This makes me smile. Coffee slinger complains about 'low' pay

[bonefish1]

In your example your assuming a cup of coffee cost $4.40 ($11/2.5). You then say if they raise his wages to $15 per hour they would need to charge $6 per drink. Given that scenario, the barista would only need to make 2.5 cups of coffee in a hour to cover his increase in pay.

In reality if the guy made 25 cups of coffee a hour the increase in price would only need to be 16 cents per cup (25 X .16 cents) to cover his $4.00 raise. Using your numbers if the average cost of a cup of coffee went from $4.40 to $4.56 that would be a price increase of 3.6% and the guy would get a 36% raise.

I don't care if they charge $25 for a cup and he makes 100 cups an hour. His skill level still dictates that he makes low skill wages. A monkey or machine can do that job.
Actually, if I were the owner of the coffee shop, i wouldn't be paying his ass $15 an hour, I think that's too high.

 

[bonefish1]

In typical Bonefish1 fashion, you look down on someone because of their profession. You prove your bigotry everyday.

Not looking down on him because of his profession (and I'm not sure you're using bigotry in the correct context). I'm looking down on him because he thinks he deserves more money without earning it. That's called 'entitlement'. If your skill is pouring coffee, then you're going to get paid for pouring coffee, which is not a high demand skill. If you don't like your pay, build your skills and bring more value to your employer.
He's just naive and ignorant as to how business works, so he takes to social media to air his complaints. Not a good strategy.

 

[BSIT]

In typical Bonefish1 fashion, you look down on someone because of their profession. You prove your bigotry everyday.

He is a white guy with a nose ring. How is this defined as bigotry?

 

[tearsforfears]

He is a white guy with a nose ring. How is this defined as bigotry?

He’s mentally challenged, just in case you weren’t aware.

 

[BSIT]

But....he's showing his individualism...(and relegating to himself only getting jobs at places like a coffee shop).

My neice is a soph in college and got a nose ring. I told her she better take that $hit out when it comes time to start interviewing for jobs. Yeh, your friends may think it looks cool, but an employer is going to look at it as a sign of poor judgement.

Don’t know your niece situation but piercings and tattoos go hand and hand. My niece who is an excellent dancer has several tattoos that are visible on her arms. She was denied a tryout with the Colts due to her tattoos

 

[bonefish1]

Don’t know your niece situation but piercings and tattoos go hand and hand. My niece who is an excellent dancer has several tattoos that are visible on her arms. She was denied a tryout with the Colts due to her tattoos

I hire people into a well paying white collar positions. If a candidate came in with piercings other than her ears (I'm not even a fan of guys with ears pierced in a professional environment) or visable tats, then that person is highly unlikely to make it past that interview.

 

[SCBoiler1]

Great HS economics scenario.

In your example, your assuming a perfect world in which only the Barista is the cost increase. But inflation causes taxes to go up (because of the increased property value), the cost of coffee goes up (due to higher wages for coffee workers and higher transportation costs). Not to mention that every 5bux doesn’t have a store that sells 25 cups/Barista/hour. Does that drive thru line get smaller at 11am or 2pm versus the 7-9am time slot??

If the Barista is the only one who sees wages go up, then at some point, other workers will quit their jobs to be the Barista (due to better wages or even easier working conditions such as pouring coffee versus working on a factory floor), which then cause the other firms (restaurants, bars and other service industries) to raise wages to compete with 5bux in hiring good personnel (that’s a real 2022 scenario) All of which, in turn, causes the inflation described above.

You also failed to account for higher FICA tax that the employer has to pay and not just for Barista #1, but for all Baristas. Also, the increased tax on the increased revenue. Oh, and if the Barista wants a raise, doesn’t the store manager want a raise. And so on, and so on and so on.

Oh, and there’s the impact of competition. What if Dunkin Donuts opens a store next to 5bux, and the cost of coffee goes up by your 0.16 cents (plus the costs of other Baristas and the Store Manager and said taxes) the cup cost really goes up something closer to $0.50. All of the sudden, 5bux sells 10% less cups of coffee and the revenue falls until the point in the future that 5bux has to close (just like the stores in LA or SD).

But just raise the wages for the one Barista worker. I am sure he is doing a great job and should command a raise. (Isn’t the Barista making tips? Should that be counted as part of his ability to afford 3 cups of coffee?).

in 2020, everyone wanted to make $15 the minimum wage. I would guess that many firms are now paying that and did it solve the “fair wage argument”? Are people at those $15/hr jobs satisfied? My guess is No! Also, why doesn’t the Barista move to LA where baristas are likely making $15/hr including tips.

I don't know how you can make this argument based on your initial post. Of course my scenario was overly simplistic but it was in response to your flawed, overly simplistic scenario which assumed the Barista would make 2.5 cups of coffee per hour. Your assumptions in this scenario are flawed and that was my point. You basically said a 36% increase in employees wages would result in 36% increase in the cost of a cup of coffee ($4.40 to $6.00) which is deeply flawed thinking. Your obviously not a cost accountant so I don't want to get into how things work but your logic is flawed. Unless all other company costs and the company's profit margin increases by 36%, the price of a cup of coffee will not increase by 36%. That was my point.

A Starbucks sells more than 25 cups of coffee in an hour. A store probably sells 100+ cups of coffee per hour in the morning but yes they have three or four employees working if they do. In the afternoon they may sell 25-50 but they may only have one or two employees in the store. I just guessed and allocated 25 cups per employee. On the Fica taxes. A $4 increase in hourly wage would cost the employer about a penny a cup. (($4 X 7.65%)/25). Sales taxes are a pass through but yeas the customer would pay another penny or two.. On the income taxes you were assuming the increase in employee pay is directly related to an increase in profits. Interesting. If Starbucks is paying $15 an hour but Dunkin Donuts is paying $11, what are the chances that Dunkin Donuts can get and retain employees. Finally, are people really going to start quitting their jobs to make $15 per hour as a barista. If that's the case we've got a lot of issues because $15 per hour is only $30K per year and that isn't much in New York City.

 

[TheGunner]

I don't know how you can make this argument based on your initial post. Of course my scenario was overly simplistic but it was in response to your flawed, overly simplistic scenario which assumed the Barista would make 2.5 cups of coffee per hour. Your assumptions in this scenario are flawed and that was my point. You basically said a 36% increase in employees wages would result in 36% increase in the cost of a cup of coffee ($4.40 to $6.00) which is deeply flawed thinking. Your obviously not a cost accountant so I don't want to get into how things work but your logic is flawed. Unless all other company costs and the company's profit margin increases by 36%, the price of a cup of coffee will not increase by 36%. That was my point.

A Starbucks sells more than 25 cups of coffee in an hour. A store probably sells 100+ cups of coffee per hour in the morning but yes they have three or four employees working if they do. In the afternoon they may sell 25-50 but they may only have one or two employees in the store. I just guessed and allocated 25 cups per employee. On the Fica taxes. A $4 increase in hourly wage would cost the employer about a penny a cup. (($4 X 7.65%)/25). Sales taxes are a pass through but yeas the customer would pay another penny or two.. On the income taxes you were assuming the increase in employee pay is directly related to an increase in profits. Interesting. If Starbucks is paying $15 an hour but Dunkin Donuts is paying $11, what are the chances that Dunkin Donuts can get and retain employees. Finally, are people really going to start quitting their jobs to make $15 per hour as a barista. If that's the case we've got a lot of issues because $15 per hour is only $30K per year and that isn't much in New York City.

RE. A Starbucks sells more than 25 cups of coffee in an hour. yes…that’s correct, but the 5bux I have been have 3-4 baristas. (So are they selling 100 cups an hour …25 per barista…every hour??)

in the end, if every liberal such as yourself would go into 5bux and give the baristas a $2 tip, the problem is solved…is it not? The barista in the OP didn’t talk about tips, just his hourly rate. I don’t shop 5bux so I really dont care that a barista is broken up that his ability to pour a cup of coffee isnt rewarding with $15/hr. There are machines that do what the barista is doing unless he is doing the latte painting thing…and thus should be getting a $2 tip from people like yourself.

support what you love and everything is taken care of in the end.

 

[bonefish1]

RE. A Starbucks sells more than 25 cups of coffee in an hour. yes…that’s correct, but the 5bux I have been have 3-4 baristas. (So are they selling 100 cups an hour …25 per barista…every hour??)

in the end, if every liberal such as yourself would go into 5bux and give the baristas a $2 tip, the problem is solved…is it not? The barista in the OP didn’t talk about tips, just his hourly rate. I don’t shop 5bux so I really dont care that a barista is broken up that his ability to pour a cup of coffee isnt rewarding with $15/hr. There are machines that do what the barista is doing unless he is doing the latte painting thing…and thus should be getting a $2 tip from people like yourself.

support what you love and everything is taken care of in the end.

I made similar comments to the people complaining about the Trump tax breaks people were getting. I can guarantee, that not a single lib who was against the tax breaks, wrote the IRS a check returning that money.
Similar to the libs here supporting their favorite coffee jerk's request for hire wages: You think he deserves more? Then put your money where your mouth is and give him a bigger tip!
(by the way, I don't tip the coffee cashier. Same as i don't tip the guy making my sandwich at Jimmy John's).

 

[Riveting-]

He is a white guy with a nose ring. How is this defined as bigotry?

Not to mention, this barista doesn't seem to be trying to claim any victimhood status by which he should get special treatment for things that happened long before he was born.