The 15/hr bullshit

[Bricktop]

They don't get higher take home pay....because tips are not salary.



They MAY get more money...they may get less. But when they apply for finance, they can only supply their actual salary, not tips.



You are paid by the measure of your productivity...miles travelled, rather than hours on the job. You are not paid a pittance, and hope that your passengers drop a buck in a tip bucket on the way out of the station (in your case...the freight). I'm going out on a limb here, but I will presume that there is a minimum number of miles available per year, and your salary per mile is rather generous to compensate for the fluctuation in available miles. If that is not the case, your union has failed you badly.



There is no vague, hidden and unaccounted for payments in your salary.

[Anonymous]

They don't get higher take home pay....because tips are not salary.



They MAY get more money...they may get less. But when they apply for finance, they can only supply their actual salary, not tips.



You are paid by the measure of your productivity...miles travelled, rather than hours on the job. You are not paid a pittance, and hope that your passengers drop a buck in a tip bucket on the way out of the station (in your case...the freight). I'm going out on a limb here, but I will presume that there is a minimum number of miles available per year, and your salary per mile is rather generous to compensate for the fluctuation in available miles. If that is not the case, your union has failed you badly.



There is no vague, hidden and unaccounted for payments in your salary.

That's not entirely true..



If one declares their income they pay tax on it..



Almost any servers at one time were making twenty dollars per hour minimum..



If you declare it all, you qualify for a mortgage, but you tax on it..



What people do is declare their full income one time only to qualify and that is it.

[Bricktop]

And then for the rest of the time they are tax dodgers?



And you're OK paying MORE tax to compensate those that avoid paying their fair share?



If they avoid tax, they are, in effect tax dodgers.

[Anonymous]

Small businesses in Ontario are having a hard enough time now paying the bills. The Ontario NDP's pitch to raise the minimum wage here to $20 will force a new business model and many will not be able to adapt.



By Matthew Lau of Sun News Media



Minimum wage hike will hurt — not help — vulnerable workers



B.C.'s minimum-wage law in 1925 was meant to price Japanese immigrants out of jobs. Racist labour unions in the United States similarly advocated for minimum wage laws to oppress Black people.



[size=150]The Liberals and Conservatives have strayed so far to the interventionist side of the economic policy spectrum that the NDP must work hard to make headlines.

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Enter the [size=150]Ontario NDP's recent proposal for a $20 hourly minimum wage through steady increases over the next five years.

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In reality, high wages can't be legislated. If a worker's hourly productive output (the amount she contributes to a business' bottom line) is below the stated minimum, an employer would be able to offer her a job only by losing money. Raising the minimum wage, by raising the minimum level of productivity a worker needs to be employable, makes more workers unemployable.



Moreover, the workers most negatively affected are the most disadvantaged in the labour force — those with the least experience, least skills, least education and fewest qualifications — and populations that suffer most from racial or other forms of unfair discrimination. Far from being an action of compassion, raising the minimum wage is actually an act of cruelty.



In fact, the first minimum-wage laws passed a century ago were intentionally cruel. British Columbia's minimum-wage law in 1925 was meant to price Japanese immigrants out of jobs. Racist labour unions in the United States similarly advocated for minimum-wage laws to oppress Black people. In apartheid South Africa, too, minimum-wage laws were used to encourage discrimination.



Even if the stated intentions of minimum wages have since improved, the harmful effects remain. [size=150]Notwithstanding claims that minimum-wage hikes do not kill jobs, a recent review by economists David Neumark and Peter Shirley of U.S. studies over the past three decades found clear evidence of negative employment effects, especially among teenagers and the less-educated.

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Canadian studies find similar results — employment losses for the least advantaged members of the labour force, including immigrants. Canadian research on the minimum wage destroying jobs includes reports commissioned by the Ontario government in 2007 and in 2014, and a paper from an Ontario government-sponsored think-tank in 2014 and an analysis from the province's Financial Accountability Office in 2017.



By proposing $20 minimumwage legislation, the Ontario NDP presumably believes that large numbers of Ontario workers — whose labour is worth at least $20 per hour — are being underpaid and exploited by employers who pay them less. It's a presumption that the actions of politicians suggest have no reasonable basis.



Indeed, if any politician of any political stripe believes there are many workers whose labour is worth $20 hourly yet are being paid only the current minimum wage, then she should leave politics to become an entrepreneur. She could launch businesses to hire these hundreds of thousands of workers, offering to pay them, say, $17 hourly — which would represent a significant wage increase for these workers.



She could then pocket the $3 difference (the $20 she says those workers are worth, minus the $17 wage), multiplied by 2,000 hours per worker per year, and then multiplied by the hundreds of thousands of presumably underpaid workers in Ontario.



By putting her money where her mouth is, she could make herself fabulously wealthy, all the while raising wages for the province's lowest-paid workers.



But if politicians who push for higher minimum wages don't put their money where their mouth is, we might reasonably conclude they don't have much confidence in their claims about minimum wages. Neither, then, should we.

[Bricktop]

This is, of course, nonsense.



What the author apparently fails to understand is that a minimum wage is applied to ALL businesses.



Employers don't fund the salaries. Customers do. By applying a minimum wage, all employers are playing on a level playing field, and so all will pass the cost of staff on to their customers via their price of goods sold. Equally.



Thus the price of providing people with a minimum wage that is fair and consistently applied is carried by the customer. ALL customers. And nothing in this model prevents tipping if customers so decide.



Virtually every employee in Australia, and probably Canada are afforded a minimum wage for the work they do.



Why should those employed in hospitality be any different.

[Anonymous]

This is, of course, nonsense.



What the author apparently fails to understand is that a minimum wage is applied to ALL businesses.



Employers don't fund the salaries. Customers do. By applying a minimum wage, all employers are playing on a level playing field, and so all will pass the cost of staff on to their customers via their price of goods sold. Equally.



Thus the price of providing people with a minimum wage that is fair and consistently applied is carried by the customer. ALL customers. And nothing in this model prevents tipping if customers so decide.



Virtually every employee in Australia, and probably Canada are afforded a minimum wage for the work they do.



Why should those employed in hospitality be any different.

I worked as a waitress when the minimum wage was much lower, and on weekends I made more than the owners who had their life's savings in the restaurant..



A rapidly increasing minimum wage is a big problem for small business owners.

[cc]

Why should those employed in hospitality be any different.

The argument has to do with tipping.



Savvy  customers tip because they know tips are the employees main source of income.



There are examples where bar & restaurant workers lost a lot of money when min. wage was increased significantly

[Bricktop]

I suspect those examples are more anecdotal than supported by data.



And nobody has said tipping is discontinued.



"A rapidly increasing minimum wage is a big problem for small business owners." I don't know what this means. Why is a minimum wage "rapidly increasing". Minimum wages are indexed. And nothing prevents business owners from paying more to their most valued staff. It is a MINIMUM wage, not an absolute wage. It is fair to ALL employees, not just those who work in 5 star restaurants where wealthy customers go to be indulged.



People who serve you in burger restaurants have to live to.

[Anonymous]

Why should those employed in hospitality be any different.

The argument has to do with tipping.



Savvy  customers tip because they know tips are the employees main source of income.



There are examples where bar & restaurant workers lost a lot of money when min. wage was increased significantly

Government got an increase in pay(taxes), but employees and employers took a loss when the minimum wage was quickly increased.

[Anonymous]

I suspect those examples are more anecdotal than supported by data.



And nobody has said tipping is discontinued.



"A rapidly increasing minimum wage is a big problem for small business owners." I don't know what this means. Why is a minimum wage "rapidly increasing". Minimum wages are indexed. And nothing prevents business owners from paying more to their most valued staff. It is a MINIMUM wage, not an absolute wage. It is fair to ALL employees, not just those who work in 5 star restaurants where wealthy customers go to be indulged.



People who serve you in burger restaurants have to live to.

Profit margins are razor thin in the hospitality industry. Most resaturants don't survive the first year. Payroll is one of their biggest expenses. If restauranteurs are forced by provincial/state governments to increase wages beyond their ability to make ends meet they must either find efficiencies or increase prices. Most opt for a mixture of the two and raise prices a bit and lower wages through increases in productivity(fewer employees doing more).



But, why raise minimum wage in the first place in the hospitiality industry. Who benefits from it? Cerainly not business owners. And not even the employees who had their salaries increased by law.



Of respondents who reported a minimum wage increase, however, 73% said that their take home pay—restaurant wages and tips—has not increased.

https://upserve.com/media/sites/2/Minimum-Wage-Take-Home-Pay-2.jpg">

This is from the US, but it applies to Canada as well.



Higher minimum wage is a scam leftist governments use to increase revenue on the backs of lowest paid workers and business proprietors.

[Bricktop]

This is from the US, but it applies to Canada as well.



Higher minimum wage is a scam leftist governments use to increase revenue on the backs of lowest paid workers and business proprietors.

Perhaps, then, if living from tips is such a bonus to all, maybe all occupations should revert to a "customer funded" model.



Bureaucrats, for example, shall be paid in accordance with how the taxpayer feels their issues have been managed.



Used car salesman will get remunerated by how good the deal is on the car sale.



Cops will get tips on how nicely they issued the traffic citation.



Let's all move to a gratuity based economy if it so beneficial to all. Why should the hospitality industry be the only one sharing the good loot.



And again, I repeat that the rise in cost affecting their bottom line is a myth. A rise in business cost is only relevant if you are spending more on your business than a competitor, who than passes on cost savings to their customer, taking away from your business.



Minimum wage levels the salary playing field. Every business has the same salary base. Any discrepancy in the cost of doing business is on factors other than staff wages when comparing competitors.



And if a restaurant doesn't last a year, it sure isn't employee wages that caused it to fail.

[Anonymous]

This is from the US, but it applies to Canada as well.



Higher minimum wage is a scam leftist governments use to increase revenue on the backs of lowest paid workers and business proprietors.

Perhaps, then, if living from tips is such a bonus to all, maybe all occupations should revert to a "customer funded" model.



Bureaucrats, for example, shall be paid in accordance with how the taxpayer feels their issues have been managed.



Used car salesman will get remunerated by how good the deal is on the car sale.



Cops will get tips on how nicely they issued the traffic citation.



Let's all move to a gratuity based economy if it so beneficial to all. Why should the hospitality industry be the only one sharing the good loot.



And again, I repeat that the rise in cost affecting their bottom line is a myth. A rise in business cost is only relevant if you are spending more on your business than a competitor, who than passes on cost savings to their customer, taking away from your business.



Minimum wage levels the salary playing field. Every business has the same salary base. Any discrepancy in the cost of doing business is on factors other than staff wages when comparing competitors.



And if a restaurant doesn't last a year, it sure isn't employee wages that caused it to fail.

The hospitality industry is generally not a career. For many if not most, it's casual employment. Could it be applied to other industries? Incentive based pay has, but the civil service in Canada is used to being paid whether they perform well or not.



And again, I repeat the only way to stay afloat for most restauranteurs is they cut labour costs or raise prices. Australia's hospitality industry is far more efficient than their counterparts in Canada and the US as they've had a liong time to adapt. Jobs will be lost in the industry, and those who remain will be forced to be more productive plus costs for patrons will rise. And on top of that the people the legislation was supposed to help have not earned a dollar more. What is the point of arbitariarily forcing this on proprietors, and employees. Oh wait, more tax money for greedy governments who feign caring for low income workers.

[Anonymous]

From the US, but applies to Canada.

https://upserve.com/media/sites/2/Minimum-Wage-Increase-Server-Perception-2.jpg">

[Anonymous]

From the US, but applies to Canada.

https://upserve.com/media/sites/2/Minimum-Wage-Increase-Server-Perception-2.jpg">

I know some people have worked as servers like I did, but got out when the former government raised the minimum wage, but lowered their incomes.

[Bricktop]

I repeat...tipping is NOT removed.



That would be impossible.



Employees must be paid a fair wage for a fair days work.



If 5 people come into the restaurant in a single day, why should the employee lose money? They have no control over how the business is managed and marketed.



If you asked the same question of Australian hospitality workers, there is NO way they would wish to subsist on gratuity. The industry attracts workers because it offers fair reward. America, and perhaps Canada, have embedded tipping into its economic culture. How can they answer the question of "would they prefer a reliable wage" when they've never had that opportunity.



You might as well ask a Chinese if he would prefer McDonalds over the Golden Lotus restaurant.