Biden: $15 min wage not happening under COVID relief bill

[FATCAT 49,666]

25 minutes ago, Mr Ricky said:

Why raise the wage in a period of time where people/businesses can't afford to pay their staff at this moment. Wait till COVID is done or atleast partly gone, till economy gets back on track. 

The proposal is raising it over 5 years. Businesses that can't afford a few quarters extra per hour need to go under.

[Gagaloo911 11,708]

Hilarious. Democrats are spineless cowards and are going to lose to another fascist probably even worse than Trump as he'll actually be competent

Between caving on this, the fake "$2,000" checks and the student loan thing, we can say bye bye to House in 2022 and likely the Senate too.

[gypsy101 3,475]

3 hours ago, myluis617 said:

This title is only gonna keep making people click and comment uninformed comments bashing biden like some of these people don't understand the economic stress we are facing right now. Like do some of yall even live in America?

pretty sure most people on this site aren’t americans lol

[myluis617 3,021]

1 minute ago, gypsy101 said:

pretty sure most people on this site aren’t americans lol

The whole reason why I asked the question because I think the same. 

[StarstruckIllusion 26,664]

Reading the article, said he wants to do it but he thinks it doesn’t affect the budget. Luckily Bernie, his room of lawyers, and others already proved that’s not true. I know everyone’s cynical and I totally get it, but i’ll honestly be surprised if this doesn’t make it in 

[BUtterfield 8 21,661]

First the student loans and now this 

I’m ****ing tired man 

[AJRocketMan 2,314]

2 hours ago, Lady Papa said:

Great because it's absurd to double the minimum wage through a mandate. Add a dollar or two.

It wouldn’t shoot up to $15 an hour IMMEDIATELY — though I feel like that should happen — it would gradually rise over a period of about 5 years, including this one. Say if it were to pass, the federal minimum wage would progress like this:

6/01/2021: $7.25 -> $9.50

6/01/2022: $9.50 -> $11

6/01/2023: $11 -> $12.50

6/01/2024: $12.50 -> $14

6/01/2025: $14 -> $15

2 hours ago, GagaSine said:

While I appreciate and agree with this perspective, I always think of the restaurant industry and how this would completely wipe it out.

The margins at most restaurants that are not backed by big corporations/part of a chain are razor thin, the operating costs are so high that exploiting labour (not paying overtime, overworking everyone, stealing tips from workers etc) is considered normal and necessary. 

So when people say “if you can’t afford to pay your workers living wage just close!” I wonder if they realize that means almost every restaurant that isn’t like a McDonalds, Kelsey’s, Cheesecake Factory would shut down. Or you have to accept paying very fancy restaurant prices (30+ dollars for a small dish) for not necessarily fancy food.

Maybe for some that isn’t a loss but personally restaurants besides being where my career is based are also a great source of pleasure in my life, I love going to new restaurants either where I live or when traveling. Eating unique food makes me really happy. 

Of course being paid a livable wage is infinitely more important, but it isn’t always the businesses’ fault. The restaurant industry has been very unstable for decades, stuff like food costs and also constantly rising rents contribute as well. Some rent control or support for small businesses in the form of tax breaks or something would be helpful.

Restaurants undercharge patrons for food in general. $10 for a burger and fries is CHEAP. The starting price should be about $15.60 - about a $13 base price, plus an extra 20% added to the listing price which acts as a discrete automatic gratuity for the workers who ring it in, prepare it, and serve it (waiter, cook, busser). Perhaps that could contribute to their hourly wages. Either way, that extra 20% goes STRAIGHT to the workers. And they can still keep the traditional tip line on the tab.

I don’t see anything wrong with the way alcohol is priced — it seems fair to charge $7 - $12 for a bottle or can of beer, seltzer, wine cooler, shandy, or cider. No discrete automatic gratuities added to the listing price there. People who order alcohol are more likely to tip anyways and most of an establishment’s revenue is made from alcohol sales, plus bartenders tend to make more money than waiters so I would just leave them alone.

I also think all tabs that reach a certain threshold, say $500, should have an automatic 20% gratuity — I mean a blatant one in addition to the hidden one. If you’re gonna rack up all that much money, work the staff silly, and consume that much inventory then there definitely needs to be something that holds them accountable!

Also an 18% gratuity for any walk outs, although this only happens in bars as far as I know when the patron is too drunk to process anything.

I totally understand all of your concerns, I absolutely love restaurants and I love trying new foods! I too derive great pleasure from eating out. I work in the restaurant business as well — I work as a host. Zoning laws need to change, as that is a huge part of what makes rent expensive; it makes land cost more money, plus licenses, construction, utilities, maintenance, renovation, property taxes, and add all of the labor that comes with those things and you have high rents, especially in places like NYC. Rent control is actually bad because it makes real estate more expensive in the long run. There should be tax credits for rent instead, the same way there is for Obamacare recipients.

I also believe in addition to the tax credits for rent, there should be reduced tax rates for small businesses (at all levels — city, state, and federal), and if the owner of the business is not the landlord of the building, then the landlord should be exempt from paying property taxes if they choose to lease to a small business in exchange for a reduced rent.

As for food costs, I actually believe there needs to be really high excise taxes applied towards meat and eggs.  It contributes A LOT to climate change. However! Restaurants can be exempt from paying the excise taxes. It should just be applied towards groceries and not restaurant suppliers.

That was a long post. What do you think? 

[TylerBR97 14,144]

I’m not even going to click the link. Under the COVID RELIEF. He already set in order the increases in minimum wage. It’s a gradual increase over several years

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/26/democrats-reintroduce-15-minimum-wage-bill-with-unified-control-of-congress.html

[homomo 17,696]

21 minutes ago, gypsy101 said:

pretty sure most people on this site aren’t americans lol

American politics is right, front, and centre of every country I’ve ever lived in.

Tbh, I feel I have a better understanding of the US political system than some people who actually live there. And that is sad.

[TEANUS 5,737]

Why should we focus on raising the minimum wage during a pandemic anyway? 

Let’s continue to work on relief for small business, relief for families, compensation for medical bills for COVID patients and their families, and relief for the healthcare industry.

Minimum wage can come later. Anything that would happen in the near future would be gradual anyway

Edited February 19 by TEANUS

[GagaSine 4,410]

14 minutes ago, AJRocketMan said:

It wouldn’t shoot up to $15 an hour IMMEDIATELY — though I feel like that should happen — it would gradually rise over a period of about 5 years, including this one. Say if it were to pass, the federal minimum wage would progress like this:

6/01/2021: $7.25 -> $9.50

6/01/2022: $9.50 -> $11

6/01/2023: $11 -> $12.50

6/01/2024: $12.50 -> $14

6/01/2025: $14 -> $15

Restaurants undercharge patrons for food in general. $10 for a burger and fries is CHEAP. The starting price should be about $15.60 - about a $13 base price, plus an extra 20% added to the listing price which acts as a discrete automatic gratuity for the workers who ring it in, prepare it, and serve it (waiter, cook, busser). Perhaps that could contribute to their hourly wages. Either way, that extra 20% goes STRAIGHT to the workers. And they can still keep the traditional tip line on the tab.

I don’t see anything wrong with the way alcohol is priced — it seems fair to charge $7 - $12 for a bottle or can of beer, seltzer, wine cooler, shandy, or cider. No discrete automatic gratuities added to the listing price there. People who order alcohol are more likely to tip anyways and most of an establishment’s revenue is made from alcohol sales, plus bartenders tend to make more money than waiters so I would just leave them alone.

I also think all tabs that reach a certain threshold, say $500, should have an automatic 20% gratuity — I mean a blatant one in addition to the hidden one. If you’re gonna rack up all that much money, work the staff silly, and consume that much inventory then there definitely needs to be something that holds them accountable!

Also an 18% gratuity for any walk outs, although this only happens in bars as far as I know when the patron is too drunk to process anything.

I totally understand all of your concerns, I absolutely love restaurants and I love trying new foods! I too derive great pleasure from eating out. I work in the restaurant business as well — I work as a host. Zoning laws need to change, as that is a huge part of what makes rent expensive; it makes land cost more money, plus licenses, construction, utilities, maintenance, renovation, property taxes, and add all of the labor that comes with those things and you have high rents, especially in places like NYC. Rent control is actually bad because it makes real estate more expensive in the long run. There should be tax credits for rent instead, the same way there is for Obamacare recipients.

I also believe in addition to the tax credits for rent, there should be reduced tax rates for small businesses (at all levels — city, state, and federal), and if the owner of the business is not the landlord of the building, then the landlord should be exempt from paying property taxes if they choose to lease to a small business in exchange for a reduced rent.

As for food costs, I actually believe there needs to be really high excise taxes applied towards meat and eggs.  It contributes A LOT to climate change. However! Restaurants can be exempt from paying the excise taxes. It should just be applied towards groceries and not restaurant suppliers.

That was a long post. What do you think? 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! This was very informative, I think your proposed ideas definitely seem like a good direction to head in!

[Bonkers 14,751]

There are several measures in the covid relief bill.  ALL of them (except raising min wage) have public approval ratings over 80%.  Min wage increase is 50-60% popular.  But even still, it's the ONLY measure that is close to ontroversial with the majority of Americans, so removing this item makes not supporting the bill indefensible and gives democrats the mandate to push it through with or without republican support.

Not having min wage increase that was going to be phased in over years anyway in the covid relief bill does NOT mean in ANY way that the Biden administration is abandoning raising the minimum wage to $15/hour.  It only means it's not in this bill that's happening in his first 30 days in office.

As far as the student loan relief, that's not something Joe Biden ran on.  So there's no campaign promise broken on either issue.  

Edited February 19 by Bonkers

[thefamebitch 458]

Not even surprised by this 

[LaLuna 9,377]

Oh great, so we're back to the Biden bashing now, cool 

14 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

There are several measures in the covid relief bill.  ALL of them (except raising min wage) have public approval ratings over 80%.  Min wage increase is 50-60% popular.  But even still, it's the ONLY measure that is close to ontroversial with the majority of Americans, so removing this item makes not supporting the bill indefensible and gives democrats the mandate to push it through with or without republican support.

Not having min wage increase that was going to be phased in over years anyway in the covid relief bill does NOT mean in ANY way that the Biden administration is abandoning raising the minimum wage to $15/hour.  It only means it's not in this bill that's happening in his first 30 days in office.

As far as the student loan relief, that's not something Joe Biden ran on.  So there's no campaign promise broken on either issue.  

 

[StarstruckIllusion 26,664]

1 minute ago, LaLuna said:

Oh great, so we're back to the Biden bashing now, cool