Does Minimum Wage Increase Help Or Hurt The Appraisal Business?

[Terrel L. Shields]

The preferred shape of the bale had no impact on your bale business....

Well...I had put myself thru college (and bought a few cows) hauling hay. But round bales were cheaper so it saved me (and my family) a lot of money for our own cattle. And today I can haul the same amount of weigh per load and unload with a lever, and far more in a day in the comfort of an air conditioned cab. The same applies to a backhoe compared to a pickup load of minimum wage workers. I've seen fields full of bean pickers earning 2 cent a bushel. Now? 100 workers replaced by one machine. As for prices, from CNBC (2014)

At Hardee's, Munger uses labor-saving devices, like self-ordering kiosks and automated training systems to cut down on costs. He also eliminated a hostess program and a roast beef slicer position. Customers feel the pinch too—prices are about 20 to 30 percent higher in Williston than his average restaurant.
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[ucbruin]

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?

That's a good question and to be honest I need to think about it a bit more....

Regarding the ND McDonalds example hourly wages nearly doubled yet prices didn't....
And the article didn't mention that the McDonalds in the example was struggling financially...
So in the example seem like a win/win....

BTW, the only McDonalds that I've patronized with an ordering kiosk was in Paris (my only humblebrag) and it was packed and had more workers behind the counter than any McDonalds I've ever been to....

While I think more about your question, I've one for you....
When McDonalds begins to replace humans with kiosks....
Will their prices go down???

 

[ucbruin]

Well...I had put myself thru college (and bought a few cows) hauling hay. But round bales were cheaper so it saved me (and my family) a lot of money for our own cattle. And today I can haul the same amount of weigh per load and unload with a lever, and far more in a day in the comfort of an air conditioned cab. The same applies to a backhoe compared to a pickup load of minimum wage workers. I've seen fields full of bean pickers earning 2 cent a bushel. Now? 100 workers replaced by one machine. As for prices, from CNBC (2014)

At Hardee's, Munger uses labor-saving devices, like self-ordering kiosks and automated training systems to cut down on costs. He also eliminated a hostess program and a roast beef slicer position. Customers feel the pinch too—prices are about 20 to 30 percent higher in Williston than his average restaurant.
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Your baler posts are akin to DTB saying the introduction of hybrid appraisals impacted his appraisal business....

And then having DTB later say he got out of the appraisal business 5 years before hybrid appraisals were introduced to the industry....

Oh brother....

@Michigan CG
Are you listening???

 

[Michigan CG]

Regarding the ND McDonalds example hourly wages nearly doubled yet prices didn't....
And the article didn't mention that the McDonalds in the example was struggling financially...
So in the example seem like a win/win....

In the article the lady stated that she was hiring at a minimum of $11/hour. I would guess that would be the teenager with no work experience. Minimum wage was $7.50? Could she hire at minimum wage previously? Let us say that she was previously hiring at $8/hour for easy math. The $11/hour would be an increase of about 38% and prices were raised by about 40%.

 

[Overimprovement]

In the article the lady stated that she was hiring at a minimum of $11/hour. I would guess that would be the teenager with no work experience. Minimum wage was $7.50? Could she hire at minimum wage previously? Let us say that she was previously hiring at $8/hour for easy math. The $11/hour would be an increase of about 38% and prices were raised by about 40%.

And even if wages for some (remember it's not all) increased, prices are but one mechanism to make up that extra expense. Replacing workers with machines, hiring more part timers which reduces benefit needs, reducing quality of food and services provided are other possible means.

Remember-money is a zero sum game. The more some have, the less others have.

The only purely positive economic action is one which increases true worker productivity per dollar spent. That is the typically positive tradeoff in getting more training or education. Minimum wage laws do the exact opposite, they reduce average productivity. Unless those workers all of a sudden work harder for the extra coinage.

 

[ucbruin]

This is the only correct thing you have stated in this entire thread.

Business owners depend on workers and they depend on people to buy their product or service.

If Bob is paying welders $15/hour and Steve is paying welders $20/hour then Bob's welders are going to try to go to work for Steve. Any person opening a welding shop is going to have to compete with Steve. THAT is the market.

Why is Wal Mart now paying truck drivers $100,000? Because there is a shortage of truck drivers. THAT is the market.

Nurse Practitioners graduating with a specialty in pediatrics are getting hired at about $70,000/year. NPs graduating with a specialty in critical care are getting hired at $90,000/year. Why? Because there are a lot of NPs who want to take care of cute babies but not a lot who want to take care of people who just had their arm cut off in a traffic accident. THAT is the market.

In North Dakota McDonald's was paying new hires $17/hour during the oil boom. Minimum wage was around $8/hour. THAT is the market.

"In North Dakota McDonald's was paying new hires $17/hour during the oil boom. Minimum wage was around $8/hour. THAT is the market."

In the article the lady stated that she was hiring at a minimum of $11/hour. I would guess that would be the teenager with no work experience. Minimum wage was $7.50? Could she hire at minimum wage previously? Let us say that she was previously hiring at $8/hour for easy math. The $11/hour would be an increase of about 38% and prices were raised by about 40%.

"In the article the lady stated that she was hiring at a minimum of $11/hour."

$17.00/hour vs $11.00/hour starting pay....
Tomato tomahato....

You of all people should know that I can't help myself from exaggerating the facts....

 

[Michigan CG]

"In the article the lady stated that she was hiring at a minimum of $11/hour."

$17.00/hour vs $11.00/hour starting pay....
Tomato tomahato....

You of all people should know that I can't help myself from exaggerating the facts...

Sigh............. There are many different wages stated in the article. I made an actual quote from the article and you are trying to find fault?

Care to make any more "intelligent" comments about baling hay considering your vast knowledge?

 

[ucbruin]

Sigh............. There are many different wages stated in the article. I made an actual quote from the article and you are trying to find fault?

Care to make any more "intelligent" comments about baling hay considering your vast knowledge?

"In North Dakota McDonald's was paying new hires $17/hour during the oil boom. Minimum wage was around $8/hour. THAT is the market."

Before you sigh....
Can you at least acknowledge that you wrote the statement in bold lettering???

Regarding TS' baling business....
Even TS is not pushing back on my posts to him....

 

[Gobears81]

I remember reading that rents in one town in North Dakota during the oil boom were higher than in NY or San Francisco. A McDonalds worker making $17/ hour couldn't afford rent there, so even that wasn't a living wage. Hence why the "fight for $15" has no real significance without correlating to any one location.

 

[DTB]

A. That was the "vacuum" example provided....
B. Others have mentioned that if wages for the unskilled rise than everyone else's will too....
If everyone else's wages rise over 39% (in the ND example), then it appears to be a win/win....

Your example only illustrates what happened when some wages were elevated. Many, many steps down the supply change didn't double their wages, that's why McD prices only rose 39%. When all wages were to to double, what now?