Opinion | The $15 Minimum Wage Will Put Me Out of Business

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Opinion: My employees already make $22 an hour with tips. A new bill will force me to fire them all, writes Larry Fox.

Want to earn a living wage in Alabama? Try working in a full-service restaurant.

I’m a restaurant franchisee with nine locations throughout Alabama and Florida, and my tipped employees report an hourly wage between $18 and $28, inclusive of base pay and gratuities. That’s more than the living wage for a single adult in Alabama, as calculated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

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Just cut the executive salaries to balance it out. You'll do fine.

Wow, so its begin. This is the objective. Cause chaos and then promote false peace and even more false claims of jobs.

“Force me.” Lies. You can afford them now because, legally, you only have to pay them $2/hour while you shift the burden/responsibility of cost-of-living to the customer.

Wow, a wrong opinion on the internet!

Im already done with fast food prices....insane. thank the democrats who destroy everything they touch. Everything. Look at Gavin Newsom the governor of Venezuela.

Why? If your above the minimum wage what are you losing? Please take this hit piece elsewhere

Then perish.

The point is you let your CUSTOMERS pay the wage YOU are supposed to pay! Without tips they make what? $6?

Let’s support businesses that only stay afloat by undercutting their employees..... I’m tired of bosses crying about a minimum wage increases, wages has stagnated for years and were artificially kept low by the influx of immigrants who were preyed upon by the business owners.

The Dems in Congress do not care about business people never have never will!!

In Alamaba and FL? I call bullshit. Servers make 2.13 an hour. Try poverty wages...

This person forgets that most servers are stolen from by Trump Supporters and the Christians right who don’t think that people are worthy of tips. How many servers are taxed on sales while getting stiffed on tips.

If waitstaff didn't have to rely on tips to earn income to pay their bills, and tipping was just optional ( and maybe split evenly among all the staff on shift) we wouldn't have to worry about this.

Is there a business that liberals don’t want to kill? Gas,truck driving,car,shopping,food,meat,plane traveling

You know what might make more sense than putting small business owners against giant companies with flat min wage laws is creating laws about how much at minimum employees need to be paid according to the revenue of the company.

The minimum wage increase would undoubtably raise prices . Then tips go down

Not believable!

This “put me out of business” whine is not backed up by stats. If you can’t afford to pay a decent wage hire your relatives or close and work for someone who can.

Worth a read editors TheIdahoPress

Maybe is time to change that tipping wage model? How the rest of the world does it?

So than instead of 22 pay15.

Then his business model is flawed.

awwwww.

Opinion: The Author is a piece of garbage and shouldn't run a restaurant anyway.

Well you'll be out of business when I set the minimum wage to $17 an hour

Let the economy drive minimum wages and get government out

But, your big tax cuts. Fire them all? Why no fire only enough to pay the minimum wage?

Small business owners' plight conjures Sisyphus, present day.

Ah the problem of government blind intervention

bullshit

Why any member of Congress should have the minimum requirement of a business degree, working as an employee for five years minimum, or business ownership. These fly-by-night theorists swoop in with crazy ideas, get elected and then put people in business, out of business. Brutal.

The greed of employers they just want to keep on robbing employees

Cool, so if restaurant staff gets a 5 dollar an hour bump does that mean everyone who worked to make something of themselves does as well? Otherwise you have decreased the purchasing power of millions when this triggers inflation.

Nobody believes that restaurants have 50-60% EBIT as the spokesperson claims. Plus $15 is barely above inflation (what rises at inflation anyways? Gas? Education? Rent?) compared to 30 yrs. ago - this from a former operator of a retail chain

Show us your tits Larry!

How much do you make an hour? It appears as though you are unable to run a thriving business. Get a Job!

Tips are a gift. They are not a reliable source of income.

Looks like Congress wants to economically shoot its own foot, to stimulate a crisis, in which QE will cause inflation to bring up the normalization of ‘larger’ numbers in our society with costs of living. Except this time they’ll include salary and wages. deathofthedollar

I never heard of a broke restaurant owner in my life. Most of them have chains of restaurants making millions.

We can increase everyone's wages without costing employers or anyone else a dime.

People can still give big tips if they want for stuff. Paying people normally means you don;t have to give a tip. I say we have way too many restaurants and we don;t need them all. Why do we need a restaurant every 5 feet?

Interesting that THIS piece from the is open to all. Most WSJ pieces on Twitter can’t be opened without subscribing.

Guys, this is how capitalism works, profits driven, free competition. If you don’t like the job, just leave.

No, I don’t think so. I was a teenager when minimum wage (me) was $1.35 and then $1.60. It’s always the same argument that the raise would drive the employer out of business. The real predator is the landlord raising rent. Look at your expenses & apartment rental.

MasterChefAU

Kool aid

The math on this is bullshit. I own two restaurants. If your profit on chicken is only .07 on the dollar. You are a fuck up. I get it it. Paying a living wage is tough. But lying doesn’t make it better.

I am positive you probably don't. B) You as an owner probably never hear anyone being remotely rude. If anyone spoke to as they do your staff, I am sure your head would explode.

afford to live on the very wages you pay your employees. They by the way do all of the work. You get all of the tax breaks and could probably care less about your employees. Do you provide health care ? 401 k ? Etc. I am sure you don't. Do you allow a union?

leaving $1520 to $520 left over for food Bill's. No one gets more than 40 hours because, no one wants to pay the overtime wage. Also, customers are often rude ,entitled and verbally abusive. I doubt as an owner that you could A)

1st, how much do you as an owner make ? What exactly do 'you' do ? I know plenty of owners who make disgusting amounts of profit but have everyone, do the job they take credit for. 2nd , $22 an hour for the work is far from a high wage. 22 dollars an hour at 40 hours is only

How about we end the ridiculous practice of tipping altogether and simply have menu pricing that allows for a living wage for servers and keep everything above the table?

Why fire them, if they already make more, they are still at great advantage..how did you arrive at this conclusion

There isn’t just one single minimum wage across the board. In my state of Ohio for example, there is the state minimum wage (8.55) and there is a minimum tipped wage (4.30). The $15 increase is proposed for the federal/state side of minimum wage not the tipped wage.

Every one of these employees have CHOSEN to make the low wage they were offered. CHOSEN is the key word. If so bad...don't take the job.

Well then, fire them all and go out of business. The world does not need a business that cannot afford to pay its employees.

Here's an idea: raise prices 15%, and pay your staff $15 per hour. Then people could tip as a bonus for excellent service, not because the feel they have to. Sure, that means your staff still makes $15/hr if your restaurant is empty, but it's your job to fill seats, not theirs.

Minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage

'An unavailability of subsidized/free labor will make my business nonviable.'

Garbage. Put the menu prices up, prohibit tips, and pay as base wages the $22 per hour you say your staff already get. Problem solved.

I have zero sympathy for restaurant owners, pay your god damn employee’s! It’s the most annoying thing about being back in the USA constantly requiring tips and not including sales tax on items. 🤬

Minimum wage is designed to trap people in poverty so it is easy to buy their vote.

Government intervention always harms the economy ..

People people this is Hooters we are talking about. Let it go tits up.

Lincoln's proposed anti-slavery ideas will put my farm out of business :(

Maybe you’ll have to get a job then

Time for a new business model then.

So judge Marcusso had a meeting with that judge in washington st about the microsoft acc. And judge Trump or i assume her name is the same as prez were tryn to move on it

swamp

Larry Fox owns Hooters in Alabama and Florida and was sued for violations of the Fair Labor Act. So consider the source.

Sounds like he’s not very good at running a business then 🤷‍♀️

Well socialism also mean sexy to those who are crazy

This is a very important issue thank you

I'd be happy having the menu prices reflect the cost to pay staff a living wage, instead of tipping them well and hoping others do the same. I don't tip my doctor or dentist. Let's do away with tips & just pay ppl fairly. Also, what else does he propose? Status quo?

I worked in Florida as a server and bartender making minimum wage plus tips. It wasn’t enough during the off-season and I ended up working 10-11 shifts a week, 12 hours a day on my feet no breaks. If this guy owns 9 locations, he can pay a living wage. We do it in LA. No excuses.

This tweet deserves an epic ratio

GOOD. THEN YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN BUSINESS

LOL Reprint the menu prices, sell one of your yachts, renegotiate with your vendors.

“I can only run a business and make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year if I pay my employees $3/hour!”

They make 22 an hour because I don’t pay them a living wage and put that burden on the consumers ahahaha

If you can't afford to pay your workers fairly then you're in the business of exploiting them to make your money

Then you don’t have a viable business.

If you can’t afford to pay a living wage, you can’t afford to have a business.

If you are going to go out of business because your employees need a livable wage, there is something wrong with your business practices and financial practices.

His employees make $22 an hour because of TIPS. he doesn't pay them that at all. If you cannot afford to pay minimum wage you cannot afford to run a business

Don’t you guys only tip because of the low wages?!? So by increasing the wage... 🤷‍♂️

Miserable!

Clearly Larry is an idiot, and either a fool or a liar. Possibly (probably) both.

Maybe your business deserves to fail then.

So you don’t have a business unless you underpay your employees? Then you don’t have a business

Sounds like he is bad at business and pays his works less than $3 an hour and should probably shut the hell up.

This is stupid........Fix it yourself.......duh! Waste of time for Americans!

Maybe your business isn't run well, Larry

do it, coward

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