Min wage to 9.00 an hour in California

Any thoughts ? For us it’s an additional $2000 a month in payroll. We will be forced to raise prices, run leaner, hire smarter. Next is $10 an hr. It’s getting tough !

Does that include drivers and servers or does California allow for a lower tipped wage? If I had to pay drivers that I think I’d be carryout only.

ALL your employees make minimum wage and would get raises or are you assuming you would give everyone the same raise regardless of what they make now?

Hard for me to be very objective, I have not had an employee other than tipped employees that made less than $9 per hour in close to 10 years.

Oh to only be paying $9 min.
Our 15 year old’s get more than that with adults >$18 full time or $22.50 casual, PLUS 9.25% superannuation (retirement fund) once they turn 18 (and it goes up .25% every year until it hits 12%)
Try earning a buck with wages cots >25% (before my own wage)
Dave

Our minimum wage will go to $10.20 in September. The only “employee” making minimum wage is my grand daughter who is eight when she helps out around the store.

wa dave, Oh to get $16 for a 13(?)inch cheese pizza and how much for delivery? Just different markets facing different challenges and different competition.

Yes Pau,l but or rents are at $550 sqmt, running close to 16%. Great to get <10% rents I have seen listed here from time to time. $5.50 for delivery, paying the driver $2.50 of this and an average of $.50 in hourly rate per delivery :frowning:
And your cheese, flour and other goods are well under our cots.
Guess it’s all relevant to the price you charge vs what you pay for goods. Our cost to goods are around 28%
In the end of the day we are all getting screwed over one way or the other
Dave

Are you in a shopping centre Dave? Our rents are under 5% in Sydney Metro! I figured WA would be a bit cheaper… From what I have seen the caputo flour, san marzano tomatoes and garofalo bufala is comparable to what they pay in the US. I’m sure the WOW oven I just bought would be a hell of a lot cheaper on the other side though…5

Be glad you’re not in Seattle?

Yeah I’m on the outside of a medium shopping centre with Woolworths, Dan Murphys (freestanding building) and 28 other shops, 12 which are food. W.A. are in the highest rents in the world, more expensive than Paris and London, and our ingredients costs are higher than the Eastern states. We get ripped here due to the mining boom
What suburb you in at that rent rate ? Mt Druitt or Campelltown? :slight_smile:

Costly there too is it Brad?

This is what Brad was referring to
http://www.seattle.gov/news/detail.asp?ID=14430&Dept=28
"City Council Approves $15/hour Minimum Wage in Seattle"

We have our price increase going in Monday for the $9 min that starts July 1. The $10 starts in 2016. But we do have a new bill that has passed the state senate that will put it at $11 in 2015 and push it to $13 in 2017. We have less than 10% of our people making minimum but that will still cost $50,000 a month by time it hits $13. I don’t make that much a month. The customers are going to have kick in the bulk of that. Maybe we will finally say goodbye to the $5 pizzas in California.

David

lol dave! Marrickville & Petersham - you could probably walk the CBD from here!

I wonder what the City of Seattle can possibly have for an enforcement mechanism. Do they have to report wages paid to the city?! Talk about a job killing law! Employers will compete for the employees that are worth $15 and get by without most of the other ones… Why would anyone ever hire a teenager for his first job?

Or everyone will raise prices I guess. In our business that will work OK because a pizza store in Portland can not supply the orders but in retail and other services I can see this really hurting the local businesses in favor of outside businesses that do not have to match the wages. It is not like employers are going to pass that increase along to all employees though. An employee that already makes $16 is not going to get a raise to keep them the same distance ahead of the employee with the mandated raise to $15.

Wow. Rents to that low % in those areas. I remember when I lived in Punchbowl up until 1971 that those areas were the pits. Now they command top $ real estate (leave Punchbowl for dead) and you can still get rents at 5%. Must be doing great sales. Guess you are in one of those long strips of shop from the area?

I want to here more about rent% in AU. Are you guys paying a % of your sales?

Hey pizzapiratespp,

No they are just negotiated on a fixed cost, outgoings and a yearly CPI increase too.

Some major shopping centres do an annual audit of your business though and adjust rent as a % of sales.

I’m lucky enough to have really reasonable landlords that appreciate stability and in return they don’t charge sky high rents - hopefully this continues. In Australia though the best position you could be in would be to own/buy your premises. Real estate doubles every 10 years, so even if your shop was break even you’d make a killing!

As “supachicken” says rents are fixed with consumer price index increases or a fixed amount annually plus outgoings for rates, taxes and utilities (water, gas & electricity).
We are situated in Western Australia where rents are ridiculously high, as is everything else due to high investments from a mining boom that has been going on for quite a few years now. We have some of the highest rents per sq mt in the world.
It is ridiculously hard to get good rents in sites where you are visible and it is viable. We pay $530 per sq mt p.a for a 122 sq mt shop on the outside of a medium shopping centre, and pay a 5% fixed increase each year. Other shops in our centre are paying $650 on the outside (like ours) and even more for in the mall shops. Our average rent, including outgoings is around $2,400 p.w.
Landlords will leave a place vacant rather than reduce rents, or they have no problem putting in another similar outlet to yours. Restrictive covenants are a thing of the past when dealing with these vultures.
Plus shopping centres are going up in new suburbs all the time even though there are plenty of empty shops in current ones. With our compulsory Superannuation (retirement plans) funded by employers at 9.25% the funds are flush with money and are investing in retail buildings, so the more money coming in the more investment in new properties.
The only cheap rents are the old areas where they used have have the strip of shops areas, but these are usually the older inner suburbs which are now being re-developed into chic inner city living so these shops are being swallowed up by trendy restaurants thus driving these rents up.
Before too long it will be the major national groups (in every field of retail) that will be around as family business fold under the intense rents pressures. Those lucky enough to be in the situation as “supachicken” where they have non greedy landlords will survive longer.
Dave

I hope AU is doing well in the pizza market. They had Undercover boss episode with Domino AU featured and according the CEO, the busiest Domino’s in the world reside there. California is moving in the direction of Australia with high wages, rents, taxes, and general over the top government intervention. hopefully it all pans out.