bobm
Garden Master
" The Columbian " newspaper July 30, 2016 ... Seattles' minimum wage was $9.96/ hr. then jumped to $11.14/ hr. Although workers were earning more, fewer of them had a job than would have without an increase. Those that did work had fewer hours than they would have without the wage hike. Reaserchers found that the minimum wage hike actually caused total weekly earnings to drop - by as much as $5.22 a week.Increasing the minimum wage inreases the costs of hireing workers. As a result, employers must accept reduced margins or customers must pay steeper prices. If employers cannot stay in business while paying their staff more, they will either hire fewer people or give their wokers fewer hours. As a result, even if wages per hour increase, workers' total hour decrease , workers' total earnings could decline. If it becomes easier for employers to replace their workers with machines, they will be more likely to respond to wage hikes by making fewer hires. Earlier this year , the Governors of California and New York signed laws that will increase the minimum wage in both states to $ 15.00 per hour. Our personal experience of this action started by our son, who lives in Cal. , has a wife and 3 small children, is in pharmacy school, and works for a company that supplies pizza to the entire school district. His aparment immediately saw a 20% increase in rent for the comming school year, so he moved to a cheaper one, but we had to co- sign the lease. His pharmacy school has cut down on staff , so he isn't able to get all of his needed classes, which means he will have to increase his time in school another year. A month later, his employer decreased hours to all of his emplyees by 30% resulting in a jolt in his earnings that then has us liable to pay for his rent. This employer has a contract to supply pizzas at a sertain price that he cannot increase the price on . So he now buys the pizza dough from another company instead of making it on site and all of the employees have to do is add the toppings and bake the pizzas, package them and ship them off to the schools.Resulting in the need for former hours the workers had to work . We just received a PAY CUT in having to pay son's rent on top of our own expenses Don't you just LOVE the bleeding hearts ? 
