Posts tagged tips
Higher minimum wage levels help many workers, but there are tradeoffs
April 7, 2025 // At the same time, a lot of supporters of the increase at the time were hoping this would be really a dramatic, life-changing thing for a lot of workers that would really help reduce income inequality in Seattle. And we see that income inequality is still a big issue. Wages went up, but so did the cost of living. And it's still pretty hard to make ends meet out here for people, even with that increased paycheck.
Commentary: Is employment exploitation?
February 5, 2025 // The people who believe employment is exploitative see that employers want to pay workers as little as they can and will replace them at the slightest inconvenience. That business owners make more money when they lower their costs. Thus, they see that minimum wage laws and paid sick leave rules counter the business owners’ incentive to exploit workers. The laws ensure employers can’t pay too little and keep them from firing people who get ill. On the opposite side, some people believe that employees have options about where to work. Workers can earn an honest wage at another employer if one treats them poorly or doesn’t offer them what they’re worth. Many employers pay well because they recognize workers’ worth, but even miserly employers must compete for workers. Part of that competition is over how well employees are treated.
SEATTLE: Popular Restaurant Unable to Survive Even One Day of New $20.76 Minimum Wage Law
January 3, 2025 // As the city of Seattle, Washington, hiked minimum wages to $20.76 per hour on New Year’s Day, some businesses had to close their doors, including one restaurant whose owner somehow still supports the new law.
After two years without a contract, unionized Chipotle workers call for nationwide boycott
December 5, 2024 // In August, the National Labor Relations Board found that Chipotle violated labor law for allegedly telling employees it couldn’t provide raises because they were unionized. Chipotle does tend to pay its workers above minimum wage. Anisa Smith was hired in October for $13.25 an hour — almost $3 more than Michigan’s minimum wage. She said she agreed with her manager that she could work Monday through Thursday while her daughter is at school.
Chipotle may have violated workers’ unionization rights, US labor board says
August 28, 2024 // The board said late Monday that its Detroit regional director found merit to allegations filed against Chipotle by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The union alleges that Chipotle unlawfully disciplined an employee in Lansing, Michigan, for engaging in union activity and told employees the fast-food chain couldn’t give them raises because they were unionized. The regional director dismissed an allegation that Chipotle unlawfully withheld credit card tips from unionized workers. An allegation that Chipotle unlawfully used surveillance methods on its employees is still under investigation.
How a Vote to Unionize Backfired on Coffeehouse Workers in Philadelphia
July 8, 2024 // “The union members are not conscious of the fact that their fate is tied up with the flowering of their employers’ enterprises,” Mises explained in Planning for Freedom. For many people who’ve only signed the back of checks, it’s easy to forget that to employ workers for any length of time, a business enterprise must be successful, something OCF Coffee House was not. President and CEO Ori Feibush told local news outlets that the coffee enterprise was already operating at a loss prior to the union vote. “You had an organization that was already at its limit,” Feibush told reporters. “It was at its limit, and it did not have the capacity to continue to burn an additional cost.”
Four Ann Arbor Sweetwaters’ locations unionize for better pay and clearer firing policies
December 14, 2023 // Workers at four Ann Arbor Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea locations announced that they filed to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board in an Instagram post Thursday evening. The workers at the Michigan Union, West Washington Street, Westgate Library and Meijer Ann Arbor-Saline Road locations will be organizing together as a single bargaining unit, with the goals of increasing pay, improving benefits and creating a clearer process for firing employees. The locations will be represented by Teamsters Local 243, the local chapter of the international union International Brotherhood of Teamsters.