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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:32PM (1 child)
There are numerous federal employees in blue states, both direct and contractors. By increasing the minimum wage, you force the federal government to supply more money.
You raise your taxes, but your economy doesn't suffer the full result. People are allowed to deduct that from federal taxes. This forms a subsidy to the blue states.
Lots of people are being paid off-the-books due to illegal alien status. This cuts the burden of federal taxes in those states, particularly California.
Blue states ought to be paying far more than red states, because they vote for the expensive things. The red state people are at least trying to save money. If you vote for it, you should pay for it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RedBear on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:04AM
I live in a red state, BTW.
I've never seen evidence that the federal government paying people to do real work is a terrible thing, unless it's like half the population. Sure helped pull us out of the Great Depression.
Thanks to the new GOP tax plan blue states are now being actively penalized for having higher state taxes by a limit to state tax deductibility. Even if things were quid pro quo, the blue states still pay significantly more in federal taxes and receive fewer benefits back from the federal government (because they don't need them as much, because they have higher state taxes). Blue state taxes that go to the federal government get redistributed to red states. You have things completely backwards. If blue states lower their taxes to avoid penalizing state residents under the GOP tax scam, less money will flow through the federal government to the red states. Then red states will have an even bigger shortfall. I don't think the results will be what you expect.
What percentage of jobs are held by undocumented workers, even in California? If this cuts the burden of federal taxes in blue states by a significant amount, why do blue states still pay way more in federal taxes than red states? Blue states already pay much more than red states, but you want them to pay even MORE than more? How the hell does that work in your mind?
What expensive things are you talking about, that blue states vote for, that affect red states? Schools? Roads? Hospitals? The military? You'll have to be more specific.
Thanks, I now have a better understanding of the specific conservative insanity that created the GOP tax scam.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ