Surely anyone who was paying attention in their high school economics class heard the teacher say the higher the cost of a product the lower the demand.
That basic economic postulate has, unfortunately, been lost on today’s politicians who are more interested in buying votes with other peoples’ money than actually helping their constituents.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why making something more expensive will cause people to buy less of it. It’s the same reason there are more Hondas than Rolls Royces on the road. Remember when gas hit $5 a gallon a few years back? Even with something most Americans must have people found ways to mitigate that expense. Public transportation use skyrocketed as did people riding their bikes to work. Artificially increasing the cost of labor will cause those who must purchase the labor to find ways to mitigate those costs as well.
Former McDonalds CEO and President Ed Rensi blames the Fight for $15 movement for the installation of automated ordering kiosks at the chain’s restaurants nationwide
Liberals are too smart to understand that touting nonsense theories like, people with more money will buy more, or restaurant owners will just suck it.
Well, it seems common sense has prevailed once again. A survey of restaurant owners from Harri, a workplace software management company, stated that twenty-three percent responded to minimum wage hikes by doing nothing.
But the majority did. The most popular response — from 71% of operators — was to raise menu prices. Nearly half reworked their food and beverage options to reduce costs.
Some operators responded to the minimum wage increases by cutting costs, with 64% saying they reduced employee hours, and 43 percent saying they eliminated jobs.
This particular survey didn’t mention it, but the truth is minimum wage increases hurt black and other traditionally disenfranchised workers the most. Read my article on that.
The fight for 15 is a fight to stay in the unemployment line.
Related: Why Minorities Should Become Conservatives
Why Do Unions Fight to Hurt Workers?
Estimates are that labor unions have spent $70 Million in the Fight for $15 campaign. It is well documented that most of the Fight for 15 protesters are paid attendees.
But why?
Unions have also historically supported minimum wage increases because it reduces or even eliminates the main selling point of non-unionized labor, namely the fact that it is cheaper. By making non-unionized labor more expensive with minimum wage hikes, unionized labor becomes comparatively more attractive. This dynamic is amplified when unions demand exemptions from minimum wage increases. There are even instances in which union employees are earning less than their non-unionized counterparts.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Sheraton Universal Hotel employees, which are unionized, were paid California’s minimum wage of $10, but at the Hilton Hotel across the street non-unionized employees made $15.37 under the city’s hotel minimum wage law. But so long as they’re paying dues that’s all the unions care about.
Another reason is that many of their contracts are directly tied to the minimum wage. For example an UNITE contract that covered workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and South Jersey said the following: “Whenever the federal legal minimum wage is increased, minimum wage [in the agreement] shall be increased so that each will be at least fifteen (15%) percent higher than such legal minimum wage.”
As you can see, this is just a game between union bosses with a deck that’s stacked against workers.
