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Seattle's Minimum Wage Killed The 'Five-Dollar Footlong'

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday January 13 2018, @04:58AM   
from the warning-earworm-ahead dept.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" has found the following story:

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.

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Original Submission

• Re:The math doesn't make any sense to me (Score: 2) by drussell on Saturday January 13 2018, @04:52PM

  by drussell (2678) on Saturday January 13 2018, @04:52PM (#621848) Journal

  Am I the only one who thinks this is either an absurdly expensive sandwich or a disgustingly low wage?

  Indeed... It is both.

  The least expensive foot-long at most of the Subways here (when there isn't a $5 deal, coupon, or other promotion) is $7.74 plus tax. Absolutely, that's very expensive sandwich for just some cold cuts with some veggies on it. You're paying for all the overhead of it coming from a dedicated sandwich shop, the labor for it to be made to order in front of you in a (hopefully) reasonable time frame, etc. :)

  How many customers are served and how many such sandwiches does an employee make in an hour? 50? 100? How much value does such an employee produce to deserve such a wage? The ratio of value produced and wages received must be seriously distorted.

  The "sandwich artists" each probably do about 45 sandwiches per hour during a busy lunch rush, yeah. Many of the busy Subways I've been to during a rush will have one or two employees just taking the initial order and grabbing the bread choice, then 4, 5, 6 "sandwich artists" going full tilt with one cashier and at least another worker or two replenishing supplies, etc.

  No matter which way a I look at it, there must be something seriously wrong with your economy if it allows such one-sided exploitation of labor by employers to occur.

  Indeed.

  Why would anyone even choose to go to work at all at those wages?

  Out of sheer desperation.

  I'd expect the supply of labor to approach 0 at that price.

  See desperation above.

  Parent

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