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You probably remember Subway's famous "five-dollar footlong" promotion as much for the obnoxiously catchy jingle as for the sandwiches themselves. (Sorry for getting that stuck in your head all day.)
The sandwich chain recently resurrected the promotion in a national advertising campaign promising foot-long subs for just $4.99—but the special deal won't fly at one Subway restaurant in Seattle, where owner David Jones posted a sign this week giving customers the bad news.
Sadly, the consequences of high minimum wages, excessive taxation, and mandate-happy public policy are not limited to the death of cheap sandwiches. The cost of doing business in Seattle is higher than the Space Needle, and the unintended consequences of those policies are piling up too.
The biggest cost driver, as Jones' sign mentions, is Seattle's highest-in-the-nation minimum wage. It went from $9.47 to $11 per hour in 2015, then to $13 per hour in 2016, with a further increase to $15 per hour planned.
The result? According to researchers at the University of Washington's School of Public Policy and Governance, the number of hours worked in low-wage jobs has declined by around 9 percent since the start of 2016 "while hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent." The net outcome: In 2016, the "higher" minimum wage actually lowered low-wage workers' earnings by an average of $125 a month.
And now those same employees will have to pay more for sandwiches from Subway—and everything else too.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Dogeball on Saturday January 13 2018, @12:33PM (3 children)
The UK has a Conservative government.
Conservative policies have caused the current crisis. In the context of the topic, Conservatives opposed introduction of the minimum wage.
In 2010, two years after the global financial crisis hit, and after 13 years of a nominally socialist party in charge, health outcomes were among the best in the world, and public satisfaction in the NHS was at an all time high.
Your assertion that socialism has caused the health crisis in the UK is muddled at best and batshit crazy at worst.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:21PM (1 child)
National debt doubled under Labour, we were borrowing 450 million a day under Gordon Brown and have been paying 30-45 billion a year interest ever since.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:00PM
And after almost ten years of austerity, the the deficit still stands at £50bn and the national debt is £1,700bn and rising.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @05:21AM
The UK does not have a conservative government. It hasn't had one for many decades at least, if ever.
BNP and UKIP might be conservative. I'm not so sure about that. Is any party at all suggesting equivalents to the USA's 1st and 2nd amendments? Is any party suggesting the elimination of the Orwellian monitoring, where school teachers (unless muslim) report non-leftist behavior to the authorities? You may have defeated Germany, but you recreated the Stasi. Is any party suggesting a stand-your-ground law, with the complete right to defend yourself with deadly force when threatened?