Employers on $15 Minimum Wage

Idealism Meets Reality

Update: notice renters are now complaining about high rents. https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-news/renters-say-omaha-is-not-an-affordable-city-anymore

Nebraska State Senator Terrell McKinney, Zeke Rouse, and Nancy Williams sponsored the Nebraska petition to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 (https://sos.nebraska.gov/sites/sos.nebraska.gov/files/doc/elections/Petitions/2022/Nebraska%20Minimum%20Wage%20Initiative.pdf). I decided to send them a condensed compilation of comments from employers on minimum wage from over the years, my seance with the living.

Hello Senator McKinney, Zeke Rouse, and Nancy Williams,

I am sure you’re proud of your minimum wage petition and clearly many agree with you, but this is because you have a poor comprehension of all the dynamics of the labor market and wages. So, I share with you condensed compilations of comments from employers on minimum wage.

“Andrew, it does not matter. There are people who cannot produce $9 worth of work so I simply will not hire them. Let someone else deal with them. We will pay $12 an hour to get better employees, but we will also be more comfortable firing them for not meeting our standards.”

“Andrew, In my business, many people cannot do $15 worth of work. We will change hiring requirements. New hires will have to have 2 years of experience and work full time. No part-time job offerings.”

“Mr. Sullivan: We already adjust for this. We stopped doing percentage pay raises and went to actual dollar and cents increases. This helps us control costs while still providing a pay raise as an incentive.”

“Andrew, Dude! You already know what we are going to do! We will simply stop hiring in Nebraska and hire more people in India, Ireland and the Philippines. We are a call and email center. We don’t need to worry about tariffs or shipping costs. Why don’t you just shut up?”

“Mr. Sullivan, I appreciate your inquiry. Usually, with these changes, we cut back on benefits or make workers pay more for benefits. Sometimes we cut back hours.”

“Andrew, Progressives must hate you but you are an idiot, sorta. With the minimum wage being raised, I will raise the rents on all my properties to soak up all the new free money in the economy. Hey, I got bills to pay too. Why should I waste time protesting a minimum wage increase?”

“Mr. Sullivan, You are a f*cking pr*ck! You are right but idiots are supposed to be exploited. I will raise the prices on my vending machines because of the minimum wage increases and no one will fault me. The idiots will merely be thankful the minimum wage was raised to cover the cost, never understanding it is the consequence, cause and connection to the increase.”

“Drew, Appreciate your efforts but you will never win. Besides, businesses like mine have so many ways to screw over our employees and customers. Because we serve alcohol, we hire no one under 21 and require 2 years of bar experience, yet this is not the business we are in. This means we don’t hire high school and college students. Also, we need people with language skills beyond English, such as Spanish. This means we rarely hire a Black person.”

“Drew, You are smart and stupid at the same time. Control is an illusion. My business hires lots of illegal immigrants and pay in cash. No payroll taxes to worry about. Call me evil if you want, but these immigrants do good work and have families to feed and refuse to slack off. If minimum wage goes up, I get more business.”

“Dear Mr. Sullivan, You are either a genius living in the Dark Ages or an idiot for thinking people could be enlightened. No one is going to ask “what happens to those people whose work is not worth $15 an hour?” That would expose their cruelty and their idiocy at the same time. Give it up! They believe government, not God, is compassion.”

“Mr. Sullivan, Minimum wage raises cause us to do odd things. We accept WIC from many people but with the minimum wage increases, we will eventually raise prices. There is nothing the WIC recipients can do because the last increase in Nebraska’s minimum wage resulted in many grocery stores closing and consolidating, reducing our competition. Remember Bag & Save and No Frills? Less choice, higher prices and more self-checkout stands. ”

“Dear Mr. Sullivan, We already pay over the minimum wage but we have been moving our business to Iowa because the wage market is too difficult when the minimum wage is raised. With the last minimum hike, we received a bunch of jumpers who went to business after business to get hired and trained but quit after training to go get hired at the same wage at another business.”