COSTCO showing America the way RAISES base pay from $15 to $16 per hour

If you had any business experience and/or knowledge you would know businesses can't simply give away their cash. Perhaps a Costco's business model affords them paying higher wages, however, the other 100 businesses located near this Costco probably cannot. Any business simply giving away cash for non-business reasons probably won't be around long. And here's the BS in all this hype; why aren't you and others equally demanding pay hikes for all Americans earning median wage or less? Do you know about 75 million American workers, 50% of the US workforce, earn $16.35/hour or less? I'll bet a round of beers that most of these workers are in debt, living in near poverty, and living pay check to pay check...yet no one is demanding higher wages for them...why is this? Answer; because all of this is 100% politics!

 

Why does someone work for $2.13 or $7.25/hour? No one holds a gun to their head demanding they accept those wages?

 

This is about paying those who are working a livable wage.

 

I wish I could believe that. The worker ends up buying items that were put on the shelf by another worker making the higher rate. The Tax man is the only one getting a raise.

 

And then that's the last adjustment you'll ask for ever, right?

That sounds like the slipperiest slope in the world.

"This isn't a new law, it's just a little tweak on the old one."

 

No if in the future the unfair salaries that exist today rear their ugly head again then we will ask for further adjustments because we know the greedy never change.

 

And who gets to decide what constitutes "unfair" and how big the "further adjustments" must be? Some bleeding heart bureaucrat who's never run so much as a lemonade stand?

 

Most public polls that I have seen show the majority of Americans are in favor of a $15 an hour minimum wage.

 

Please define a livable wage for San Francisco?

 

The amount of weekly income necessary to rent an apartment and pay it's monthly utility bills and feed and clothe oneself would be the bare bones livable wage regardless of area. Never having lived in California I could not be specific to it or San Francisco.

 

Bigger corporations can and should be paying such wages .. some smaller companies such as restaurants having to pay waiters that much - makes no sense.

 

$3000+ for a one bedroom apartment in SF...I don't live there either but anyone can Google it. Average utilities are $150. Food and clothing is a guess...how about $500/month? So /$3000 + $150 + $500 = $3650/month with nothing calculated for transportation and health care, etc. Your $15/hour MW is about $2400 gross per month. Why aren't you advocating for higher wages for the tens of millions of workers who live in every major city in the US...all with very high cost of living? Workers living in Mayberry are not the problem since their cost of living is lowest. It's the tens of millions of workers who live and work in our largest population areas that are in poverty..and $15/hour to all of them is a joke! This is why this is 100% politics...

 

$15 an hour s not a high wage regardless of where you are in the country.

 

$15/hour was pulled out of someone's ass! It is illogical to even have a national MW since every few miles across the USA we have vastly different cost of living. MW should only be discussed at the local level in which it can be directly tied to the local cost of living. And, IMO, the idea of a MW should never be calculated for a 'living wage'.

 

I think it's been clearly advocated that multi billion dollar companies (Costco did 22 billion in 2020) will have no problem handling a $15 minimum wage. The problem lies with the small entrepreneurs that this would devastate.

 

$15 in California won't buy you a candy bar while $15 an hour in the heartland is literally living high on the hog. I think this response just shows you lack quite a bit of understanding of the economic makeup of this nation in that each state is ABSOLUTELY unique in regards to their finances.

 

$15 an hour WILL NOT LET YOU LIVE HIGH ON THE HOG anywhere in the USA.

 

If the MW is increased annually in small increments, like $1.50/hour per year, it should not cause 'devastation'.

However, it will cause many companies to reduce expenses, to reduce labor hours, etc. which over time will test their viability and survival.

Since one-half of American workers today earn $16.25/hour or less, forcing a $15/hour MW will also force other wages higher as well. This means MW impacts will apply to 75+ million US workers and their employers...not just those earning MW today.

 

Not each state...every 25-50 miles across the US has different cost of living. A national MW is almost meaningless...

 

I disagree the major difference cross country is in real estate prices both trying to own or renting, as far as food , clothing costs and utility costs there is not a huge difference there across the country.

 

Yes, billion dollar companies are all for a $15 minimum wage as they are transitioning to automation. Less employees to pay while all the little guys close.

 

The retailers are already putting up self service stations. Nothing new there. A company can pay more in wages if it has better employee productivity than its competitors. The big retailers like Costco already have better employee productivity. The biggest one, Walmart, also pays more than minimum wage.

The internet companies have even better employee productivity than large brick and mortar retailers and they are the real competition. Walmart is heavily into e-commerce for example.

 

You see the real issue here I hope? Yes, the larger companies will be able to pay above minimum wage but their labor pool will vastly shrink due to automation. How about a grocery store that is able to reduce their staff by 90% as the majority of the store is automated? Is that the world we are shooting for? Amazon, the biggest proponent of a higher minimum wage is also looking to eliminate cashiers from grocery stores.

Checkout-Free or Cashierless Technologies Inch Closer to Grocery Implementation

And

Is Whole Foods’ e-grocery business headed down a dark path?

 

It's unfortunate that you have no idea how business operates, or how tight their margins of profit are. A typical grocery chain considers a store that nets a 1% profit as a good store- one that makes 2% is incredible. Ask yourself how easy it would be to lose 1% of sales value thanks to a careless clerk, a little shoplifting, etc. Ask yourself if YOU would be willing to risk all you own on the potential of making 1% on the business you do. These big businesses are very fine tuned machines- and while they make a lot of money when you look at just the profit number, that there because they manged vastly more dollars in sales and took all the risk. When such a company as Costco decides to make this arbitrary choice- one of the most logical reasons is to make you think they are being generous, so you buy there and that sales volume might increase- and all the risk that goes with it. But if you think they plan to make less money.... you're chasing your tail. They expect to make more. Every dime of cost goes into the overall calculations, gets marked up- and the only place to recover increased costs of doing business is in the price of the goods sold. So Costco will do exactly that; charge you more for what you buying there, while you fail to realize why and probably don't compare prices, but will feel good about yourself. The customers will be paying the increase- Costco will only pass it on.

Here's their income statement. Note that on sales of 163,220 million in 2020, the net income before taxes is 5,435. That's a 3% reward for the millions of dollars invested, for managing all the operations and providing jobs for 214,000 employees.




Costco's stock is $317.50 a share. While stock goes up and down, that is NOT a reflection of profit or earnings, but of investor speculation. Some profit does get paid to investors in the form of dividends.

Note that the first two quarters show that dividend to be $4.59, indicating an annual share of profits of $9.18 for 2021, in return for investing $317.00. That also is about 3% return; hardly vast wealth.
You see- for every dime added to base cost in labor, the price of goods sold will increase by the same amount, plus the associated expenses like greater social security taxes, plus the gross margin the company must add to all goods anyway- meaning that, since the raise may not increase productivity at all..... A $1 in wage increase will result in something like $1.20 in price increase. This is what those who don't understand business never realize; that without increase in productivity per dollar, any wage increase is totally inflationary and is taken not from the business margin, but passed on and taken from customers- you and me. You are applauding paying higher prices from YOUR pocket, you just don't know it.

 

I think you understand it pretty well. Personally I don't shop in stores. I buy everything except food on the internet. I believe you will join me over time.