David Bonior gets a lesson in reality
 

David Bonior used to be a huge local dyed-in-the-wool lefty congressman, labor advocate, and a "raise the minimum wage" guy. Now that he has actually gone out an worked for a living, he's gotten a taste of how tough if really is to make a buck running a business.

“The biggest surprise is how you have to hustle,” he said. “It was an eye-opener. I always heard this when I was in Congress. ‘You should try and own a business someday, Bonior.’ So I own two small businesses with my stepson and daughter-in-law. It’s tough to make it, in terms of profit margins. But somehow you get by and you figure it out.”

Now that he's in business for himself, his employees not only earn the minimum wage, but most don't get health care from their employer and they don't currently have a retirement plan.

Zest is profitable. Agua 301, which is modern Mexican cuisine, doesn’t lose money, he said.

To make the numbers work, he pays his 50 or so employees — who are not union members — what he calls “the tip wage,” which is $2.36 an hour. He said that when he was in Congress, he worked hard to increase the “tip wage,” but it was a casualty from the successful effort to increase the minimum wage.

His employees get paid vacations of at least two weeks a year. Most employees who were on the restaurants’ health plans have signed up for coverage via the Affordable Care Act. Bonior’s restaurants do not have retirement plans, although he says he plans to institute them in the future.

Your mileage may vary, but based on what I've seen, the exchange plans do not compare favorably to the value provided by an employer group health plan even when the employer pays not more than 1/2 the employee-only premium.

I'm glad that reality as - at least in part - reformed at least on liberal. Now if we could just find a way to spread it around....:eek:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...2ea_story.html

Reformed? Acts in his own interest in the circumstances, you mean. Most everyone does that.

The progressive thing to do is improve the circumstances.

Life is so hard! it's so unfaaaaaiiiirrrrr!

He chose his path, he deals with the choice. That's life. Get over it.

"His employees get paid vacations of at least two weeks a year. Most employees who were on the restaurants’ health plans have signed up for coverage via the Affordable Care Act. Bonior’s restaurants do not have retirement plans, although he says he plans to institute them in the future."

Sounds like he's a fairly generous guy. And, if he can afford that, then it must not be all that tight. I'm just sayin'.

I wonder how many conservative restaurant owners encourage employees to sign up for Obamacare and have any intention at all of ever instituting retirement plans?

My guess, (I could be wrong.) is that you stand a better chance of spotting a Chupacabra riding down the freeway on a tricycle while playing a piano.

Dave

Paid vacations are a bit less impressive, though, when you consider they're at $2.67 an hour....

Even so, it's very rare to get a paid vacation in the food service industry.

Many restaurant chains offer some type of health coverage. For others, they can institute an ACA surcharge. :)

Wrong.
Food service jobs are notorious for not providing health care benefits.

Generally, if benefits are offered at all, it is to management

What a difference, before I retired from Bell I was getting six weeks paid vacation and there was no such silliness as a given number of sick days per year. Difference between civilization and here.

Shit, even McDonalds offered a mini-med policy before Obamacare out-lawed it. :rolleyes:

Employers here must have control over the number of days they will allow you to be sick.

OMG. Such overwhelming generosity squelched by our jackbooted Stalinistic government once again.:rolleyes:

Only an HR dude would hold up McDonald's as some type of paragon of virtue employer. :D Cryin' about the ACA for banning shitty medical insurance got a chuckle, thanks Mike.

Yep.... Mcdonalds, one of the biggest food chains there is, offered a crappy health benefit.

And all the other food service jobs out there.....the local chains, the mom and pops.... Not so much.

More on mcdonalds health care benefit that was outlawed by obamacare;

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/05/news...nalds.fortune/


It should have been outlawed long before obamacare.

"The most affordable plan at McDonald's charges hourly workers about $14 a week, which comes to $727.48 annually. In return, they get $2,000 worth of coverage per year. If they step on a nail or come down with the flu, they might be covered, but the costs paid by the insurer may not even equal their premiums. If they are diagnosed with cancer, or even appendicitis, they are as vulnerable as someone with no insurance at all."

Just as I suspected. Offer nearly useless coverage, make the already low paid employee pay part or all of the premium, then crow that; "Hey, we offer our employees health coverage.".

It's all just done to say they did it. No one actually benefits from it much.

I remember working a minimum wage job back in the eighties. At the time, IIRC, the minimum wage was $3.35/hour. One day, management announces the fantastic new offering of "medical benefits to all employees" in the local newspaper.

The deal?

The went out and found a group plan that any employee could sign up for. But, you pay 100% the premiums yourself. For me, it would have been ~$300/month. That's more than two weeks pay. Of course, no one signed up. But, hey they "offered" it.

The point was public relations, not employee benefit.

Dave

I'm glad we agree that they offered some form of health insurance. See? That wasn't so hard was it?

Point is, contrary to your initial claim, most food service jobs do not offer health benefits.

And, then you offer the health benefits offered by McDonalds to bolster your claim and they rip off their employees with the health care benefits they offer.

See? That wasn't so hard, was it.

What seems to be hard here is your head. My "initial claim" by the way was that many food service chains offer health benefits. You, then, started yapping about food service jobs in general. You do understand the difference, dontcha?

As far as "ripping off" their employees, that s simply asinine. The very point of this thread is that folks like Bonior, when he was in office, and apparently you, regard employers as folks whose sole purpose is to see to the financial security and welfare of their employees. Bonior needed to exit government and start running his own business to figure out that running his own business was difficult enough. I wonder what it would take for you?

The point of this thread is that like 99% of the threads here of late have no point. all I see is talking points or rather yelling points. We are defined by the other person's concept (valid or not) of that person's idea of what our political beliefs are. Once that label has been applied everything anyone posts is read through colored glasses. A shining example is Mike's rude response to Barbara's post.

So since there is nowt to be gained here in PC since trollishness has taken over I will soend my time on more useful pusuits Adieu.

David Bonior gets a lesson in reality
 

Whell... My comment was directed at the mis information you provided about benefits offered to food service employees.
What seems to be hard here is your head when it comes to admitting your error. And then, you make assumptions on my viewpoint.

I owed and operated a (very) small chain of restaurants for many years. I know exactly what I am talking about.

If you think the health benefit described in the previous link is not ripping off employees, you are out of touch with reality.

Excellent post, except for the last word. I would hate to see you go Rob.

Same here.

Pete

It is worthless and most likely only done for public relations because of recent attempts to unionize fast food workers.

It's a cheap trick, not uncommon these days.

Dave

Yes, Robs departure would suck.

Dave

Compare Jack Welch's Ayn Rand-approved management to The Zeiss Plan and tell me what you think. For whom would you prefer to work? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
Everyone deserves the opportunity to make a living, but nobody is entitled to make a killing at the expense of others.

I need to research the Zeiss Plan, I'd never heard of it prior to your mentioning it.

Jack Welch has devastated untold lives and communities. And all he can point to is the wealth he created for himself and a handful of top shareholders. He's no less than a criminal, IMHO. All of those guys who's solution to everything was (Is?) to just hack off everything they couldn't deal with and outsource the nations industry are nothing but lazy, selfish and incompetent scum in my eyes. The Ayn Rand worshipping, Gordon Gekko emulating bane of our civilization.

Dave

Merrylander, I'll miss your friendly presence tremendously. I am contemplating the same decision, however. I don't like the effect this joint has on me sometimes.

Unmoderated websites can be destroyed. It seems to be happening here.

I've gone back to search The Zeiss Plan and oddly it seems all references to it have been expunged from the net. It was similar to the Cadbury and Hershey management method of total involvement of labor/worker interest being invested in the welfare of the company and the quality of it's products, and vice-versa.

Sort of like the "Toyota System" we in the automotive industry heard so much about, back in the 1990s, I'm guessing?

Dave

A lot of good ideas couldn't make the transition to the adverserial American labor/management relationship.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

Calisthenics before work?

I was in production when some of the Japanese ideas were is vogue, they really didn't do much, in my industry anyway. The only thing I still see is 'just in time' and that is no friend of the worker.

Pete

But what's truly interesting is that many foreign manufacturers come here, use American labor and succeed. Even in states where the influence of organized labor is strong. Ohio-Honda, anyone?

American management blows. I'm sorry, but it's true. The incompetence and downright corruption is astounding. I've worked for foreign companies and American companies. Each have strengths and weaknesses, but it's looking like the "blame" for the shitty way American businesses are run rests with those who run them. What do you expect when the popular belief is that the business only exist to benefit one person or a tiny group of people? Decline and failure, of course.

This is just my opinion, but....well....look around you. How's it working out? Who is slowly taking over the running of nearly every industry? :rolleyes:

Dave

Would probably be a great idea. Except expecting a bunch of fat people who would see exercise as "oppression" and an affront to their supposed "right to destroy themselves", wouldn't (Doesn't?) work.

I'm just sayin'.

Dave

http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000...0577.strip.gif

:p

Pete

That's hilarious and just might bear some truth. I recall thinking this as I watched a former employer try to take "Just in Time" to disastrous extremes.

"Maybe they just tell us they do this to trick us into destroying ourselves?"

I frequently have the same thoughts about Ayn Rand, BTW. You know, the Russian woman who came here fro the Soviet Union telling us that unbridled greed and apathy towards the common man was the way to go........:p

Dave

Who knows. That just in time though, it's a nightmare for everyone. 24 hour part supply feeding a line? Office worker, files a paper wrong, disaster. Machine operator lets a part drift out of spec a little too long, disaster. Dock worker loads it on the wrong truck, disaster. Freight carrier has a breakdown, disaster. Everything's a freaking disaster. Crack that whip!

Pete

I hope you'll reconsider Rob. :(

Btw, the way I see it Barbara was trying to add her .02 based on direct experience. Can we older posters attempt to be a bit more polite? Leave the rudeness for the noobs.

Pete

Exactly. Too inflexible in an imperfect world. I forget what exact amount it was, but there was a HUGE penalty for starving an automotive assembly line for parts. If the customers line stopped, we started picking up the tab. And it was in the tens of thousands per hour.:eek:

Dave