FiscalSanity
Member
- Jun 13, 2011
- 98
- 17
- 6
Warsaw,
Hate to disagree, but labor cost varies a ton from industry to industry. In some manufacturing industries things are so automated that human labor costs are far less then the 50% you seem to think is standard, and I know from my restaurant management days that I generally ran no more then a 28% labor cost. In my current industry labor is less then 20%, because we're a retailer/wholesaler and most of our expense is tied up in the goods themselves.
I do agree that raising minimum wages doesn't do any good though. When i first went to work the minimum wage was $3.25/hr, and the price to buy a can of soda out of a machine had just jumped up to $.50 cents. Today minimum wage is $7.75/hr, and that same soda costs $1.25. Gas had just passed the $1/gallon mark for good. Now we consider $3-4/gallon normal. As far as I can tell every jump in minimum wage has brought a corresponding increase in price, but I suspect that the prices increased by a greater degree the the minimum wage did. Back in 85 I was able to rent a 1 bedroom studio apartment, pay for my car insurance and gas, pay for my food, and still have something left over to go out with (or repair my clunker of a car) on just slightly more then minimum wage (I was making $3.50 instead of $3.25). Today you can rent a studio apartment and have the money to eat on a minimum wage job, but forget having the car or enough extra money to do much more then watch tv very often.
Hate to disagree, but labor cost varies a ton from industry to industry. In some manufacturing industries things are so automated that human labor costs are far less then the 50% you seem to think is standard, and I know from my restaurant management days that I generally ran no more then a 28% labor cost. In my current industry labor is less then 20%, because we're a retailer/wholesaler and most of our expense is tied up in the goods themselves.
I do agree that raising minimum wages doesn't do any good though. When i first went to work the minimum wage was $3.25/hr, and the price to buy a can of soda out of a machine had just jumped up to $.50 cents. Today minimum wage is $7.75/hr, and that same soda costs $1.25. Gas had just passed the $1/gallon mark for good. Now we consider $3-4/gallon normal. As far as I can tell every jump in minimum wage has brought a corresponding increase in price, but I suspect that the prices increased by a greater degree the the minimum wage did. Back in 85 I was able to rent a 1 bedroom studio apartment, pay for my car insurance and gas, pay for my food, and still have something left over to go out with (or repair my clunker of a car) on just slightly more then minimum wage (I was making $3.50 instead of $3.25). Today you can rent a studio apartment and have the money to eat on a minimum wage job, but forget having the car or enough extra money to do much more then watch tv very often.