Which is the reason we need to keep looking out for their schemes.
You may remember about a month ago when I posted about the little socialists at the South Sound Chapter of Reclaim Democracy attempting to push through a “Community Values Ordinance” in Olympia.
The “CVO” was to be applied to large retailers in the city and would ‘grade’ them on a set of standards that would make any Wobblie ecstatic, and if the company received a failing grade, they would have shut down the store and leave town.
Thankfully, the Oly City Council saw that it was a dumb idea and dropped it.
Well, because the socialist-set never quit, something near those lines is being proposed, this time in the city of Spokane, Washington. (pdf file here)
This ordinance would require all “big box†retailers in the City of Spokane whose business premises are at 95,000 square feet or more, to pay their employees who have been employed for three or more months 135% of Washington State minimum wage if they provide health benefits ($10.30 per hour) and 165% of Washington State minimum wage if they do not provide health benefits ($12.58). This ordinance does not negate collective bargaining agreements established by unions or their respective members.
Flat out, it is a “Living Wage” bill that would only effect large retailers in the city of Spokane.
I would really like to know where the people who are pushing this got the idea that Safeway’s profit margins are that much higher than, say, Red Apple’s or Thriftway’s. Our good man Puggs has worked in the grocery business for quite a few years, if I remember correctly, and could probably attest to the fact that on most items, the profit margins are quite low, the store using the number of sales to make up for that.
I’m not against people earning a decent wage, but I want their wage to be equal to their skill level. Some yokel high school kid hauling carts around the parking lot (and hitting my truck) does neither needs or deserves to make a “Living Wage”. If someone has nothing to offer an employer other than a warm body to fill a spot, than why should the employer be forced by law to pay them more than they’re worth?
And the worst part of this is not just the money going to those who have not worked to gain enough skill to earn the equivalent to a “Living Wage”, or the extra cost that will be shouldered by the consumer, but that if this catches on in a place like Spokane (a small dot of purple in a field of red), it’ll be coming to your town next.
Then it’ll spread to the people working at McDonalds. $12.50 to screw up your order and spit in your food and no-speeka-de-englais.
Of course, jacking up the minimum wage will either cause prices at those places to go up-and it’s not the upper income set who shop there, so it will actually hurt the lower income folks a lot more-or cause Wal-Mart, Costco, and maybe some Safeways, Albertsons, QFCs, etc, to simply shut down operations. And maybe mean a lot of new businesses in Post Falls, ID, just across the state line.
A little bit of anecdotal evidence on minimum wage driving up prices: Every military base of sufficient size has a Burger King. Since they’re on post, there’s no sales tax, no property tax, etc. At Ft Jackson, SC, a Double Whopper Value Meal is $4.99. Here at Ft Lewis, WA, where the minimum wage is $2/hr (at least) higher, that same Value Meal costs $5.49.
This is strictly aimed at Wal-Mart.
It is illegal, violates the Commerce Clause, and is a Restraint of Trade violation, making it unenforceable if the stupid Spokane City Council actually passes it.
These anti Wal-Mart ordinances are springing up like dandelions in your lawn. The socialists are MOST hateful of Sam Walton’s legacy, in which he rewards hard workers, but no one gets a ticket to ride the gravy train.
They aren’t so much pro-union as they are pro-socialist. The unions have failed to organize Wal-Mart simply because Walton used enough force, legally applied, to keep them out of his stores. There is very rapid upward mobility of employees in Wal-Mart, and employees are taught to get on THAT improvement elevator on their first day at work.
We have a huge anti-WalMart movement in my suburban area, and although I don’t shop at that store, I have put considerable effort forth in the local op-ed pages fighting the looney left on the Wal-Mart issues. It behooves everyone to do the same, because if Wal-Mart loses and has to knuckle under to stay in business, we ALL lose, shoppers or not.