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Topic: Iowa minimum wage increase

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 02-02-2007 04:32 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
Maybe, but if all these stores you mention were to raise their wages to say $10 or $12 an hour, they'd have to raise their prices to cover it, and then even more people would flock to the Wal Mart and you'd lose even more small businesses.

Did I say "make the minimum wage $10 to $12 an hour?" The minimum wage in Oklahoma is still $5.15 an hour. That's a long way from $10 an hour.

quote:
Whatever someone is getting paid is fair to both the employer and the employee, or else they wouldn't do it!

Not everyone gets to do what they want to do for a living. Some folks just have to take whatever job they can get.

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Mike Heenan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1896
From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 02-02-2007 05:33 PM

Chad said

quote: Chad Souder
Iowa's new governor, Chet Culver, made his first signing an increase in the state's minimum wage. It will go to $6.20 on 4/1/2007 and up to $7.25 1/1/2008. Politics aside, this will greatly affect Iowa theatres. I intend on making it no secret to the customer the reason for our inevitable price increases at both the box office and concession stand.

Do you keep it secret from your customers that the real cost of a $6 tub of popcorn is probably like 33 cents, and 25 cents on a $5 coke? Not to mention that $4 box of JuJuBees that they can get at Walmart for 89 cents.

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Cameron Glendinning
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 845
From: West Ryde, Sydney, NSW Australia
Registered: Dec 2005

posted 02-02-2007 06:58 PM

If The majority of the workforce gets a wage increase, It gives people more money to spend, perhaps they will be able to afford to go out more often?. The reality is that wage increases keeps the situation pretty much the same, so at least people who go to the movies can afford to keep on going, rather than being forced to find a more affordable alternative ie DVD.

In Australia, we had our first min wage rise in several years. 6.5%. Interest rates, morgages and petrol prices over the last few years make it feel like a game of catch up, in reality our standard of living is still going down, and the rich have never been richer!
Projection work now peaks at $23.50 per hour, in a country where cigarettes cost $11 per pack,$15.50 for a movie ticket in a name chain, petrol up to $1.30 per litre and rents around $350 per week for a modest house in the suburbs.
It is not as good as it sounds.
Youth rates work as a percentage of adult wage which rises from 15 year to till 21, So Mcdonalds wages start around the $6 mark and unemployment averages >5%, Tipping is not part of the Australian culture.
A$1 averages US75c

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-02-2007 09:35 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Did I say "make the minimum wage $10 to $12 an hour?" The minimum wage in Oklahoma is still $5.15 an hour. That's a long way from $10 an hour.

Well, the Feds are proposing raising it to $7.25 an hour, which will still make all the prices go up and then nobody will be able to live on THAT wage, and everyone is in the same proverbial boat again.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 02-02-2007 10:04 PM

Course, all of these wage increases doesn't do us folks any good that are on a decent salary since we basically have reached the earnings limit and our employers aren't planning on any adjusted living income for us folks - when one thinks about it.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 02-02-2007 11:14 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
Well, the Feds are proposing raising it to $7.25 an hour, which will still make all the prices go up and then nobody will be able to live on THAT wage, and everyone is in the same proverbial boat again.

The problem is a lot of those price increases already have been happening with a vengeance for a long time. $5.15 an hour today doesn't buy what $5.15 an hour did over a decade ago (when the minimum wage was propped up to that point). Lots of middle class people who make well above minimum wage have seen the real value of their pay diminish a lot.

The prices for lots of basic items have gone up like crazy. Food, fuel, clothing and utilities prices have all gone way up. And the government conveniently doesn't factor in the price hikes on those items in their tracking of inflation rates because they prefer to spin the number to look more positive. The price of housing has gone way the hell up in many markets. Look at insane run up on the cost of health care and education. It can easily cost thousands of dollars for a low wage person to take some technical courses and train for a better job.

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Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 02-03-2007 09:07 AM

There should probably be two minimum wages. One minimum wage should be for people that are 18 and under and one for 19 and over. This would allow a slightly higher wage for people who are working for a living but still keep the wages low for the kids (who make up a big chunk of minimum age earners) that are working for money to hang out at the mall.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-03-2007 09:52 AM

Why should a 20-year-old be paid more than a 17-year-old for doing the same job?

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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 02-03-2007 01:18 PM

A number of states used to have a "student wage" which was less than minimum wage. Whatever happened to that? (Not that it was fair or anything.)

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Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 804
From: New Castle, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-03-2007 02:18 PM

I earned the so-called "student wage" of $3.20 an hour when I first started in this business in 1991. Then I earned $3.65 an hour for a very long time - including three months after turning eighteen when minimum wage was $4.25. I guess I'd have some back pay coming if I really want to push it.

Anyway, Pennsylvania also hiked minimum wage this year. By July 1, it will top out at $7.25 per hour. Our company is scaling back on payroll and scrubbed a major renovation project which included expanding our lobby and adding stadium seating in the three largest auditoriums.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Look at insane run up on the cost of health care and education.

Yeah, the two things in America in which the government is balls deep. I told my wife just this morning that if the community college I teach for raises tuittion like they are currently forcasting, I want at least $150 more per class per semester to teach it. Figure thats what I'll need to cover my costs once the Federal wage kicks in.

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Thomas Dieter
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 234
From: Yakima, WA
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 02-05-2007 01:33 AM

Gathering from what people have said here, and I'll quote them, I see one possible way to resolve this issue.

quote: Mike Blakesley
Well, the Feds are proposing raising it to $7.25 an hour, which will still make all the prices go up and then nobody will be able to live on THAT wage, and everyone is in the same proverbial boat again.

quote: Ian Price
The upshot is that increasing the minimum wage hardly ever puts a business in peril. If it does then your business wasn't going very well anyway.

quote: Mike Heenan
Do you keep it secret from your customers that the real cost of a $6 tub of popcorn is probably like 33 cents, and 25 cents on a $5 coke? Not to mention that $4 box of JuJuBees that they can get at Walmart for 89 cents.

quote: Louis Bornwasser
Would you rather have 10 kids at min. wage or 4 real people for (a lot) more per hour?? Your quality of life and that of your customers is worth something.

Usually 2 good hard-working adults can out work 4-6 kids.

It seems to me, for a company to profit from a wage increase, federal or state issued, Louis' suggestion would be best. I know that there have been proven many times that the man power we schedule for busy sets to cleanup with ushers and concessionists who are still in high school and first or second job, could have taken just about half of the people if we had higher paid competent employees.

Ian is right as many people have added, the added increase in the payroll just a meer bruise when it comes down to the red and black factor.

If the Feds are to succeed in raising the minimum wage to $7.25/hr that's going to raise the prices of everything causing no relief anywhere. In fact, with the hick in the price being so significant, almost a 50% increase, companies will take that and blow it out of proportion. Next your $3.48 gallon of milk at wal-mart is now increased to almost $6.50 a gallon. For their minimum wage effect to go through and have it be effective, they would need to also instate a freeze on price increase of product until the company can prove that they are taking a hit due to expenditures not related to payroll. With everything coming down to the point where a machine packages and produces a product, and the need for just 1 man that they pay more than $10 an hour to hit start, and check equipment periodically, I don't see how an increase in minimum wage is going to bankrupt a company, Movie Theatre or Whole Sale Wear house.

Mike Heenan is right about the price of theatre food, there is more than a good profit margin on most product in stores to cover the red of a minimum wage increase. You pay a concessionist $7.00 an hour for 40 hours, you come up with $280 in payroll before taxes (This is worse case senerio). Break down by hour how many tubs of popcorn they have sold at for those 40 hours, lets say on average 4.5 an hour. Your have sold $1,128 worth or popcorn at $6 a tub. I think the numbers can speak for themselves, and that's just 1 item of many in any concession stand.

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Matt Fields
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 545
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 02-05-2007 07:39 AM

Prices are not that simple.

The price of popcorn and other concessions has to help cover more than just the labor in popping and serving the corn and the raw cost of the seed, oil, ect.

The concessions are part of the overall income that must also help pay for the liability and property insurance; various taxes such unemployment, FICA, workers compensation; lease or mortage on the building; various professionals from accounting to legal to carpet cleaning; maintance/repairs on the building; other labor including janitorial, management, and corporate; the list goes on and on.

Then, assuming a profit, federal, state, and local income taxes must be paid.

And on top of all that, the prices charged must produce enough return on investment to compete with all of the other options that people have for their money.

Investors will not provide capital for movie theatres that give them a 5 percent return if they can invest in restuarants that return 8 percent.

[ 02-05-2007, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: Matt Fields ]

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 02-05-2007 04:01 PM

Well said, Matt.

One also needs to remember that you're looking at a finite window from which to make your income. Each film presentation will bring in one audience, and the opportunity to sell to that audience is short. Sure, you can multiply that by the number of screens/showings you have for the day, but I'd bet that you don't have nearly the sales exposure hours that a common retail store would.

I stopped worrying about the price of popcorn when I saw what people are willing to pay for a bottle of filtered tap water! [beer]

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Ian Bailey
Master Film Handler

Posts: 317
From: Nambucca Heads, Australia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted 02-06-2007 02:06 AM

Down here the award wage for a projectionist who operates the gear correctly [Roll Eyes]

makesup and breaks down [Roll Eyes]

and possibly remembers to check the oil [Roll Eyes]

is
about $18:50 p/hr and about $21 p/hr if casual.
So I just cannot understand you guys panicking over a $1 p/hr wage rise. If that has a big effect on your business then you'd have to be in big trouble.
Maccas must be really cheap in the states!!
COME ON D-CINEMA !! I just can't wait.
Cheers Ian

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Cameron Glendinning
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 845
From: West Ryde, Sydney, NSW Australia
Registered: Dec 2005

posted 02-06-2007 05:10 AM

quote: Matt Fields
Investors will not provide capital for movie theatres that give them a 5 percent return if they can invest in restuarants that return 8 percent.

Very well put, Lets face the fact that this industry is been taken advantage by the film companies for a long time, now that DVD grosses more, why dont they reduce the ticket share to a more balanced sensible amount. Before cinemas moved into malls, it was the real estate that brought in the long term profit wasn't it?.

Ian, have you factered in the 6.5% federal increase ?

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