California raises its minimum wage to $20

[CF DolFan]

He wrote that on a Sunday.  That would be my guess.

Gotcha, thanks. I didn't even look at the date and assumed it was yesterday and had something to do with the eclipse.

[Dave Gray]

I don't know what Chik Fil A does, but it's definitely a better experience with ordering than other comparable fast food places.

Not in the same category, but I do like when places have screen ordering, especially in cases where there's a lot of mini-decisions, like having a sandwich or a pizza made.  Wawa does this and it makes getting a sandwich pretty nice.

[SCFinfan]

I don't have any feelings this way or that on the CA FFW minimum wage raise to $20ph. I think it's fine though somewhat hilariously political in the sense that, initially, Gav's friend Greg Flynn was going to dodge it thru political chicanery. (That was remedied through public outcry though, ostensibly.)

However, I can tell you my experience with something that happened at the law office that I run. It used to be that my employees were paid a set wage, and then, depending on the firm's numbers, would receive several bonuses throughout the year. These bonuses were substantial, with the highest amount of bonuses ever received by one employee in one year being 42.5k.

However, the taxes on them were extremely onerous. Because they're considered "unearned" under our tax structure (and here I mean the federal structure, not so much South Carolina's, which is barely a tax structure at all) they were taxed usuriously. Given the progressive structure of federal taxes, the math seemed better for my people (though more risky for the firm) to just repackage their bonuses as part of their regular salary. A vote was taken (though I had more or less already made up my mind to do it) and we all decided to do it.

Our bi-monthly payroll cost went up SUBSTANTIALLY. Our payrolls, when tax was factored in, used to come in at about 26.7k per payroll. With the raises, it's now 33.8k. (Entire firm is 9 people.) However, I've noticed some really good effects as well. The employees seem happier to come to work. As a result the productivity has climbed. We are 74k ahead of where we were this time last year (my firm does flat fees so that's not based on "luck" as it would be if it were a firm that did contingency fee agreements) and abuse of the company cards (every employee has a firm Amex that I monitor) has decreased by about 85%. It was never that bad to begin with, but it's been substantially cut down. In addition, because the agreement was to factor in 75% of the bonuses of last year as their raise this year, (this was to be cautious in the initial stage of this raise) it appears as though the profit margin will be HIGHER this year, despite the highly increased wages.

Now, given the kind of business my place is, I can say that in a white collar profession, the raise of the minimum wage, at least when done voluntarily, has only had good effects thus far. However, I am not sure as to what will happen in CA with some of the fast food workers. Those business's profit margins are much lower than ours, and they have the additional cost of inventory, which my business, being a service business, does not have.

I wish the people in that state the best. I hope it works out, but the lack of voluntariness does concern me a bit.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^^ That is not how the tax code works. If you receive a salary of $1000 per week or receive $500 per week and $26,000 per year bonus you will owe the exact same federal income tax.  However, what will vary significantly will be the amount of withholding, as the week you get the $26,500 check your withholding will be based on that being your weekly wage.  But you will get some of that back as a tax refund.

But good for you for recognizing that paying employees fairly leads to better results for the business.

[Spider-Dan]

Yeah, I've noticed people at my job complaining about "being taxed dramatically more if you work overtime" and I have had to explain to them that taxes don't work like that.  It just means you'll get more back (or owe less) when you file your taxes.

My first job was commissioned retail sales at a now-defunct West Coast electronics chain.  The salespeople would get huge checks for November and December - about 1/3rd of their yearly income - but the withholding would be massive.  But they'd be getting most of that withholding back a month later when they did their taxes.