That is the rallying cry of the unions working to force more people out of jobs. That isn’t what they claim they are doing but it is what’s happening. The Unions and other worthless socialists have been pushing to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
In areas that have put this or similar hikes into effect, this has put a massive squeeze on restaurants. Many have closed and others have had to cut employee hours and raise prices. Maine was one of the states that pushed through such an increase. Well guess what happened? The very people who it was meant to “help” demanded that it be rolled back. Last week, the state legislature did this and Governor LePage signed the roll back into law. Here are some of the details from the Washington (Com)Post:
As the Maine House voted on a bill to reduce the minimum wage for tipped restaurant workers, Jason Buckwalter and a dozen fellow servers huddled in a back room listening to the vote call at the Bangor steakhouse where they work.
They all hoped to hear one thing: that state legislators had voted to lower their wages. Some cried with relief, Buckwalter said, when the final vote ended at 110 to 37 — overwhelmingly in their favor.
Now this is surprising. Normally, the minimum wage hamburger flippers think that getting $15/hour is great. Right up until they are laid off. The Maine restaurant workers have been watching what has been happening in place like Seattle and knew their jobs would be on the chopping block.
But in Maine, servers actively campaigned to overturn the results of a November referendum raising servers’ hourly wages from $3.75 in 2016 to $12 by 2024, saying it would cause customers to tip less and actually reduce their take-home income.
The servers’ campaign against increasing the minimum wage was a blow to labor activists, who believed the Maine referendum could kick off similar votes in New York, Massachusetts and D.C.
Instead, some servers in those places are already mobilizing against a higher wage.
“The next fight is on the national level,” said Buckwalter, who organized other servers to lobby Maine politicians and is now working with waitstaff in Minneapolis and Seattle. “I had lost my faith in government. This restored it, a little.”
Actually, these increases have been pushed by the Progressive Liberal Democrats. The idea was to make more sheep Democrat voters. The morons pushing these mandatory pay hikes don’t have any idea how business works. They just see restaurant owners as piggy banks they can raid for more goodies. What’s been happening is hours are being cut and jobs being lost. Many fast food restaurants are now looking at automating their businesses as much as possible, using computers and robots. Thanks to the “Fight for $15” idiots, they’ve made it cost effective.
November referendum to raise both the regular and tipped minimum wages — $7.50 and $3.75, respectively — won with 55 percent of the vote. (It required a simple majority.) But almost immediately after the vote was tallied, tipped servers began to complain that the result would hurt their livelihoods.
And the answer from the Progressive Liberals was? “Shut up! You are to stupid to know what’s good for you. Let those of us who have gone to the best schools run your lives for you. We’re smarter then you can ever be. We have all these degrees from places like Harvard and Yale to prove it!”
Many servers feared the higher costs to owners would lead them to raise prices or cut shifts. And at a packed, 10-hour April meeting of the Maine Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, dozens of servers also said some confused customers were already tipping less.
Insert shocked
Vallenza said she saw her hourly tips drop by more than $2 per hour, from the $20 to $30 per hour she made before.
“I don’t need to be ‘saved,’ and I’ll be damned if small groups of uninformed people are voting on my livelihood,” Vallenza said. “You can’t cut someone off at the knees like that.”
And that was the sound of a Progressive Liberal Moonbat being blown out of the sky. Needless to say, the Moonbats refuse to pay any attention to the people they purport to be “Helping.”
Activists maintain that the public never heard from the rural diner types, because those workers — the ones most in need of a higher minimum wage — are generally not in a position to complain about their earnings or to take time off work.
“We do not believe what we see in Maine is representative of the majority of workers,” said Dave Palmer, the managing director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a national group of low-wage restaurant workers that fought for Maine’s referendum. “We have enough of a sense from our members around the country that this is important to them.”
James Dill, a college professor and the Democratic state senator from Maine’s 5th District, received hundreds of emails and phone calls from unhappy servers, he said. He initially voted for the ballot referendum because he supports a higher minimum wage. After the outcry, he signed onto a Republican measure to lower the tipped wage down again.
A college professor? Obviously, he’s never met a payroll in his life. Actually, he is one of those “Ivory Tower” types that have done so much damage to this country. However, repeated blows to the head, virtually speaking, seem to have activated a few dormant brain cells.
“I realize not everyone is in the same boat,” said Dill. “But the ones who called me were saying, ‘I make $20 to $25 per hour, I’ve bought a house with that income, I support my kids — it’s really important that you don’t mess with my tips.’”
Of course, the Progressive Liberal Elitist types absolutely refuse to learn anything.
Dave Palmer, of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said his organization has not been deterred by the loss in Maine — though it did learn “organizing lessons” for upcoming battles in other states. For starters, ROC and other progressive activists will need to mobilize more low-income workers who support a higher tipped income. They will also need to do more to push back against what Palmer describes as industry-sponsored “fear and misinformation.”
You can always trust a Progressive Liberal to get it wrong every single time. They want to take someone who’s making upwards of $25/hour, pay and tips and basically cut their pay in half or worse. Many will lose their jobs outright as their employers either cut back on staff or simply close their doors.
In some cities, New York for instance, servers can, with tips, make upwards of a $100/hour or more, depending on the restaurant. Ram through a mandated wage and they will see a massive cut in pay. I’m sure these people will be so happy with idiots like Dave Palmer who either get their pay cut or cost them their jobs.
Speaking of this guy Palmer, being the curious sort, I Binged him, (Screw Google), and found his LinkedIn profile.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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“The morons pushing these mandatory pay hikes don’t have any idea how business works.”
I think they do. They push higher minimum wages so that small businesses go broke, putting more people on the dole.
With servers it has the added benefit of pushing the cost of restaurants up so that the self designated elites can go out to eat without having to be near any serfs, other than the ones serving them.