http://www.startribune.com/punch-pizza-has-the-last-laugh-over-its-higher-wages/324777881/ So, unlike all the calls of doom and gloom about how higher wages in food service will cause an economic doomsday, this small pizza chain raises starting wage for the lowest paid employees to $10.00, and scales it up to the point that store managers are making 100k per year, and it balances out since they greatly reduce turn over and retraining expenses. What was really funny when reading this article was how much hate the owners got by raising their employee's wages. They actually got calls and emails from people mad at them for it... The end result? They just opened another store, and are planning to open another one soon.
Good for them. They did this on their own because they could afford to do so. Not all businesses can afford to do so so your point is moot.
I have no problems with a business choosing to save money by increasing employee retention. The thing is, that wouldn't happen if the minimum wage were raised by government fiat instead of employer choice. Then, the workers would still be moving around--they wouldn't stay at a particular $10 an hour job, if there were a lot of other $10 an hour jobs available. In other words, he got better employees by paying for them. If he's not paying more than everybody else, they would move just like they did before, and he wouldn't have the bonus of saving money on retraining.
Everybody could do this, but in order to pay their employees and stay in business, prices would skyrocket and we'd be just as broke then as we are now. Back to the Future II anyone? "Here's a $50, buy yourself a Pepsi at the Cafe 80's." Anyways, you'd have to make over $48.00 an hour at 40 hours a week to make $100,000 a year.
Having a direct path to management is smart, paying your people $10 means you get better candidates. Forcing everyone to pay $10 an hour increases cost of doing business. See the difference?>
Its amazing how some people can't see the difference between a business CHOOSING to pay what they want, versus being FORCED to pay what someone else tells them.