Last Updated: 2/2/21 (Scroll down to New/Additional Information at end of this article)
The Truth Of $15/Hr, And Who Really Benefits From It! Hint… It’s NOT YOU!
If you were to think about this long enough you’d realize how common sense what I’m about to share with you is.
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Here's an index so you can jump to the topic quickly...
When a business sets the price for their products it’s all based around the business making enough money to cover all of their expenses for the month and make a decent profit to plan for expansions and company growth. When the cost of doing business goes up, so do the prices for their products. For the high majority of businesses, labor costs (employee payroll) is their highest expense by a pretty significant margin.
In the state of Washington, they increased the state minimum wage from $9.47/hr to $11/hr starting in 2017. In 2016 the Seattle-Tacoma area increased the minimum wage to $15.
When the cost of doing business goes up a business has 2 main choices:
- Increase their prices, or
- Layoff employees.
It’s generally one or the other. Sometimes both.
Let’s say you’re a business owner and you’re faced with the cost of business going up because of the minimum wage going up. Using WA as the example, let’s say you have 10 employees. With a $1.53/hr increase, that’s an increase of $2,448/mo for 10 employees.
The rippling affect to this has been an increase in prices for the local small businesses. The large national companies are able to absorb some of the costs. The first thing we’ll watch is the small local businesses losing sales because of not being competitive.
So here we point out the first victim to the $15/hour wage... small businesses! But you have to remember, Democrats serve large businesses and by removing competition like what we saw with lockdowns during COVID big businesses had record breaking profits. They don't want those profits to end so by passing a $15/hr minimum wage they know it will cause a lot of small businesses to go out of business. They just don't have the ability to spread out the increase in doing business like a big business can.
In January 2017 after Washington’s minimum wage hit $11/hour the family went to Wendy’s for dinner. A common choice is their Wendy’s Jr for $1.19. In January the price of this sandwich increased to $1.79, a 60 cent increase. For 6 Jr’s it cost an additional $3.60.
In Washington you can basically kiss good-bye the dollar menu of restaurants. It’s now the $2 menu because of the minimum wage increase. I can’t wait to see what the prices will be when the minimum wage is $15/hr (I’m being sarcastic).
Pretty consistently everything went up in price. Groceries now cost an additional 15-20% more, hardware costs more, most everything costs more. So let’s take a look at just what an $11/hour wage has done here.
In WA we went from $9.47 to $11/hr, an increase of $1.53/hr, or a 14% increase. But this also means you’re paying more in taxes since you’re making more money so it’s not a “net” 14% increase. It’s more like a 10% “net” increase.
Plus, for many, this means they now no longer qualify for food stamps which is a lose of roughly $100/person in the house per month. If they do still qualify because they have enough children to qualify, their amount has been reduced for the month.
Many are saying just the food stamp lose per month eats up the additional $244.80/mo they now make (less after taxes) so they’re really no further ahead at all. There were numerous articles written about workers in the Seattle area who got a pay raise to $15/hr after WA passed these laws who asked their employer to cut their hours so they didn't make more money because the increase in pay affected their food stamps, their housing benefits and other government paid benefits.
Wendy’s hamburgers, for example, went up 33%. Groceries went up 15% to 20%. Rent in the area also went up now that people are making more money and since repairs and maintenance of the properties went up with the increase in minimum wage.
Your net increase is only 10% but the increase of food and goods went up 15% or more! Do you realize you actually went backwards?
Now we're having to pay more money for things we’re buying so in the end, the $11/hour minimum wage has actually cost Washington workers more money. They actually have less disposable money per month than they did at $9.47/hour. It'll be no different if the wage is increased to $15/hr.
Let's look at this from another perspective...
Minimum Wages
Democrats and minimum wage employees are all pushing to increase the minimum wage. In Washington they increased the minimum wage to $15/hour in the Seattle area specifically. It’s not state wide, just in the Seattle area.
Was this good or bad?
Let’s discuss what happens when minimum wages go up. We’ll start by taking a look at the cost of living in 1970.
Take a look at a comparison from 1970 and 2011 of wages in relationship to the price of common products…
1970 | 2011 | Diff % | |
---|---|---|---|
Average Income | $9,400 | $26,695 | 283.99% |
Minimum Wage | $1.60 | $7.25 | 453.13% |
New House | $23,450 | $214,900 | 916.42% |
New Car | $3,450 | $32,086 | 930.03% |
Movie Ticket | $1.55 | $7.50 | 483.87% |
Gasoline | $0.36 | $2.40 | 666.67% |
Postage Stamp | $0.06 | $0.44 | 733.33% |
Milk/Gal | $0.62 | $3.75 | 604.84% |
Eggs/Dozen | $0.39 | $1.50 | 384.62% |
Bread | $0.23 | $1.50 | 652.17% |
Did you notice:
- The average income went up 283.99%?
- Minimum wage went up 453.13%?
- That everything else went up a higher % (except eggs) than the minimum wage?
Why?
When minimum wage goes up, the cost of products go up right along with it. Then you add new regulations, higher taxes to businesses and other costs businesses have to incur.
Let me give a quick example. Let’s say a manufacture makes a product...
- He has to charge more for it to retailers because of the increase in taxes, minimum wage and regulations.
- The company that transports the products from his warehouse to the retail stores has to charge more money because of the increase in taxes, minimum wage and regulations.
- The retail store who gets this product had to pay more money to get it because of the additional costs to the manufacture and the company that transported the products to him, and
- Then the business has to mark it up higher than they use to because of the increase in taxes, minimum wage and regulations in their own business.
All of a sudden this 23 cent loaf of bread now costs the consumer $1.50. This is what happens with all products.
The only thing an increase in minimum wages does is increase the price of products. The employee never gains the benefit of a higher wage because the employee is now paying more money for everything he purchases.
It's the same with paying rent. Because of increased taxes and increased costs to the owner of the house or property these increased costs flow down to the renters in the way of an increase in your rent. It's not their fault, it's your government you voted in that caused this problem.
So who’s the big winner here?
Well, it’s obviously not you, the worker. You have less disposable money each month than you did at $9.47/hour (using WA as the example).
It’s not the business because it’s now costing them more per month leaving them less profits too, not to mention a decrease in sales due to their higher prices they now need to charge. And don’t forget, workers have less disposable income now so they can’t buy as much.
The big winner is the Government!
Seriously. That’s because the higher wages being paid means more payroll taxes being paid and more federal taxes being paid at the end of the year.
Now you know why socialist and progressive politicians push so hard for the $15/hr minimum wage… it’s just another funding source to increase taxes to the government so they can give out more entitlements.
But, like I mentioned in another article, the big winner for entitlements is refugees. Did you know refugees get 40% more entitlements than American citizens?
Yup!
This, my friend, is the game Democrats play. They can put a spin on why we must require a $15/hr minimum wage that makes every person who makes less than this yell and scream that they must be paid $15/hr. These politicians can really make $15/hr sound so good.
But the reality of it is there’s really just one winner… the Government!
- The worker who now makes $15/hr pays more in taxes to the Government.
- Businesses pay more in Payroll Taxes to the Government.
- Democrats assume businesses will have an increase in revenue which means more taxes being paid to the Government.
- The more revenue created by businesses the higher our GDP, theoretically.
- As workers make more money they get less in entitlements like food stamps, housing allowances, etc. which means more money for the Government to use on other things like bringing in more refugees and mass immigration.
Just remember the chain of bringing a single product to the market place from the manufacturer and all of their employees to those who transport the goods to the retail store to the retail store who sells the product. That's a lot of people who got pay raises to $15/hr who will be paying more in taxes.
Now you know.
Lost Jobs Because Of $15/Hr
The largest expense for 99% of business is payroll. When you massively increase what you're paying everyone this is a huge hit to the expenses of the business. It's not just the increase in wages, businesses are also paying about half of the employees social security which is a percent of their total pay.
By increasing the minimum wage many small businesses will be forced to let employees go. The Congressional Budget Office estimates a $15/hr minimum wage will cause 1.3 million lost jobs.
Another Cost to $15/Hr
Here’s something else to consider.
If an employer is being forced to pay $15/hr to their employees when the job is really just a $10/hr job, employers are going to hire more experienced people. This means high school kids looking for a summer job or after school job, or people who have very little experience, or people who haven’t been in the workforce for a long time aren’t going to be the first choice for employers. Neither are immigrants, illegals or refugees which will increase the entitlements being paid out.
Employers are going to be looking for people with more experience and who are harder workers so they can maximize that $15/hr. They’re going to look for people who can do the work of 2 people.
It’s true. Employers have to take care of their business and make sure they’re making a profit. If the business fails that means everyone who works there is now out of a job. Most employers I know are very protective of their staff.
And speaking of this, the $15/hour minimum wage in Seattle/Tacoma has forced many businesses out of business. With the cost of groceries and other things going up in price, consumers have to be more cautious of what they spend their money on.
Remember, the disposable income didn’t go up with the increase in wages, it actually went down. That means less going out to eat, as one example. There’s a reason restaurants have been failing left and right in the Seattle/Tacoma area.
There are a lot of factors hardly anyone considers when political groups start pushing the $15/hour discussion.
But here again we can see that there’s actually a completely different objective with the $15/hour push. They say it’s for your benefit and that everyone deserves to have a decent wage regardless to what the job is even if it’s only a job that should pay $10/hr, when the truth is they want to increase the taxes to the government to pay out more entitlements, and it’s refugees who benefit the most.
The point is, get ALL of the facts and consider the rippling affect of laws passed. There’s always more to it than what you’re being told. Always!
Companies Who Compete Against Foreign Companies Are Severely Hurt!
Globalist love this fact I'm about to share with you. In fact, most Democrats and many "Establishment" Republicans fully support globalist because they help fund the politicians campaigns and re-election campaigns along with providing may perks and financial advantages.
Billionaires gave Biden hundreds of millions of dollars to help him get elected.
Remember, globalist are very rich people who are the real puppet masters to way too many people in Congress.
Check this out... An American company who competes with a foreign company that ships their products into America are hurt the most.
That’s because the foreign country has much lower minimum wages. FAR lower!
Take an American manufacturing company with 500 employees versus a foreign company with 500 employees.
Not only does the American company have far more regulations to contend with which greatly increases the cost of doing business, the huge difference in minimum wages really hurts the competitiveness of the American company. Add to this the far higher taxes American businesses pay.
Between these three things (regulations, taxes and wages), the foreign company is able to sell their products for a lot less money than the American company.
Did you know $1-$3/hr is a normal hourly wage in foreign countries?
How can we compete when there’s a $14/hr or greater difference in wages. At just a $14/hr difference, at 500 employees that’s an additional $7,000/mo cost to American businesses. That means their products are going to cost more because it costs more to create them.
The end results? The American company going out of business and 500 more Americans are now without a job.
This right here has been one of the top reasons for the decline in American manufacturing companies and the increase of American companies who compete against foreign companies going out of business.
There are so many factors American’s just don’t take into consideration when political groups start pushing the $15/hr narrative.
Know the facts and don’t be the reason for the decline in American businesses and your having less disposable income each month.
People On A Fixed Income Will Also Be Severely Hurt!
Many seniors are living off of social security. It's a fixed income! Congress has no desire to increase the amount of money per person on Social Security (SS). This is in part because Congress has seriously abused the money in SS and have used it for other things. Congress literally stole from us American's using that money that was suppose to cover our retirement for many other things like refugees and they have no intentions to pay it back!
Congress has no desire to increase the amount of money seniors receive which means that when they increase the minimum wage to $15/hour and cost of goods and to live increase significantly, how are our seniors going to cover the increase in costs?
This is the group of Americans who will be hurt the most! Many are incapable of getting a part time job to offset the additional costs because of the increase in minimum wages. Doesn't anybody care about them?
New/Additional Information:
3/4/21. AOC’s Argument For a Minimum Wage Is Even Dumber Than You’d Think – and It DOESN’T WORK
3/3/21. Other Articles Discussing the Minimum Wage...
- The Budgetary Effects of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 - Congressional Budget Office
- AOC- $15 Minimum Wage a 'Deep, Deep Compromise,' Should Be $24
- The Cotton & Romney Deal- $10 Minimum Wage for Immigration Enforcement - National Review
- Cotton-Romney- Raise the Minimum Wage Without Killing Jobs - National Review
2/19/21. CBO: $15 Minimum Wage Would Kill 1.4 Million Jobs
2/10/21. Neil Patel Suggests Minimum Wage That Protects Small Businesses
A logical discussion about the minimum wage...
2/2/21. Big business & government are COLLUDING to destroy the little guy (just the first part of the video, rest covers other things)
This will destroy small businesses removing their competition even more! This fits right into what the Globalist want, a global economy which supports big businesses and removes their competition.
1/30/21 - 5 Reasons Joe Biden’s $15 Minimum Wage is a Bad Idea
Article: 5 Reasons Joe Biden’s $15 Minimum Wage is a Bad Idea. Just read the article.