It's just not that simple. In business, about the only thing set in stone is expected profit margins. Everything else must ebb and flow around that. An increase in labor costs can be offset in many ways. Increase of sales, increase of price, decrease in quality, a reduction in overhead, etc, etc. And yes.. one of those options is a reduction in staff. But it's certainly not the only one. Specifically when discussing mega corporations. Does McDonald's need to have the largest marketing budget in the world? Is there a man, woman, or child that hasn't heard of the place yet? Sounds like a good place to recoup some of that revenue, eh? And do I still need $1 cheeseburgers after a decade on the menu? Would I lose my shit if that cheeseburger jumped to $1.25? Nah. Sounds like another good place to recoup some revenue, eh? My point is that layoffs are the easy way for for mega corporations to publicly threaten and scare the community into influencing legislation. We're being played. And that should upset you. Granted, the real concern does come from small business. A jump in the minimum wage will effect these companies more than any other. And layoffs are often the easiest way for these companies to compensate. But again, not the only way. During the recent recession, the company I worked for cut back on things like new equipment and maintenance. Instead of paying high costs for these things, we did our own maintenance and kept equipment running as well as possible until the market turned around. We made it five years without a layoff lasting more than three months. Anyway, I could go on and on about this. It's a very complex issue with many things to consider. There's no easy answer here. Good thread, longface.

Was going to actually respond to this, but I'll leave this here. "Statement about minimum wage one way or the other that pisses off half the people reading"

Liberals are a complete joke. Now watch, they'll all claim it's the fault of something else or even better, [spoiler]It was Bush's fault. [/spoiler]

Working at McDonald's is essentially an entry level job. Those jobs are meant for kids in high school or drop outs; not for a stagnant career or to raise a family. If you want more money then work harder and get a promotion. Hell, maybe try a career change. I work as an EMT-B, I take care of sick people and sometimes what I do can decide if a person lives or dies in a situation, but you know how much i'm payed? $9.50 an hour and I'm happy.

Yeah it sucks for small businesses it does. But ya know what? Too. Damm. Bad. If this small increase in labor cost ruins your business you weren't operating at an efficiency level worthy of a viable business. The real issue here is than money comes out of my pocket to subsidize billion dollar corporations like Wal Mart or McDonald's. They don't pay their employees enough so the American people pick up the slack.

Republicans in Congress have sold out to the billionaire lobbyists that fund them. The billionaire class will do whatever they can to pay their workers as little as possible. Truth is, they have more than enough to pay their employees a live able wage (Walmart for example). But they are greedy, plain and simple. Republican voters have been brainwashed by their Oligarchist media idols into thinking that trickle-down economics actually works. Faux News is especially good at repeating this mantra. The United States is a Corporate Oligarchy, where small businesses die and big corporations control the government. The first step to fix this is to limit money in politics to have equal and fair elections. [spoiler]Congress is a joke[/spoiler] Edit 1: The Republican Party used to stand for something great. But now it's been hijacked by hypocritical, cherry picking Tea Turds who bring up Jesus as often as they can, only to do exactly what Jesus WOULDN'T do. Examples? Torture. War. Income Inequality. Tell me why the Republican Party, who chants "small government" as a mantra opposes the legalization of marijuana? The legalization of gay marriage? I thought republicans want the government OUT if our personal lives??? Hypocritical Tea Tards.

The minimum wage has to increase to keep up with the increased cost of living.

ITT: Plutocrats who think wallstreet fatcats should be in charge of our society. Libertarianism is in itself a fallacy, corporations and capitalists will quickly seize control of what little government there is left and create a corporate fascist state.

Yep. There is no way McDonalds will be able to pay their staff $15 per hour. They're obviously going to have to close, what a shame.

Economics 101. Minimum wage is nothing more than theft.

Wait they already passed this? Well, the only way they'll survive now is for the price of goods to skyrocket.