First, please read this segment of Hansi Lo Wang\’s article at npr.org:
There aren\’t a lot of obscure government board meetings that warrant a watch party, let alone one with a marching band.
But that\’s how fast-food restaurant workers and their supporters celebrated Wednesday on a blocked-off street in Manhattan, as they watched a state panel recommend a $6.25 increase in their hourly wage, to $15.
“It\’s a victory! We have been fighting, and today we have made history,” said Alvin Major, a 49-year-old cook at a KFC restaurant in Brooklyn. He said a $15 minimum wage would mean that he could stop relying on food stamps to feed his family of six.
The bump to $15 an hour in New York, which would affect workers at chains with 30 or more stores nationally, would match recent increases in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles. It would take effect over the next three years for New York City, and over the next six years for the entire state, if the state\’s labor commissioner approves the proposal.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who appointed the wage board that recommended the wage hike, called its proposal an important first step.
Now, a few questions:
-Do we all understand that when you raise the minimum wage by 71% over 3 years – from $8.75 an hour to $15 – you inherently raise everyone else as well? That someone with, say, 2 years experience who is now up to $13 – $14 an hour must be raised too? That the raise will have to be far above the $15 an hour level for that person, and everyone else right up the line?
-Do we all understand that this will dramatically affect the food prices at these chain stores?
-How will they remain competitive with independent restaurants and smaller fast food chains, which can pay their employees significantly less? How can they remain competitive?
-How many of these restaurants will go out of business? How many people like Alvin Major will lose their jobs?
-Does anyone seriously believe that this raise in minimum wage will take Alvin Major and his family of 6 off of food stamps? Does anyone seriously believe that people currently getting such government assistance are willingly giving government assistance up – essentially trading it in for the higher wage? Isn\’t it far more likely – think roughly in the 95% to 100% range – that they will do what they can to get both?
-What about workers in every other area besides national chain fast-food restaurants? Why are they being left behind? How long before they are given this dramatic upward spike in minimum wage? And how many other businesses, both in and out of the food industry, will raise their prices, or close their doors, because of it?
For those of you who are jubilant over Governor Cuomo\’s support of this idea, those are some things to think about.
Please do the thinking. Then see if you\’re still as jubilant.
