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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: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Saturday January 13 2018, @04:03PM
If one Subway owner wants to whine and act out like a petulant child trying to say that the big bad government made him pay a couple dollars more in wages to his workers, in an extremely expensive city, instead of trying to make his business maximally efficient, I don't have any sympathy for him.
Busy Subway franchises are generally quite the cash cow for the owner. There are no less than SEVEN Subway sandwich shops within walking distance of my house. SEVEN! And that's not counting the OTHER sub shops, like Mr. Sub and Quiznos, the Vietnamese sub shops, etc. And, no, this isn't downtown, or anything!
If dude is actually having business problems with his Subway franchise, perhaps his location(s) are poorly chosen, or in over-Subway-saturated areas. Removing a $5 promotion isn't likely to drive sales. Acting out like this is rarely productive and is more likely to produce a backlash from potential customers than sympathy from your average Joe.
It is also the complete opposite to what was found about 6 months ago in a Seattle economic report (June I believe) which showed that the minimum wage boost had actually significantly increased sales and revenue in several different sectors and, specifically, restaurants were saying that they were so much busier they were having difficulty finding staff!
Why were they so much busier? Seemingly, at least in part because some of those people at the bottom of the totem pole, like their own employees, actually had enough money to be able to spend some of it on things like goods from stores or food from restaurants.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @04:48PM
let's pay americans.. american wages! instead of trying to act like these people are outsourced to india and china with wages to match, we can pay them like they lived in america!
christ if people have a problem with american prices, then that subway owner can go fucking move to china and make the subs at a low manufacturing cost and sell it to people that live there. he's just angry that he sees all those rich people send manufacturing to another country while living in fancy houses on the west coast, and he fucking can't because he is paying people that live here to make sandwiches that have to be sold in america in order to maintain his own lifestyle.
boo fucking hoo
even by me it is industrious Indian families that mostly own the subways and they seem to hire their own family members. very rarely there's a disaffected college student behind the counter who acts like they cant stand the place. and that kid isn't in college so he can do that job; hes in college so he doesnt have to keep that job.
i cant even provide a violin for a shopkeeper who is upset that the cost of living has increased to the extent that he has to pay his employees what it is to maintain a living. if he wanted all college students then he should just get stippers and demand they only get paid in tips. i am sure there is a footlong promotion waiting for that restaurant theme.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:06PM (4 children)
We need cheap labor and we do really dumb things to prevent it.
Like immigration, welfare, and minimum wage.
How about instead of this, a tax/supplemental income plan with incentive.
For Wages, Tax, and takeHome.
If you work for $W/hour, the govt adds/takes $T GIVING $H
T = (W-WageGoal) * FlatRate
For WageGoal=$30 and Flat rate = 1/5
$W -T --> $H
$5 +5 --> $10
$10 +4 --> $14
$15 +3 --> $28
$20 +2 --> $22
$25 +1 --> $26
$30 +0 --> $30
$40 -2 --> $42
$50 -4 --> $46
$60 -6 -> $56
$100 -14 --> $86
This provides clear, simple incentive for an entry worker to make more.
It provides really cheap labor to help with illegal immigration.
No getting a job and loosing assistance.
No make-me-and-my-kids-helpless welfare unless temporary or truly disabled.
Not quite sure what the unintended consequences are.
Like fake, cheap jobs?
I'm not sure what parameters, and likely non-linearities would make a balanced system with a reasonable portion (20%?) of GDP left for other govt waste ^H^H^H spending.
You could take a current wage distribution chart, but this would change it, so it's kind of crap shoot.
But if you get it wrong, it can't be worst than the current imbalance.
It will likely not happen, because like the man says, it would make too many dependent D voters into empowered R wage earners.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:23PM (3 children)
You are not of sound mind, but you think you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @07:19PM (2 children)
Could be, how so?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:07AM (1 child)
When the mind not working properly, it often fails to notice this. It's not working properly, after all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:20PM
Of course, the feedback is great because it often fails to notice.
External input is required, thanks.
But to improve things, a little more detailed input would be useful.
Was there something specific about the UI proposal that made you think the writer was nuts?
Lacking that, it would be near impossible for a broken brain to sort out who's the nut.
Perhaps the numbers can't add up.
It's missing the concept of how many hours one works.
Also, perhaps a bit over the top on the consequences of the current welfare.