The article was about shuttle drivers, and travelers do have some other options…
But folks do have options with food, such as eating a large meal at home.
OTOH, I do agree with the idea of your post, but the simple fact is that ariport travelers tend to be less senstive to price (many business travelers just expense the increase) than local fast food buyers bcos airport travelers have more disposable income (I would think).
If I’m at a football game or concert, I might buy a $5 soda or $8 beer at the stadium because I’m ‘on vacation’ or ‘treating myself’. It’s the mindset. However, I’d never buy a $5 soda at a grocery store or go to a restaurant that charges $5 for a soda. Why? Because I don’t have to, I have other choices that sell the same things for less.
If fast food restaurants charge more to make up for the increase in wages, I’m going to think twice about going. Why not go to the hotdog stand, the salad bar at the grocery store, the cafe that charges about the same for a burger and fries?
Some of the casual dining sit down restaurants are almost as inexpensive as fast food, with generally better quality.
Are you suggesting that the intent is therefor to put lower quality fast food restaurants out of business by making them un-competitive? (How does that help their employees?)
Actually, my husband and I stopped eating out at all of our favorite casual places that we usually go to. They raise price and reduce quality, like they put in tougher meat. His teeth are no longer can handle them especially after having root canal and such recently. My husband likes my cooking a lot better and I cook it casually, not hard work for me, so there are always food in the freezer. I just get it out, heat, and then serve, less hassle. I save tons of money. I bet the result would be the same for fast and casual foods. People don’t always have to spend money. There are other alternatives.
‘Are you suggesting that the intent is therefor to put lower quality fast food restaurants out of business by making them un-competitive? (How does that help their employees?)’
I don’t think it is the intent, but it might be the effect. When my kids were little, we ate at fast food places once a week or so. Then I figured out it was only a little more to eat at a better quality place. My college kids rarely go to a true fast food place like McD’s or Subway, but might buy sushi at the grocery store deli counter. If a lunch at a NYC McDonalds is (or becomes) $9 or $10 per person, people will probably hit a grocery store or cafe for the same price. Those aren’t fast food, so the wages of the employees haven’t been increased.
Places like Chili’s, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel are advertising lower priced lunch options that are competitively priced with fast food. When I am traveling in the east I like Cracker Barrel. You can get a all vegetable meal with biscuits for 6 or 7 dollars. Olive Garden is now serving sandwiches.
There are only two ways that the fast food places that have to pay $15 an hour will change. The food will become more expensive or the hamburgers, etc. will shrink.
^^Actually, there’s a third way: they close and fire all of their employees. They then sell out/sublet the space to a local fast food owern who doesn’t have 30 other establishments (and who doesn’t have to pay $15/hr.)
Perhaps a "more healthy’ donut shop. 
" Let me assure you that workers in Binghamton making $16/hour today have the luxury of knowing that their homes will be even more worthless in 2021 then they are now. So, where else in the country are there people who can say that? And by 2021 residents of the entire area may be able to experience the toxic plume that homes in Endicott float on because those fumes are free to migrate. It is a free country after all! Living in the city with just about the most intractable poverty in the country is served up with loads of other goodies. Got University? Yes and more!"
But the unemployment rate in Broome County decreased from a high of 9.9% to 5.8%. Did Lockheed Martin have a massive layoff or somebody else?
Some areas of the country can support a $15/hr minimum wage and others cannot. Making this a federal minimum is just plain reckless IMO. These wages should be decided at the local government level, or by trade unions (like they are in most of western Europe).
What a $15 min wage means for some cities.
Very good interview with CEO of Whole Foods. He discusses minimum wage directly and other government mandated costs and the resulting effects on Whole Food employees and structure.
Relevant viewing section re this thread runs from 3:45 to 10:45.
8 people in this country, 8 people, 2 Koch Brothers and 6 Walton family members, have the same wealth as One Hundred and Fifty Million People in this country. 150,000,000 Americans.
So while many posters are concerned about those at the bottom of the wage group making more money, consider an old Wall Street saying. Bulls make money. Bears make money. PIGS get slaughtered!
I find it interesting that Kenneth Langone is now saying income inequality is the country’s biggest problem.
And Langone’s solution is for the GOVERNMENT to subsidize businesses so businesses will pay employees more. Big government is ok as long as it subsidizes businesses. Lol! Google Langone.
Before Milton Friedman said a corporation’s sole allegiance was to its shareholders, a corporation used to have an allegiance to its employees and customers too.
While many of you are congratulating yourselves on your ideas to keep the minimum wage down, remember that a majority of Americans support a higher minimum wage and a majority of Americans support higher taxes on the rich.
Some of you better hope the American oligarchy holds, because if democracy rises, you aren’t going to be happy.
Many Americans support a wealth tax. Wealth isn’t shared… Why wouldn’t most Americans support a wealth tax?
Do you know who once proposed a wealth tax?
Donald Trump.
Be careful what you wish for… Somebody may take a bite out of your @.
Used to be that fast food jobs were meant as first-time jobs for teens, but that day is long gone. Despite what many people observe in their own hometowns, the average age of a fast-food worker is 29:
Data from the CEPR: http://www.cepr.net/blogs/cepr-blog/slow-progress-for-fast-food-workers
The stats are from 2013, but I’m guessing that even if the average age is starting to trend downwards, it’s still nowhere near 20 years old, which was the average age of a fast food worker in 2000. Let’s face it: many fast food workers are adults with children, and many have had at least some college education.
Who cares? (“Don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax the man behind the tree”, i.e., someone else so I can have free stuff.)
The wealthy just don’t pay the tax. And many of them are hypocrites.
Consider Warren B, one of the richest supporters of the wealth tax. He has already setup his foundation so that the vast majority of his wealth passes tax free. He also setup his kids to manage parts – at nice salaries, of course.
My sis works in the estate/trust legal field and just loves all this talk – good for her business and many more wake up and legally park their assists away from the tax man. (if it matters, she’s a big progressive.)
(Full disclosure: personally a big fan of Warren’s investments, since I’ve been a long-time Berkshire shareholder.)
This wealth tax is paid when you are alive.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/12/trump-on-a-wealth-tax-i-think-thats-a-very-conservative-thing/
If a corporation forgets about its customers, it will have a hard time keeping the investors happy; nobody gets paid if the customers go.
And – though sometimes firms are compelled to let people go due to increased cost, diminished sales, or technological advances – a smart company is one that values its employees, invests in their ongoing training, and incentivizes them to be great through a positive company/office culture, production and quality awards, and solid pay and benefits. If I were a CEO or an owner, I’d try very hard to hold onto a good employee… because once that person is gone, you lose time (and time means production…) having to train the replacement. You also lose the personality of that person: maybe he or she helped the office or plant to run smoothly and with minimal (or less) stress, aided in the cohesion of the team, etc.
So – the investors won’t be happy if the customers and employees aren’t. Firms might say the investor is #1, but the main focus must be on the other two groups in order to maximize ROI.
I imagine Friedman had customers’ and employees’ importance in mind when he made that statement.
and – while it is alarming that those 8 people have as much wealth as 150,000,000 other Americans – that will happen in capitalism: when people are relatively free to rise or fall, and keep most of what they earn, you’re going to end up with some very rich people and more who are not-so-rich.
To me, the basic answer is to entice our private sector to create good jobs for those who need one.
In this country, you do not have to be megarich to prosper – but it does help to have a job that fits your age, pays well, offers solid benefits, etc. So many firms have left and we know there are some with ideas who are still on the sidelines. We need to figure out how to bring jobs home and get some of the would-be entrepreneurs into the game to produce additional opportunities for those who are skilled but struggling. That means reducing red tape or making it easier to get around, over or under… IMO. The reason we are arguing over minimum wage is that working age adults who should be working in offices or factories, earning $15+ per hour and good benefits, are having to work at McD’s because no such good jobs are available. That needs to be remedied.
(sorry for the double-post)
And what are the ratios for, oh, say, Soros, Zuckerberg, et al, or is that not a concern for you?
^^There are plenty of rich Reps and Dems alike. Plenty of poor on both sides too. I feel like the politicization (and polarization that results from it…) of class is taking our eye off the ball. We need to be figuring out how to get firms operating here, not arguing over who has more filthy rich or lazy poor…