage are earning $15, how much do you have to then pay these managers to offer them an incentive to take on a job with more challenges and stress? $18 per hour? $20 per hour?
Minimum wage increases trickle upwards, causing the salaries of more highly compensated employees to also demand more money.
* * *
I'm having one of those days where my get up and go got up and went before I got out of bed. Normally by this time of the day my pedometer will show that I'm past the 2/3rds point of whatever daily goal I've set for the day. So far today I'm just past the 1/6th mark.
I didn't go to bed until very, very late, but I slept in to try to make up for it. Apparently that didn't work. I had lunch plans with a friend but I'm actually glad he had to cancel. He hit me up for some advice via telephone instead. It's alright, he'll end up paying for lunch next time. :) At least he should do that.
My cable service is getting worse and it's becoming more than a little bothersome. I've had problems since moving in here with the audio feed getting bad and then disappearing. Normally just changing the channel up and down one selection will restore the audio and it usually remains good after that for a good long while. Today I've had to do this three times in the last ten minutes.
I have had the technicians out before and they can find nothing wrong. Clearly something is wrong. One tech said it might be the wiring inside the building and in that case it is probably not repairable. Oh well. If this annoyance is the worst part of my day, I'm going to have a good day even with minimal energy.
Update: I went on a walk and tripled my daily step count. Still well short of goal but I broke a sweat and I feel better.
* * *
Imagine an outbreak of common sense at the Internal Revenue Service. You don't have to imagine it because it is doing on right now. The IRS is going to treat same-sex couples who marry anywhere in the U.S. where they can do so legally, as married, regardless of what state they currently reside in. As an example of what this actually means, consider a same-sex couple living in Mississippi.
Voters in Mississippi defined marriage in a referendum in 2004, outlawing same-sex marriage. But if a same-sex couple living in Mississippi were to travel to a state where same-sex marriage is legal, the IRS will recognize them as married. They can file a joint income tax return. All of the other privileges and responsibilities of an opposite-sex married couple will apply.
But in Mississippi, where they have a state income tax, this couple will have to file as single individuals. So that means that they will have to also prepare individual federal returns, because the Mississippi state income tax return takes data directly from the federal return. In essence, this couple will have to prepare five separate income tax returns.
I congratulate these couples on being treated equally in tax matters by the federal government, at long last. I feel sorry for those who will try to do their own income tax returns when their state of residence has an income tax and refuses to recognize their marriage.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Now the news comes in that Valerie Harper's "terminal" brain cancer may be in remission. She's going to do Dancing With the Stars. That is terrific news and just shows attitude can make a difference (now if I could just remember that applies to me too).
If someone is arrested but the charges are dropped, should that arrest be held against them forever? Does it matter if the charge was speeding or murder? I ask only because the media in North Carolina is making an issue of the fact the man who has just been appointed to be Director of Veterans Affairs for the state was once charged with the murder of two civilians during the Iraq war. He was never brought to trial due to "insufficient evidence."
Maybe Clint Eastwood and his wife of 17 years are "working" on their marriage like Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones?? (probably just the prelim to a divorce).
So far this year's U.S. Open Tennis Championships have had not just one, but two underhanded serves. In different matches no less. Wow.
Don't normally watch the late night talk shows but Selena Gomez looked very "hot" last night on one of them. Ah, to be young again...
Being fired in public is just wrong. Bosses who do that have no concept of humanity.
Did I just see a New York Post headline calling the South Carolina Gamecocks and the UNC Tar Heels "in-state rivals?" Yes I did.
Is Tiger Woods going to follow his girlfriend to Chile as she trains for the next Winter Olympics (probably not)?
40 lashes with the proverbial wet noodle to Cincinnati Reds player Brandon Phillips for calling a reporter who covers the team for a local newspaper a "fat mother-f****r."
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 708, copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
On this date in 1261, Pope Urban IV succeeds Pope Alexander IV, becoming the last man to become Pope without having first been a Cardinal.
On this date in 1498, Vasco da Gama decides to sail home to Portugal from Calicut.
On this date in 1756, Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years War.
On this date in 1786, Shay's Rebellion begins.
On this date in 1825, the Kingdom of Portugal recognizes the independence of Brazil.
On this date in 1831, Michael Farraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
On this date in 1842, the signing of the Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War.
On this date in 1898, the Goodyear tire company is founded.
On this date in 1922, the first advertisement on radio in the U.S. is broadcast on WEAF in New York City.
On this date in 1949, the Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
On this date in 1958, the United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, CO.
On this date in 1965, the Gemini V spacecraft splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean.
On this date in 1966, the Beatles perform their last concert in front of a paying audience at Candlestick Park, San Francisco.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
John Locke
Charles Townshend
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Charles F. Kettering
Preston Sturges
Barry Sullivan
Ingrid Bergman
George Montgomery
Isabel Sanford
Charlie Parker
Richard Attenborough
Dinah Washington
Charles Gray
William Friedkin
John McCain
Elliot Gould
Robert Rubin
Joel Schumacher (wonder if George Clooney blames him for "Batman and Robin")
Robin Leach
Wyomia Tyus
Bob Beamon
James Hunt (watch for "Rush", a new film from Ron Howard that features parts of his story)
Jack Lew
Michael Jackson
Rebecca DeMornay
Will Perdue
Carla Gugino
Lea Michele
Courtney Stodden
Movie quotes today come from 1996's "The Rock" just because the Beatles reference above reminded me of it:
Paul (hotel barber): Okay, I don't want to know nothing. I never saw you throw that gentleman off the balcony. All I care about is: are you happy with your haircut?
#2
General Hummel: Did they bother to tell you who I am and why I'm doing this or are they just using you like they do everybody else?
John Mason: All I know is that you were big in Vietnam, I saw the highlights on television.
General Hummel: Then you probably have no idea what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into combat and then watch their memories get betrayed by their own fucking government.
John Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million. And, this is not combat, it's an act of lunacy, General Sir. Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot.
General Hummel: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
John Mason: "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious," according to Oscar Wilde.
[Hummel strikes him, and he falls to his knees]
John Mason: Thank you for making my point.
General Hummel: Where are the guidance chips?
[Points his gun at Mason's head]
General Hummel: WHERE ARE THE GUIDANCE CHIPS?
John Mason: I've destroyed them.
General Hummel: That was a bad move, soldier.
#3
John Mason: When all this is over, you'll go back home driving Carla and your baby insane in your beige Volvo. And I'll be dead, or back in prison which is the same thing.
#4
Carla: [after telling Stanley she's pregnant] You didn't mean what you just said, did you?
Stanley Goodspeed: When?
Carla: Just right now, when you were talking about bringing a child into the world, and having it be an act of cruelty.
Stanley Goodspeed: I meant it at the time.
Carla: Stanley, "at the time"? You said it seven and a half seconds ago!
Stanley Goodspeed: Well... gosh, kind of a lot's happened since then.
#5
John Mason: Are you sure you're ready for this?
Stanley Goodspeed: I'll do my best.
John Mason: Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.
Stanley Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen.
John Mason: Really?
Stanley Goodspeed: [cocks his gun] Yeah.
posted by me at 4:21 PM
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