Minnesota Cafe Charges “Minimum Wage Fee,” Liberals Outraged

[RPfan1992]

Minnesota Cafe Charges “Minimum Wage Fee,” Liberals Outraged

This is currently the most-read story on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s web site: “Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding ‘minimum wage fee’ to tab.” Minnesota’s Democratic legislature recently voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8 an hour, 75 cents more than the federal level. Naturally, that increase is leading to higher prices:

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour.

What is unique about the Oasis is that the cafe wants its patrons to know where the higher prices are coming from: In the Democratic Party, where magical thinking reigns, this is regarded as dirty pool:

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

It is “strange” for businesses to pass costs on to their customers? Who, exactly, does Mr. Luneburg think pays those costs? No doubt he has no clue why low-wage workers are being laid off in Minnesota, either. That’s what happens when costs can’t be passed on. Every now and then, it is good to be reminded how dumb liberalism is.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archiv...harges-minimum-wage-fee-liberals-outraged.php

 

[aGameOfThrones]

Oasis thinks it can get away with transparency.

 

[Kotin]

“Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

this is what will be done till the end of time.. this is what any business manager/owner/CEO would do... what this guy said just proves he is fucking deluded and has a child-like understanding of economics and basic reality.

this is why minimum wage and taxes just make it horrible for everyone.. these people think the companies will just take the cost and not pass it on the others?? and this guy thinks a smaller business owned by one man is somehow evil for doing the same thing on a much smaller scale??

they make everything completely unaffordable with all their "save the world" shit and then complain about it and ask someone else to pay for it and then complain more and ask government to MAKE it less expensive (cause that is somehow possible)

feeling a little like Faulkner with a keyboard today..

madness.

 

[dannno]

passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best

Wait, who is supposed to pay for it??

 

[Danke]

The Minnesota minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour, the same as the federal minimum wage for tipped employees. "The Minnesota tipped wage applies to employees like waitresses, waiters, bartenders, valets, and other service employees who earn more then $30 in tips a month.

Including tips and cash wages, all tipped employees must still earn at least the Minnesota Minimum Wage of $6.15 per hour. If a Minnesota employee does not earn at least $8 including tips in any given hour of work, their employer must make up the difference in cash. "

 

[otherone]

Wait, who is supposed to pay for it??

 

[Pericles]

Wait, who is supposed to pay for it??

The good idea fairy.

 

[Anti Federalist]

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

I see everybody already commented on what jumped out at me.

 

[juleswin]

This is going to back fire on him and this is why.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

He is adding 35c to each meal tab regardless of how much service the patron used. The same fee is charged to a party of 10 who occupies 2 tables and ends up staying for 1hr as a person who just buys a bottle of water and walks out immediately. This is obviously his attempt to complain about the new minimum wage, he obviously hasn't done the calculations before coming out with his new fees.

Also the restaurants that are more capable of hiding the new wage increase maybe by slightly reducing quality, quantity and overall service will eat for lunch. Yes we know raising the minimum wage will hurt his business, but he is going about it the wrong way. I wouldn't go to that restaurant if I had the chance to do so

 

[mad cow]

I like it!He should do this for every Government mandated cost he bears.

Charge $1.00 for a hamburger then tack on OSHA,FDA,FICA,EEOC,EPA,ADA,and on and on and on fees to the receipt until it totals the $5.00 or whatever it is he has to sell it for to make a profit and stay in business.

 

[aGameOfThrones]

I like it!He should do this for every Government mandated cost he bears.

Charge $1.00 for a hamburger then tack on OSHA,FDA,FICA,EEOC,EPA,ADA,and on and on and on fees to the receipt until it totals the $5.00 or whatever it is he has to sell it for to make a profit and stay in business.

I believe that you are overreacting. Putting a list of fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.

 

[Occam's Banana]

This is going to back fire on him and this is why.

He is adding 35c to each meal tab regardless of how much service the patron used. The same fee is charged to a party of 10 who occupies 2 tables and ends up staying for 1hr as a person who just buys a bottle of water and walks out immediately. This is obviously his attempt to complain about the new minimum wage, he obviously hasn't done the calculations before coming out with his new fees.

Also the restaurants that are more capable of hiding the new wage increase maybe by slightly reducing quality, quantity and overall service will eat for lunch. Yes we know raising the minimum wage will hurt his business, but he is going about it the wrong way. I wouldn't go to that restaurant if I had the chance to do so

The employer has to pay the same (minumum) wage to the employee regardless of whether the employee is serving "a party of 10 who occupies 2 tables and ends up staying for 1 hr" or "a person who just buys a bottle of water and walks out immediately" - or even regardless of whether there are any customers in a given period of time at all. What else is he supposed to do? Charge different prices to different customers (at different times of the day)?

Furthermore, "slightly reducing quality, quantity and overall service" while holding prices fixed is just a different way of raising prices - the only difference is that it is a much less transparent way of passing the costs on to customers. You appear to be bothered by the fact that this particular business is telling you why its customers are paying more - rather than finding some opaque way to avoid making their customers aware of the fact that a forcibly imposed "minumum wage" increases costs. But one way or another, customers will end up paying for these minimum-wage increases - there is just no way around that fact. I do not see the point in criticizing a business because it tries to make its customers aware of the situation.

 

[JohnWeeks613]

On a preliminary, best judgment commentary, every one that commented, thusfar, have legit points. Commentor "juleswin" made a fine point about cost analysis on sales. Who knows the exact reason for the judgement for the hike figures of 35 cent per tab, but the owner Greig Beemer of Oasis said he needed to off set the 75 cents per hour regulated hike commented by "RPfan1992". Maybe someone should ask Mr. Beemer how he came up with those figures per tab, and, if he is open to transperency, and not hide it under corpret secrets, he might help the public understand his logical conclusion.

 

[otherone]

I see everybody already commented on what jumped out at me.

Wait until $2 per meal Obamacare fee hits...

 

[juleswin]

The employer has to pay the same (minumum) wage to the employee regardless of whether the employee is serving "a party of 10 who occupies 2 tables and ends up staying for 1 hr" or "a person who just buys a bottle of water and walks out immediately" - or even regardless of whether there are any customers in a given period of time at all. What else is he supposed to do? Charge different prices to different customers (at different times of the day)?

Furthermore, "slightly reducing quality, quantity and overall service" while holding prices fixed is just a different way of raising prices - the only difference is that it is a much less transparent way of passing the costs on to customers. You appear to be bothered by the fact that this particular business is telling you why its customers are paying more - rather than finding some opaque way to avoid making their customers aware of the fact that a forcibly imposed "minumum wage" increases costs. But one way or another, customers will end up paying for these minimum-wage increases - there is just no way around that fact. I do not see the point in criticizing a business because it tries to make its customers aware of the situation.

See when I come to a business establishment, i really don't think about how they are going to pay their employee but you know what would make me start thinking about my choice of restaurants? its when I start getting charged the same employee surcharge as someone who just used way more employee service than me. See, if he had made it a certain percentage, it would have been fine with me. He could have done some quick calculations and to see how much extra it would cost him a month in employee pay and increase in grocery cost and them from that calculate the % increase in revenue to make it up and then he can charge than % difference to each customer. What he did is a lazy and unfair approach to his problem and many customers are not going to like it.

I do agree with most the first part of your second paragraph but I am not bothered that he is telling his customers why he is installing a fee, my main beef is the way he went about doing it.

 

[Henry Rogue]

The Minnesota minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour, the same as the federal minimum wage for tipped employees. "The Minnesota tipped wage applies to employees like waitresses, waiters, bartenders, valets, and other service employees who earn more then $30 in tips a month.

Including tips and cash wages, all tipped employees must still earn at least the Minnesota Minimum Wage of $6.15 per hour. If a Minnesota employee does not earn at least $8 including tips in any given hour of work, their employer must make up the difference in cash. "

Hmm, I can see how the government created an incentive for the employer to report tips.

 

[DamianTV]

The motivation here is perceptual, not financial.

This very well could be intended to create a backlash against anyone who think raising the minimum wage is a good idea. When you look at the price of ANYTHING, you should think to yourself about how much of the value of the dollar has dropped since the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank. Lets say 95%. That means about 95% of whatever that price is results from the root problem of Inflation, not minimum wage. We should all know damn well by now that Inflation is NOT Wealth. Inflation is an increase in the Money Supply. Inflation disconnects Currency from anything that can give it Value. Inflation alters peoples perceptions by confusing Quantity of Currency with Value of Currency. Another very important thing to remember is those that are truly responsible are those that benefit from Money Manipulation will always absolve themselves of that responsibility by shifting blame elsewhere. In this case, the blame is being shifted to the poor when has always been the fault of the Money Manipulators all along.

If a lot of companies start attaching a "Minimum Wage Fee", you can tell this is obviously political motivation to cause dissent. On the other hand, if people are expected to "go back to sleep", the rise in price of goods and services will simply be absorbed as a Standard Rate Increase. By observing these tactics, we can tell if we are expected to "revolt" or "go back to sleep". Revolt has consequences, and the most severe form of consequences against the people could very well be the utter elimination of the Constitution under Martial Law. This is a Trigger Point, and it could be used against us for those in power to gain that which they desire more than more money, which is more Power.

 

[LibForestPaul]

what this guy said just proves he is fucking deluded and has a child-like understanding of economics and basic reality.
.

Why do you think he does not completely understand it? And is just upset his constituents will see now as well?

 

[alucard13mm]

It is kinda funny how liberals think the cost will come out of the boss's profits... a way to "stick it to the man".

 

[presence]

passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best

Because reprinting menu's with $1 increased cost per meal to cover the reprinting would somehow be better than a sign on the door for 35c ?