- Posted by Piperyell on September 22, 2008
This post is a little different than others, I felt like sharing an actual
experience that I had while working at a Cafe in Encino Ca. in the mid 90's.
This was a nice cafe that sat bout 150. The food was mostly wood fire pizzas,
fresh salads and pasta. An average entree was about $8 with lunch and Happy
hour specials. I was one of the bartenders. I mixed drinks for the whole cafe
and gave full service to the bar guests.
For most food service employees, you work for minimum wage + tips (wait
staff, and bussers). Dishwashers usually start at minimum, and get a raise in a
few months. CA. has a law that says you must provide benefits for full time
employees, so the schedules usually consisted of 30 - 35 hours. In 1996 there
was a minimum wage increase of $.50 in CA. The owner of the Cafe laid off
one of our dishwashers, and now 2 had to do the work of 3. I found that curios.
The very guy that this was designed to help, lost his job. Here's why: Let's
say that there were 20 minimum wage employees. their pay was increased by $10
for every hour of labor. 6 hours of labor a day x 30 days = an increase of
$1800 a month. Not everyone worked every day, so we can say $1,500 is a
closer number.
So this cafe owner, had his payroll increased by over a thousand dollars a
month. Not because he was getting better work from his employees, not because
his sales were up because of the hard work everyone put in, but because
California said so. And to make up for that increase, he laid off an employee.
Don't you think that guy would have proffered to have his job at the minimum
wage, knowing that he would get a raise if he did well? Or that he could have
worked his way up to prep cook, or something else?
The argument is always "you can't make a living on a minimum wage
job." I agree, But you can't make a living with no job. This wasn't a
corporate fat cat that will walk away with several million dollars even if the
business fails, this was a guy who owned a restaurant. Are we willing to hurt one
employee to help two? I'm not going to say raising the minimum wage raises
unemployment, but it did for this dishwasher.
In New Mexico during the mid 1950's my Grandfather stopped farming and took
his family to town and got a simple job at a general store. He was able to buy
a house (with indoor plumbing), eventually buy a T.V., a washing machine, and
live the American dream. He started at minimum wage. Why was it easier
then?
Why could a man support his family easier 50 years ago than it is now? What
has changed? Could it be the increased tax burden on us all? I'm not talking
about just income tax, but SS tax, gas tax, utilities tax. Many of these are
not charged to the lower class because of exemption programs. But middle class
small entrepreneurs are the ones employing these workers, not corporations. It
has become increasingly harder for them.
I would love to receive comments about this. I saw it happen, and it was
because of the minimum wage increase. This was one of the first real life
situations that convinced me that we are all connected in this economy. We
cannot shift the burden around without affecting us all. The only real answer
as I see it is to shrink the overwhelming need for the massive tax revenue,
thus allowing us all some breathing room.
Thanks for reading,
Yell