St. Louis To Lower Minimum Wage.

[angelatc]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/minimum-wage-set-to-drop-in-missouri/ar-BBDP27V?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Actual small business owner:

Amer Hawatmeh's family-owned restaurant in downtown St. Louis is struggling.

Along with rising sales taxes, and meat prices, a minimum wage hike to $10 an hour two months ago made it expensive to stay open. So he's cut back from five to two days a week for lunch. His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier and his customers scarcer.

Hawatmeh believes it's not the government, but a combination of worker determination and customer demand that should set the correct wage.

"That's how I built myself," he said. "That's how I'm teaching my children to build themselves. Don't ask what do I get, ask what can I do."

The Governor, who signed off on legislation that took away St. Louis' ability to set their own minimum wage, thus forcing the roll-back:

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens agrees. Next month, the minimum wage will return to $7.70 an hour -- ten bucks an hour was a mistake, he says.

"Despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets," Greitens said.

Local economics expert unskilled labor:

Wanda Roberts, a minimum wage worker in St. Louis, said the new $10 wage brought in an extra $400 a month and helped the local economy.

"If we're making $10 an hour, we're going to go right back out and spend that money," Roberts said.

Sigh. Wanda, Wanda Wanda....

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

But how will they buy their weed, cable, and Boones Farm Wine?

 

[angelatc]

But how will they buy their weed, cable, and Boones Farm Wine?

Yeah - it's not like they have to feed their kids.

 

[euphemia]

People act like when they work for $10 an hour that they actually get $10 an hour. Don't they look at their checks?

 

[Origanalist]

People act like when they work for $10 an hour that they actually get $10 an hour. Don't they look at their checks?

Math is hard, and it's a symbol of white oppression.

 

[TheTexan]

Lower minimum wage? I guess, they just want people to die

 

[Schifference]

The business owner in the OP claims to know something about running a small business. I think he is not a good businessman. The last thing I would ever do would be to make something smaller. Customers do not like it when size or quality are changed. Once a place is not as good as it once was I don't go back especially if the size got smaller and the price went up. It would have been smarter for him to keep the original size and charge the amount necessary and offer the junior version for less money.

 

[Zippyjuan]

The business owner in the OP claims to know something about running a small business. I think he is not a good businessman. The last thing I would ever do would be to make something smaller. Customers do not like it when size or quality are changed. Once a place is not as good as it once was I don't go back especially if the size got smaller and the price went up. It would have been smarter for him to keep the original size and charge the amount necessary and offer the junior version for less money.

He made things smaller AND raised his prices. Not a good business move. Pick one. Customers will head elsewhere. Unless your food is amazing- and you can get a burger anyplace.

His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier and his customers scarcer.

Two years ago he was blaming things on new competition from a new shopping complex at the baseball stadium: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/10...roup-sounding-warning-about-lack-of-business/

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Ballpark Village is blamed for a major drop off in revenue along the entertainment district along Washington Avenue.

“Business is not created, it just moves. And everything is getting sucked into the black hole. That’s what Ballpark Village is.”

General manager of Copia restaurant, near 11th and Washington, Amer Hawatmeh says with Ballpark Village taking in millions every month – $45 million in revenue last month – it’s easy to see why business along Washington Avenue have lost half of their revenue this year.

“On the weekends, you used to look out the windows of any of these spaces, and you look on Washington Avenue, and it was a thriving, thriving downtown on Washington Ave.,” he says. “Now, you come down here on the weekends, and you can count the amount of people on the street.”

Hawatmeh says the Washington Avenue restaurant group reports a 50 percent drop in gross revenue since Ballpark Village opened.

“I know at least seven or eight places that are, at any given time, they’re going to decide to stop taking money out of their right pocket to put it in their left pocket to keep their businesses alive,” Hawatmeh says.

Copia may stop serving lunch because it’s had so few customers in recent months, depending on how things go after the baseball season.

So he cut back on lunch even before the wages were changed which was just two months ago.

From the OP:

So he's cut back from five to two days a week for lunch.

Doesn't look like a minimum wage burger joint:

 

[oyarde]

I would just raise prices with a note that said any price increases are due to new govt mandates , then I would make Danke work twice as hard .

 

[parocks]

As I understand it, St Louis is a shthole, and shthole cities generally don't benefit as much from minimum wage hikes. The economy isn't hot, rents aren't skyrocketing, and people making minimum wage can survive adequately. Raising the minimum wage does typically cost jobs, and in places like St Louis, jobs are a little bit more scarce than in places that don't suck. Most cities have arrow pointed down, but there are cities where arrow is pointed up, where jobs are plentiful, but rents are expensive, prices are high across the board, and people making minimum wage can't survive as easily, for them, minimum wage hikes can work. On a state level, rural areas are hurt by minimum wage hikes, urban areas benefited. Maine's minimum wage will go up to $12. Not going to help Rural Maine. Businesses will close. Businesses that sell to minimum wage workers will benefit, businesses that sell to old people primarily will suffer. If there's a business in Maine that actually makes something that is sold outside of Maine, and is competing with a business in a state with the Fed minimum, the Maine business is at a disadvantage.

 

[angelatc]

Wow! The Blue Coats are here en masse over this small loss.

 

[angelatc]

He made things smaller AND raised his prices. Not a good business move. Pick one. Customers will head elsewhere. Unless your food is amazing- and you can get a burger anyplace.

Yeah ....


No.

 

[Keith and stuff]

Maine's minimum wage will go up to $12. Not going to help Rural Maine. Businesses will close. Businesses that sell to minimum wage workers will benefit, businesses that sell to old people primarily will suffer. If there's a business in Maine that actually makes something that is sold outside of Maine, and is competing with a business in a state with the Fed minimum, the Maine business is at a disadvantage.

This is great news for everyone in New Hampshire. The more states around NH increase the minimum wage, and they are all doing it, the better it is for NH. NH eliminated the state minimum wage and we have the best economy in the Eastern United States. Economic freedom improves quality of life.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

NH eliminated the state minimum wage and we have the best economy in the Eastern United States. Economic freedom improves quality of life.

Either way it's an irrelevance
For a white state with no immigrants.
Banning things that no one does
'Tis empty posing. Power buzz.

 

[Keith and stuff]

Either way it's an irrelevance
For a white state with no immigrants.
Banning things that no one does
'Tis empty posing. Power buzz.

I was never good at poetry. Every state in the Northeast is increasing the minimum wage. Heck, most states are. Yet NH did the exact opposite and eliminated it for most folks. That was a huge message to the business community and logical people everywhere. When it comes to improving the economy and attracting businesses, signaling is very important.

 

[nikcers]

Getting rid of the minimum wage won't fix the ballooning labor costs in the US which are caused by our monetary policy. The establishment has taken an axe to american industry, every functioning part of our economy gets an axe taken to it because it has to prop up the mal investment. I don't see this helping the average worker or even the top 10% hard workers, because that will require growth and we won't grow the economy until we stop monetizing our debt and mal investing capital in race to the bottom currency wars.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Getting rid of the minimum wage won't fix the ballooning labor costs in the US which are caused by our monetary policy. The establishment has taken an axe to american industry, every functioning part of our economy gets an axe taken to it because it has to prop up the mal investment. I don't see this helping the average worker or even the top 10% hard workers, because that will require growth and we won't grow the economy until we stop monetizing our debt and mal investing capital in race to the bottom currency wars.

Keeping it will continue the additional damage it causes.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

That was a huge message to the business community... signaling is very important.

As a symbol it has value; I'll agree with you that that's true.

 

[nikcers]

Keeping it will continue the additional damage it causes.

Yes I agree, keeping our disastrous monetary policy will continue the damage it causes. You lost the argument when you decided to believe in the lie that the government ever had any control over the cost of labor or doing business.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Yes I agree, keeping our disastrous monetary policy will continue the damage it causes. You lost the argument when you decided to believe in the lie that the government ever had any control over the cost of labor or doing business.

Lost?
How does the minimum wage not do additional damage?
Of course our whole fiat system is bad, but are seriously trying to claim that more government intervention does not do more damage?