Job creation from a 1%er

[Jags]

Depends FC - there are two schools of thought. Straight markup from cost or profit percent. My company works off of profit margin. We have a competitor that works off of markup. That can pose for some interesting pricing and customer conversations.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

My company works off of profit margin.

Same here. Relatively easy to tell by looking at expenses what total revenue should be to provide that margin & make adjustments when necessary. I will say though that looking at the posts in this thread many posters are stating wage levels that are less than half of what a similar job pays here. That's not good. Too much downward pressure on wages for too long.

 

[Jags]

If you are a high school graduate and can maintain a CDL drivers license and are willing to work hard...I have many employees that make a very good wage with bennys. We like to keep good people.

 

[razerface]

Oh I think you may have missed just a few bemoaning the proposed increase in min wages for a start. Care to have a go at the question? What type of margin does your business operate on? Do you have increased potential for profit as your expenses & employees wages increase? If not, why not? For that matter why even continue if when your costs rise your potential profit does not?

Yes, I saw people not agreeing with "increasing" the min wage,,,,no one talked of lowering them except you. You know,,,increase and decrease are opposites?

No we don't have increased potential for profit as our expenses go up. We must charge more for the product when our expenses go up. When that happens we risk loosing the job to someone who's expenses have not gone up, or have found a way to control them. I



I do not understand why you think your profits will go up as you raise your expenses and employee wages. If that was true,,, please hire me and pay me thousands of dollars per hour, and pay your suppliers double what you do now,,,think of the potential profit you can make!

 

[Frozen Canuck]

I do not understand why you think your profits will go up as you raise your expenses and employee wages. If that was true,,, please hire me and pay me thousands of dollars per hour, and pay your suppliers double what you do now,,,think of the potential profit you can make!

I think you completely misunderstand the concept of profit margin.

 

[razerface]

I think you completely misunderstand the concept of profit margin.

I think I understand, and my bottom line agrees

Do you have increased potential for profit as your expenses & employees wages increase? If not, why not?

above is the question you asked, that I remarked on.

 

[begreen]

One small way that profits may improve with higher wages is employee retention. This is especially important with a skilled labor pool. Pay your employees well and give them good working conditions and you will retain them. If your competition doesn't get this, you will succeed where they fail.Training is costly.

 

[razerface]

One small way that profits may improve with higher wages is employee retention. This is especially important with a skilled labor pool. Pay your employees well and give them good working conditions and you will retain them. If your competition doesn't get this, you will succeed where they fail.Training is costly.

that is a fact.

 

[ironpony]

One small way that profits may improve with higher wages is employee retention. This is especially important with a skilled labor pool. Pay your employees well and give them good working conditions and you will retain them. If your competition doesn't get this, you will succeed where they fail.Training is costly.

In my business it costs me several thousand dollars before the employee can even go ON the first jobsite. Then we can find out if they is good or not. If they are good they get a raise and we do everything to keep them.

 

[Ashful]

Pay your employees well and give them good working conditions and you will retain them. If your competition doesn't get this, you will succeed where they fail.Training is costly.

I thought this was a discussion about raising the minimum wage, somewhat forcing your competition to "get this."

 

[begreen]

It was, yesterday. Good to bring it back on topic.

 

[ironpony]

minimum wage wont affect me, all my employees are higher than that.
Back on topic......

 

[razerface]

minimum wage wont affect me, all my employees are higher than that.
Back on topic......

If they made the min wage $15 in ohio, it would effect us. We have people in that wage area. If we were forced to start untrained, unskilled workers at that hourly rate,,,everybody in the shop would want a raise, so it would cost us more then just the new hires.

Then it would cost us more in workmans comp too.

 

[Butcher]

minimum wage wont affect me, all my employees are higher than that.
Back on topic......

That may be so but in my profession and in my market area the base pay rate is very low. As the minimum wage climbs higher that means it is getting closer to what experienced employees are making per hour. That can have a huge impact on employee moral when I have to pay a man right off the street a wage that is close to someone who has been there for some time. I'm of the mind set that happy workers are productive workers so I feel the need to compensate my regular guys with a raise. That means in order to maintain a reasonable profit margin I need to pass that cost on to the customer. As a landscaper/nurseryman what I'm selling isn't an essential commodity to day to day life. As my prices get higher my customer base is going to think long and hard as to weather they really need my service or not. I could very easily hire a bunch of Mexicans for lower wages but we are a small family owned business that has been in the same place for 85 years and I refuse to do that just to make a buck. Besides, I know my market and it wouldn't go over well. What I'm having a hard time wrapping my pea brain around is how some can say that raising the minimum wage is going to create jobs or help an already floundering economy. In my view I see it driving many business' under as well as raising price to all consumers. Isn't the cost of labor in this country already the reason so many companies have been shipping jobs over seas? I'm not trying to get into an internet pizzin match with any one, just trying to under stand the logic behind this topic.

 

[jharkin]

That may be so but in my profession and in my market area the base pay rate is very low. As the minimum wage climbs higher that means it is getting closer to what experienced employees are making per hour. That can have a huge impact on employee moral when I have to pay a man right off the street a wage that is close to someone who has been there for some time. I'm of the mind set that happy workers are productive workers so I feel the need to compensate my regular guys with a raise.

Yes, hopefully raising hte miimum wage has the effect of driving all wages up. The point that some of us are trying to make is that when the wage spread keeps compressing to the point that 99% of employees make nothing or close to nothing and the the ownership keeps it all then you can kiss the middle class goodby. No middle class = nobody to buy products and services = more and more businesses giong under. Its a vicious cycle and we have to have the courage to break it or it will just get worse.

Think of Henry Ford. He is known for a couple great innovations - the assmebly line and standard parts is one of them (an idea he himself borrowed), and the other idea was actually paying his employees enough that they could afford to buy the product they where making. And we know how that worked out for him

Isn't the cost of labor in this country already the reason so many companies have been shipping jobs over seas? I'm not trying to get into an internet pizzin match with any one, just trying to under stand the logic behind this topic.

That's the race to the bottom... Its not that our labor has gotten too expensive, its just that cheap trade/transport/communicatins have made it practical to use cheap labor elsewhere. Do you really want our country to "get competitive" by reducing our standard of living down to the 3rd world?

 

[begreen]

This map puts the pain of working at a minimum wage into a national perspective. Just affording an apartment eats up over 30% of their income.

 

[Butcher]

That's the race to the bottom... Its not that our labor has gotten too expensive, its just that cheap trade/transport/communicatins have made it practical to use cheap labor elsewhere. Do you really want our country to "get competitive" by reducing our standard of living down to the 3rd world?

No I don't want to see us become a third world economy but then since you stated that its more practical to use cheap labor else where I think you answered my question. But then most of the trade imbalances and prices caused by them are more of a political matter and I'm not going to get started on that dirt road.

Yes, hopefully raising hte miimum wage has the effect of driving all wages up.

Sounds like a good recipe for run a way inflation to me.
Like I said, I'm just trying to understand. I know in my case it is not a good deal. I'm not a smart man, just a guy who runs a shovel, wheelbarrow and grows things for a living.

 

[bmblank]

This map puts the pain of working at a minimum wage into a national perspective. Just affording an apartment eats up over 30% of their income.

View attachment 129008

I don't mean to start anything, but in that map I can't help but notice that the states in which more hours are required are generally states in which the minimum wage is higher.
I haven't done any research on that, just noticed that the higher state are generally (generally) blue states.

 

[begreen]

?? Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia all require more hours than WA which has higher minimum wage.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Correlation isn't causation, but here's something about WA state's minimum wage and job creation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...t-minimum-wage-state-beats-u-s-with-jobs.html

 

[bmblank]

?? Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia all require more hours than WA which has higher minimum wage.

And California has a higher min wage than Michigan. I'm just pointing out that map doesn't mean a whole lot in this discussion.

 

[bassJAM]

This map puts the pain of working at a minimum wage into a national perspective. Just affording an apartment eats up over 30% of their income.

View attachment 129008

Having your own apartment isn't a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Which is why you see so many foreigners living together when they move here, so they can afford rent. The argument that minimum wage isn't enough to live on doesn't hold water to me. Most of the people making minimum wage are pretty much kids, who either live with their parents or on their parents dime at school. They don't NEED to make a living wage.

 

[ironpony]

That may be so but in my profession and in my market area the base pay rate is very low. As the minimum wage climbs higher that means it is getting closer to what experienced employees are making per hour. That can have a huge impact on employee moral when I have to pay a man right off the street a wage that is close to someone who has been there for some time. I'm of the mind set that happy workers are productive workers so I feel the need to compensate my regular guys with a raise. That means in order to maintain a reasonable profit margin I need to pass that cost on to the customer. As a landscaper/nurseryman what I'm selling isn't an essential commodity to day to day life. As my prices get higher my customer base is going to think long and hard as to weather they really need my service or not. I could very easily hire a bunch of Mexicans for lower wages but we are a small family owned business that has been in the same place for 85 years and I refuse to do that just to make a buck. Besides, I know my market and it wouldn't go over well. What I'm having a hard time wrapping my pea brain around is how some can say that raising the minimum wage is going to create jobs or help an already floundering economy. In my view I see it driving many business' under as well as raising price to all consumers. Isn't the cost of labor in this country already the reason so many companies have been shipping jobs over seas? I'm not trying to get into an internet pizzin match with any one, just trying to under stand the logic behind this topic.

Most of my work force is Latino, and some front office too. Spanish is spoken here as much as English. we have one line for the spanish only speakers to call into the office and have Anilde answer so she can communicate with them. All my supervisors are bilingual most from South America. Yes they are all here legally, because we do background checks and most of the companies we work for require we provide that documentation. We do very hard work and the "white boys" are to good to work for 18 dollars an hour plus benefits, retirement and health care. Do not get me started on that one. There is a lot more to people wanting to work than the minimum wage.

 

[Ashful]

Yes, hopefully raising hte miimum wage has the effect of driving all wages up... Do you really want our country to "get competitive" by reducing our standard of living down to the 3rd world?

I think that what a few here have been trying to point out is that falsely forcing up the bottom will not solve any problem. After some short term gain for those at the bottom, and some short-term pain for those at the top, the free market that put us where we are today will eventually set everything "right" again. As I see the salaries of those below me coming up, I'm going to be in my boss's office demanding more. Those with skills harder to replace will always have more pull than those closer to minimum wage.

 

[Butcher]

Most of my work force is Latino, and some front office too. Spanish is spoken here as much as English. we have one line for the spanish only speakers to call into the office and have Anilde answer so she can communicate with them. All my supervisors are bilingual most from South America. Yes they are all here legally, because we do background checks and most of the companies we work for require we provide that documentation. We do very hard work and the "white boys" are to good to work for 18 dollars an hour plus benefits, retirement and health care. Do not get me started on that one. There is a lot more to people wanting to work than the minimum wage.

Well I never said I had a problem with that. All I mean as that in my market and my line of work it would not work well at all. In "Podunk" Iowa the home owners I deal with on a daily basis have a different out look as to who does their work for them. If I was to be doing purely commercial jobs or in a factory situation my hiring policy's would be completely different. I wasn't trying to raise racisms ugly head with my comment. This whole debate has completely different impacts on people who are in completely different situations I think.