Does Minimum Wage Increase Help Or Hurt The Appraisal Business?

[Overimprovement]

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[Overimprovement]

You're a residential appraiser in Florida - are you sure that maybe you're just not consumed with avarice?

I may ignorant about some things, but at least I can read. How does one get Florida out of Kentucky?

Wow, you really have swallowed the bourgeoisie capitalist propaganda to the extreme.

You cannot prove in ANY INSTANCE anywhere in the world where increasing minimum wages has had a negative effect. In every instance, living standards increase, consumer spending increases, and overall gross product increases.

Raising minimum wages does NOT increase the total money supply available to pay laborers. This is true. But, what it does do is force those who profit from the surplus labor value produced by the proletariat to enjoy a lower rate of return. If your business cannot afford to pay people to a live a decent and respectable life, it shouldn't be in business.

You've already been told that the supply of money is, by a factor of 95%, controlled by banks. What happens when people make more money? They can take out more loans, which means the money supply increases. Part of the reason the economy is bad at present is the majority of Americans are simply not creditworthy borrowers. How much monetary expansion can you leverage from people getting paid under the table or $7 an hour? That's most Americans.

You're a residential appraiser in Florida - are you sure that maybe you're just not consumed with avarice? You'd rather blame those less than you for the fact you're not rich?

I mean, I'm about to get into my Mercedes Benz C coupe to go drive out to a vineyard for a date, so I'm not exactly pure proletariat. But damn, your lack of empathy is astounding. And you still refuse to even grasp the basics of how money works in a modern economy.

Do you have some examples to back up your fraudulent and slanderous claims of avarice? Typical defensive posture. With nothing tangible to offer to support your opinions you attack the opponent. Childish.

 

[George Hatch]

Raising the number doesn't necessarily raise the purchasing power if everyone gets the same raise. It only raises the purchasing power when some get the raise and others don't.

When the appraiser only makes 1.5x minimum wage that will gut the economic incentive to put the extra time/effort into becoming one. So yeah, you've made incomes more equal but you murdered the economic incentive (aka fear of failure) it takes to prompt people to seek jobs more challenging that coffee barista or artist.

I know, I know, under socialist dogma our society is supposed to value the labor of doctors and artists equally. I just don't think most of us mere mortals are that evolved yet.

 

[ucbruin]

Let's examine the ND McDonalds example....
For those employees paid $11-$15/hour when minimum wage was approximately $7/hour (over 39%)....
Their buying power went up in comparison to the 39% increase in the price of the value meal they were cooking/bagging/delivering....
And the McDonalds was still making a profit....
And let's be real about this....
That McDonalds probably didn't need to raise prices 39% to cover the wage increase....
Maybe 30% or less was the break even point....
But companies are not in the business of breaking even....

 

[Michigan CG]

"Five years later round bales came into being and our job pretty much went kaput."

"We were out of the haul by time round bales came along."

Square bale, round bale, triangular bale....
The preferred shape of the bale had no impact on your bale business....

Good grief!!!

@Michigan CG
Are you reading this????

You try to push your agenda in discussions where you know little to nothing about a topic. You always end up looking uninformed which is appropriate.

Square baling has been around forever, a healthy human being can lift and load a square bale. There is this thing called technology and over the past ten thousand years it has been advancing. A square bale will weigh up to 50 pounds or so while a round bale weighs in the 1,000 pound range and is about as tall as a person. Kind of easy for the teenager to throw a square bale on the back of a wagon, not so much for a round bale that weighs 1,000 pounds.

That funny technology thing spurned the round bales with these things called machines, or most specifically round balers (I think they were invented in Iowa). The baler along with a tractor with a fork attachment then loads the bales onto the trailer. The guy on the tractor can load one round bale (the equivalent of 40-50 square bales) in about 60 seconds. The teenage boy throwing square bales on the back of a trailer will take a couple hours to load 50 bales.

 

[MMing5000]

Illinois is basically a shoe-in for a minimum wage increase to $15/ hour, which is not a reassuring move for many lower cost-of-living or economically depressed sections of the state. There are quite a few sectors that this could have a significant impact on - appraisal companies will not be devastated by this move, but it won't be unaffected, either. Our company hires part-time employees that are university students, typically majoring in business or finance. It is unfortunate that such a blanket increase in the minimum wage was taken, rather than differentiating for age or geographic area, as many of these college kids are just as interested (or more) in getting some experience in the field than getting the bills paid or some extra spending money. The increase to $15 in IL will be graduated over a period of several years, and it is possible that by the time it maxes out, there might be some differences in the structure of our company, but as of now, such a significant increase would warrant dropping the position, as most of these college kids only stay with us for a semester or year.

Thank you for an indepth response.

 

[MMing5000]

It is a negative in a blanket effect first of all. Artificially raising wage for 'everyone' means that has to be paid by the businesses employing 'everyone'. That means higher prices on goods and services for everyone, including appraisers in those states. Perhaps a poor example, but you think fast food prices are going to remain the same, or quality, or serving sizes? Any redistribution of wealth will always hurt those who are the ones being redistributed FROM. It will also hurt any appraiser who has employees working for them, for obvious reasons.

In a sense, it may help appraisers, because if someone is comparing $8/hr to becoming an appraiser making $20-25/hr, that looks a lot better than falling out of bed with no HS diploma and making $15/hr, vs spending years of their life to take on a big financial risk to maybe make $20-25/hr, with poor job security for the future.

The more folks get rewarded for having little education, work-ethic, or drive, the fewer will see any benefit whatsoever in jumping through the myriad hoops required to become an appraiser, to make marginally more in a good year, with prospects looking increasingly more bleak in the future.

The other high level reason it is bad--there is only so much money to go around. In the end, appraisers get paid by lender/clients. Through AMCs many times. In both cases, if every AMC and every lender now has to pay $15/hr to every employee, even the first day teller or first day order assigner, there is even less cash available to pay the appraiser. Some businesses, especially labor heavy ones, will invariably go out of business. People will invariably have their hours cut or flat out laid off. Neither of these can be construed as good in any way for anyone. Fewer clients means a greater consolidation of appraisers working for each one, meaning some of those special lender relationships some of us now enjoy will go away. The local lender will be especially vulnerable, as they tend to have more, lower-paid employees.

Raising the minimum wage does NOT increase the total money supply available to pay laborers. Businesses will not be given fresh rolls of $100 bills from the treasury. Folks, it has to come from somewhere. Where do you think that will be?

Rant over. I tried to stay on topic anyway.

Thank you for an indepth response.

 

[ucbruin]

You try to push your agenda in discussions where you know little to nothing about a topic. You always end up looking uninformed which is appropriate.

Square baling has been around forever, a healthy human being can lift and load a square bale. There is this thing called technology and over the past ten thousand years it has been advancing. A square bale will weigh up to 50 pounds or so while a round bale weighs in the 1,000 pound range and is about as tall as a person. Kind of easy for the teenager to throw a square bale on the back of a wagon, not so much for a round bale that weighs 1,000 pounds.

That funny technology thing spurned the round bales with these things called machines, or most specifically round balers (I think they were invented in Iowa). The baler along with a tractor with a fork attachment then loads the bales onto the trailer. The guy on the tractor can load one round bale (the equivalent of 40-50 square bales) in about 60 seconds. The teenage boy throwing square bales on the back of a trailer will take a couple hours to load 50 bales.

Maybe had you read TS' posts regarding his bale business....
You could have saved all of us from your baler history discourse....
But that would be asking too much of you....

Or you could do as you have recently done in a different thread that you originated....
And just delete my posts...
That you consider critical of your posts....

 

[MMing5000]

Let's examine the ND McDonalds example....
For those employees paid $11-$15/hour when minimum wage was approximately $7/hour (over 39%)....
Their buying power went up in comparison to the 39% increase in the price of the value meal they were cooking/bagging/delivering....
And the McDonalds was still making a profit....
And let's be real about this....
That McDonalds probably didn't need to raise prices 39% to cover the wage increase....
Maybe 30% or less was the break even point....
But companies are not in the business of breaking even....

Please clarify and be more definitive in your opinion - Do you think raising minimum wages have prompted McDonald's to replace some workers with automated ordering kiosks? In others words, does raising minimum wage increase employment (more people will apply for the higher wage) or decrease employment (work force reduction to cover the wage increase?

 

[George Hatch]

An increase in the minimum wage from $7-$9 drags any worker who had worked their way up to $9/hr on their own back to being a minimum wage worker UNLESS that more valuable worker is given a raise to $11.57/hr. That's what it will take for that worker to maintain their economic leverage over their less valuable co-workers. The $15/hr worker needs to get bumped to $19.28/hr in order to maintain their leverage. The $30/hr worker needs to get bumped to $38.57.


If you think that's what will probably occur 95% of the time then great. Personally, I have my doubts.