l****z 发帖数: 29846 | 1 Union-backed fast food proposal could cost half a million jobs
By Bill McMorris
Published December 05, 2013
Hourly wage increases advocated by labor groups could kill more than 450,000
jobs, according to a new report.
Union-backed labor groups, including Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, are
staging nationwide walk-outs and demonstrations at fast food chains across
the country calling for starting wages of $15 per hour.
Their success could spell economic disaster for nearly 20 percent of the
nation’s 2.5 million fast food workers, according to an analysis from the
Employment Policies Institute.
“We find that roughly 460,000 jobs would be lost in the fast food industry
as a consequence of a $15 minimum wage,” the EPI report found. “This is a
conservative estimate because it only includes employment loss among those
who hold a fast food job as their primary employment. Including those who
work in the industry as a second job would increase the estimates.”
The group estimated that employment falls 3 percent for every 10 percent
increase in labor costs. The $15 wage is more than double the federal
minimum wage of $7.25—and nearly 50 percent higher than the $10.10 wage
proposed by congressional Democrats.
EPI warned that the doubling of wages would lead the restaurants to “
replace jobs with less costly, automated alternatives—including self-
service ordering kiosks and even automatic burger makers.” |
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