Chipotle CFO admits $15 minimum wage means higher menu prices, predicts all restaurants would pass cost onto customers



Chipotle chief financial officer Jack Hartung admitted last week they would be forced to raise menu prices if the government mandates a $15 per hour minimum wage.

In fact, Hartung said most restaurants would not absorb the costs of forced increases wages, but pass them onto customers.

What are the details?

While speaking on a quarterly earnings call last Wednesday, Hartung said Chipotle executives would raise menu price to "offset" the costs the restaurant would incur if the federal government forced them to pay each of their nearly 90,000 employees at least $15 per hour.

"We're not that far off of like for example, a $15 number. But let's say, for example, that there's going to be an across-the-board 10% increase in our wages," Hartung said, Business Insider reported. "And that would, to offset that with menu pricing, that would take us 2% to 3% price increase."

Hartung said forced wage increases — amounting to an average of 15% overall — and increased menu prices would be "very manageable."

Business Insider reported, "For customers, this could mean about a 20¢ to 35¢ additional charge per meal, as the average person spends about $11 for a burrito or other meal at Chipotle."

What about other businesses?

Hartung predicted that Chipotle would not be the only restaurant to raise menu prices if the government forces an increased minimum wage.

"We think everybody in the restaurant industry is going to have to pass those costs along to the customer," he said. "We think we're in a much, much better position to do that, than other companies out there."

As Insider reported, Texas Roadhouse and the Cheesecake Factory are examples of two such restaurants that raised menu prices after being impacted by forced wage increases.

Raising menu prices is, at this point, a tried-and-true response to minimum wage regulation for many restaurant chains. Executives at Kura Sushi, The Cheesecake Factory, and Texas Roadhouse all said in recent calls with investors that, when states and cities raised minimum wage, the chains responded by raising menu prices.

"I would say there is a short-term shock," Texas Roadhouse CEO Wayne Taylor told investors in late October. "And then long term, there's an adjustment, both on our side and the guest side."

Democrats promised they would raise the minimum wage once they gained power of the White House and Congress.

They attempted to pass a federal minimum wage hike in President Joe Biden's COVID economic relief bill, but the effort ultimately failed.

Mike Rowe Is Right: A Higher Minimum Wage Takes Away Stepping-Stone Jobs

'Dirty Jobs' and 'Six Degrees' host Mike Rowe is correct about the negative economic and social effects of the minimum wage.

Liberals melt down after Mike Rowe outlines the downside to raising minimum wage



Mike Rowe outlined what could be the downside to raising the minimum wage and liberals online went into meltdown mode in response.

The former "Dirty Jobs" star spoke to Fox Business about the opportunities that might be lost to workers if the minimum wage is raised.

"I want everybody who works hard and plays fair to prosper," Rowe said.

"I want everybody to be able to support themselves. But if you just pull the money out of midair you're going to create other problems, like there is a ladder of success that people climb and some of those jobs that are out there for seven, eight, nine dollars an hour, in my view, they're simply not intended to be careers," he explained.

"They're not intended to be full-time jobs," he added. "They're rungs on a ladder."

Biden has vowed to fight to increase the minimum wage, but an analysis of the Democrats' plan by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that it could lead to the loss of 1.4 million jobs.

Rowe was also concerned that lower wage jobs were opportunities for workers with few skills to gain those skills in order to gain better employment.

"[Those jobs] are ways for people to get experience in the workforce doing a thing that might not necessarily pay you as much as you'd like, but nevertheless serves a real purpose," he added.

"I worry that the path to a skilled trade can be compromised when you offer an artificially high wage for, I hate the expression, but an unskilled job," Rowe explained. "So to me, the brightest line needs to be drawn between skilled and unskilled work. We need to encourage more people to learn a skill that's actually in demand."

Supporters of the minimum wage were angered by Rowe's argument and took to Twitter to excoriate him.

"I come from a family of minimum wage and blue collar workers. I worked minimum wage jobs before and during college to pay the bills after I left the Army. Guys like Mike Rowe are hacks who perform white masculinity and American Exceptionalism' with remarkably uncalloused hands," tweeted Charlotte Clymer, LGBTQ activist.

"Hi, I'm mike Rowe. And today on Dirty Jobs, I'm going to introduce you to some people I don't value nor give two s***s about. Let's have some fun," said Jessica Huseman, a liberal journalist.

"A guy named mike rowe definitely exists. the real him is nothing like the dude who shows up on television to sell trucks, starvation wages and right to work," responded Nathan Bernhardt.

Rowe also addressed the minimum wage debate in 2017 in an appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show.

Here's the latest from Mike Rowe:

'Dirty Jobs' star is back with new show 'Six Degrees of Mike Rowe' www.youtube.com

[H/T: The Daily Wire.]

AOC FAILS The Minimum Wage Debate & Economics!

AOC FAILS The Minimum Wage Debate & Economics!

AOC: Moderates are lucky we're only demanding a ​$15 minimum wage — it should be $24 an hour



Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued on Sunday that opponents of a minimum wage hike ought to be thankful progressives are only demanding a raise to $15 an hour, since the actual minimum wage should be $24, in her estimation.

What are the details?

During an interview with MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan, the progressive lawmaker blasted fellow Democratic lawmakers, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who have come out against the measure, saying, "any person who thinks that a $15 minimum wage is the 'crazy socialist agenda' is living in a dystopian capitalist nightmare."

"We should not prop that up. We should not continue that. People are sleeping in their cars, they can't afford baby formula, there are basic goods that people can't afford" under the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, she continued.

"It is deeply deeply shameful that we are even having this conversation," she added. "Because when you take the minimum wage from several decades ago and you actually account for inflation and productivity gains to today, it should really be $24 an hour.

"So we need other Democrats to understand how deep of a compromise $15 an hour is," she said.

'We Have A Responsibility': AOC On The Fight For $15 Minimum Wage | Mehdi Hasan | MSNBC youtu.be

Later in the interview, Ocasio-Cortez claimed, "In almost every pocket of this country you cannot afford rent if you are making minimum wage. And in America, if you are working a full-time job, you should be able to afford to live."

What else?

The $24 an hour figure that Ocasio-Cortez mentions comes from a study put out last year by the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, which determined that had minimum wage remained in step with productivity gains, as it did from 1938 to 1968, it would now be $24 an hour.

However, it should be noted that those parroting the study aren't telling the whole story. The study uses a relatively small sample size for its basis and projects that onto the future as if there are no other factors involved. Even the study's author, Dean Baker, later acknowledged that raising the minimum wage to $24 was not a good idea.

Nevertheless, after House Democrats tried, but failed, to cram the minimum wage hike into their $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, interest in the study resurfaced. And now, lawmakers like Ocasio-Cortez are throwing the figure out there as a negotiating tactic.

Should a $24 an hour federal minimum wage be implemented, it would mean the minimum annual salary for a full-time worker would be nearly $50,000 a year. Which, according to Ocasio-Cortez, would be just enough to avoid abject poverty and still have a little extra spending money.

Breaking: Democrat effort to hike minimum wage in COVID relief bill dies after ruling from Senate parliamentarian



The effort to include a hike in the federal minimum wage as a part of the COVID-19 relief bill perished on Thursday after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that it could not be included in the legislation.

Democrats have been pushing for the controversial wage hike, while Republicans have warned that it would lead to an increase in unemployment and shuttered businesses.

CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju reported the development based on his sources in the Senate.

"No minimum wage in the budget reconciliation bill, a big loss for Democrats. Parliamentarian says it's not within the Senate rules of reconciliation," reported Raju.

The report said that the wage hike could not be included because it is a "mandate on businesses" as it it currently written.

The ruling will make the passage of the bill more likely since moderate Democrats like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia had voiced their opposition to the bill if it included the wage hike.

While progressives had vehemently denounced Democrats for not supporting the minimum wage hike enough, they also indicated that they would back down if the parliamentarian ruled against it. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that if Democrats had excised it from the bill they would be pressed to vote against it altogether.

"If $15 is not in the package due to parliamentary reasons, that's one consideration and I would be open to voting for the package," said Ocasio-Cortez to CNN.

"If Democrats strip it out, or if they change, fundamentally alter the provision and it's essentially removed for political reasons, that is where, I think, not just myself but a substantial amount of progressives are kind of in a difficult spot," she added.

Other progressives like Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called on Vice President Kamala Harris to disregard the order and include the hike in the bill.

"I'm sorry—an unelected parliamentarian does not get to deprive 32 million Americans the raise they deserve. This is an advisory, not a ruling. VP Harris needs to disregard and rule a $15 minimum wage in order. We were elected to deliver for the people. It's time we do our job," Khanna tweeted.

Here's more on the ruling at the Senate:

Minimum wage increase will not be included in Covid relief billwww.youtube.com