Best Buy just laid off over 2/5ths of their employees (51,000 out of 125,000), with zero notice, amid record revenues and gross profits - a lot of them being enabled by employees working hard to provide curb-side service during COVID.Just weeks ago, Best Buy publicly agreed to a $15 minimum wage for all employees. Workers cheered. Now, the other shoe has dropped.
Incredibly and surprisingly, it seems that companies aren't going to take a reduction in profits in order to keep employees - when wages go up, especially due to outside requirements, then either the costs will be passed directly on to customers, or, when that's not feasible due to competition, then jobs will be eliminated to make up the difference. Cause and effect.
People who support these big minimum wage increases talk about how they're supporting it to help the workers. How did this help the 51,000 now-former Best Buy employees, who are now out of work?But that's not all of it either. Best Buy is also cutting hours for the remaining staff, and transitioning most of their fulfillment to online. That means you might be able to go to a Best Buy store to shop, but you won't be able to buy your item and bring it home today. Instead, you'll have to wait for it to be shipped to you. Why? Because it's now cheaper to automate, using scanners and robots in warehouses to do most of the work, and cutting human staff as much as possible. Over time, you can expect Best Buy's staff to drop to less than 20,000, most stores will close, most sales staff will be gone, and what jobs are still left will be warehouse workers.But, hey, the ones who are left will now make $15/hour, so, I guess that's good for them. I'm sure all the people who have lost jobs, and who will lose jobs in the next year, are happy to have sacrificed their job to make that happen.
$15 Minimum Wage? Best Buy agreed. What happened next?
You do realize that no matter what happens, no decrease or limiting of wages is going to replace a workforce that can work 24/7 with no breaks, no need for healthcare, no need to take vacations, no want or need for a salary increase, etc.
Its like you guys think automation can be combated by keeping people poor. Even accounting clerks, HR coordinators, helpdesk technicians, receptionists, account coordinators, etc. are being replaced by botnets.
These botnets are connected to AI cloud services that are only getting smarter, easier to manage, and easier to deploy. The only drawback so far is that they work too hard. The vendor I use is Automation Anywhere.
1) Raising min wage to $15 means fewer jobs 2) Investing in China robotic companies means fewer jobs 3) Pushing Unions , means fewer jobs 4) Shutting down economy means fewer jobs 5) Allowing every Mexican from Mexico in means fewer jobs 6) Shutting down oil wells, pipe lines, and etc means fewer jobs 7) Pro environmental laws means fewer jobs 8) Trying to frame Trump and ban him from office means fewer jobs 9) Deals with China means fewer jobs.
Anyone realize that a great number of unessential workers who were making minimum wage and laid off are getting unemployment? Sure, most of us know that. But how many know that a great number of these unemployed are not even looking for a job because they make $2400 a month to stay home on by the government? Who wants to go back to an $11 an hour job making $1760 a month gross when they can get $2400 by not working? Even if they raise the minimum to $15 that is still less than $2600 gross a month, which is still worth sitting home for on unemployment. Of course, they are only working 35 hours a week so they don't get benefits. Even more reason to stay home as they don't get Covid, pay for gasoline to get to their job, nor fight the snow like essential workers have to.
Unemployment is finite - you usually only get it for up to a year. For many, even if they're looking for a job, that year will come and go and they'll still be unemployed.
So true! Sad but true.. You'll see more and more of this as companies are forced to pay$15 minimum wage... Like you said it'll cost consumers more and hardworking people that will lose hours and jobs.
You're being very disingenuous with how you're narrating this. You somehow are attributing this massive layoff to the $15 minimum wage, which is an unsubstantiated claim.
Best Buy didn't layoff people because of the minimum wage. They laid off people because the company is trying to restructure itself after seeing how prosperous curbside pickup and online retails have been. There have been murmurs within the company amongst employees and corporate since winter about an inevitable restructuring, that could potentially lay off thousands.
It's quite simple what going on here. Brick and mortar stores' popularity was already waning pre-COVID due to online retailers like Amazon making shopping extremely convenient. COVID has just accelerated the decline of many Brick and mortar stores. There's a reason why most (if not all) of the layoffs have been at stores and not at Best Buy's distribution centers.
Also, Best Buy increased their minimum wage for domestic workers to $15 back in July/August, and they did this on their own volition like many companies are already doing. When you have Amazon, Costco, Starbucks, Walmart, and Target increasing their minimum wages to $13-$15 and Bank of America promising to raise their $17 minimum wage to $20 by 2022 you would be a fool not to join in on this.
It's easy to agree to a minimum wage when you're just going to fire everyone who makes minimum wage anyway. It was more of a PR move. That's the point: increasing the minimum wage is a "feel good" idea that actually hurts a ton of workers - the ones who are already struggling the most.
Engaging in Circular reasoning doesn't make your unsubstantiated claim any more true
Layoffs are not new and companies do them for a variety of reasons. Best Buy did a massive one last year and a couple of years prior to that, before hiring most of them back in the Summer. In this current layoff case, it's because of restructuring plans since Brick and Mortars are not en vouge at the moment.
What's not mentioned with the min wage discussion is the effects it has on the rungs of the ladder at, or just above $15 an hour. A lot of manufacturing pays around $15/hr currently, and most manufacturers run on really slim margins. When the minimum rises to the same thing they're making, all of a sudden there's no point in dealing with the unpredictable schedule that comes with changes in customer orders, and the attention to detail demanded to avoid quality problems. So all of a sudden the kid working at Dairy Queen has to compete against a line of production line workers with 20 years job experience and a good resume'.
Artificially high min wage serves to saw all the rungs off the job ladder below the minimum. Who does that hurt the most? Those who are trying to land their first job in high school, where they have been traditionally at the minimum.
Everything your saying is true. But also, this was coming anyway. Brick and mortar stores are a thing of the past and a terrible business model going forward. Especially considering the massive power grab globally by all governments. These covid lockdowns will never stop “unless citizens stand up”. Business are just adapting there business models and getting ready for how things will work after “The great Reset”. Which we are currently in the middle of, there won’t be anymore small business or actual stores to go to. Everything will be online and it will all Owned by multinational companies and global elites. In ten years we will all be on UBI with just enough money to survive... while licking the boots of political and corporate elites and thanking them for the benevolence in allowing us to survive!!!
I been saying this the past couple years when you get people coming on here saying big business will just pay. They don't understand most decisions are usually in a secret board room where they go over profits and if that margin even slightly moves down they look for ways to cut the costs. Also by increasing the minimum wage for minimum wage jobs, you then make people who work in jobs that pay above minimum wage demanding they get a pay increase as well to support there same living accommodations.
It seems ridiculous to me to move to $15/hour when people are hanging in by their fingers with all the job reductions due to the pandemic. Anyway, the very best workers will be retained and they won’t have to carry less motivated workers so they are getting a big reward. If fulfillment is moving to online then that is good as it is more efficient and needed. They should still keep high volume product in the store with a just in time inventory strategy. It should cut down on shipping costs and make the buying experience better for customers.
In thinking about it, all I have seen from Biden is job losses whether it be pipelines, Best Buy and others. Trump really was the jobs President and pre-COVID the economy was soaring. I wonder if the presidential election was this November who people would vote for this time... I think they would vote for jobs and an economy.
I agree with the few statements you made but I would like to challenge your idea of it being better to move things online.
Have you ever thought how boring life would be if there was nowhere to go and nothing to do because everything is online?
I don't know about you, but as someone who is not a hermit, I prefer the experience of going into a store--especially when shopping for clothes or shoes. I don't want to pay $10-$30 shipping fees or additional shipping fees to send it back when it doesn't fit or is received damaged. On top of that, I have had packages stolen off my door step more than once because the mailman put my package in an unsafe place, or outright stole my package. Moving things online is also worse for the environment as there will be more packaging involved. Our environment is already in a crisis, more packaging just fuels the fire.
@CMC93 The idea is that you go to the store, pick out what you want which provides you a place to go and the fulfills your tactile needs, then pick it up at the store OR for low volume items have it sent to your house since it isn’t carried in the store or... have it shipped to the store perhaps for a small discount and you get to go out again.
The employees they retained--managers and more experienced sales people--were making more than $15 per hour anyway. All minimum wage does is prevent those worth less from getting jobs. If minimum wage worked, it should be $200 per hour and we would all be rich.
Remember the movie, "Back to the Future"? In the 1950's every gas station (called service stations) were full service. In addition to putting gas in your car, your windows were cleaned, you oil checked and, if you wished, your tires checked and fill with air. Air was free; not metered at about $2 for 2 minutes. Teenage boys would work for 25 to 50 cents an hour. They gained a little spending money and work experience. Minimum wage laws put them all out of work. Unions got minimum wage and child labor laws passed to eliminate competition from lower wage workers.
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Well, this certainly is not news to me.
My question is, if robots take over people's minimum wage jobs, which is completely insane to begin with, does that mean going forward they will support more people on welfare? How else are these people going to provide for their families?
The people who will support more people on welfare are the people who still have jobs - the ones whose taxes will have to be raised to pay for those who don't have jobs. Yet another "unintended consequence."
The government doesn't make or create money - workers and business owners do. The government gets its money from taxes and fees - i. e., money taken from workers. We taxpayers pay for everything the government spends on.
So for people who still have jobs and are paying for those on welfare then they will have to get a raise to maintain their former income because more is being taken out of their checks. As it is it takes 2 incomes to be able to have housing. In the area where I live it sometimes takes 3 related families living in a house to make ends meet. They have cars lined up on the curb the whole street in the evenings and sometimes people can't park in front of their own house for lack of parking on the street and they park in their yards. It's ridiculous!
More robots = better jobs and more people free to provide more value to society. The problem I have with the minimum wage is that we don't enforce it on international trade. We should have large tariffs or embargoes on products made without paying workers our minimum wage.
It will be a snowball effect. Their entire company is doomed. Less staff means less customer service meaning less customer satisfaction meaning customers go elsewhere meaning more staffing cuts and store closures meaning even less business overall meaning eventually they file for bankruptcy and go out of business.
yep, makes it much hard for small businesses to hire and not every full time employee is worth 30K. So three full time employees cost over 160K, you need to pay unemployment insurance, half of the Social Security payments, vacation days, possibly health care.
Typically an increase in minimum wage results in a small amount of people being laid off. As for an increase in prices a 10% increase in minimum wage corresponds to a 0.4% increase in overall prices. Besides when unemployment and minimum wage are almost identical, we need to increase minimum wage. Eventually people will choose unemployment. We should have increased it in 2016.
Best Buy did NOT agree to anything, the law was changed, they have no choice. They MUST pay $15 an hour, NO choice... so they had to cut the number of employees to maintain profits... totally fair. And everyone was warned that it would happen.
Was the wage increase not something to do with Medicare card or something I live in Scotland and just heard something briefly on the news about it relating to this and wage increase? Am I right in saying?
I can not think of a faster way to eliminate jobs and force employers to push automation. Very very few inexperienced people are worth this as a starting wage. It would take a politician as stupid as Biden to even think of such a move.
Yep! Prices go up, or jobs get cut, and "Automated"! Big money guys aren't going to lose profits to pay for, or give a FCK about the low-wage, almost "Slaves" that create those HUGE bonuses and profits!!!
The employer will always reach for the minimum personnel needed. That's how it's always been. We have done this before with dozens of farm hands that turned into one person in truck. Holding onto the past is what's holding us back.
So my guess is the government shouldn't give businesses tax breaks like they have been. The idea was to hire people but that's mutually exclusive to a profit motivation. Next use that revenue in schooling and trade apprenticeship.
There is no excuse to not keep minimum wage up with inflation. This is just a manipulation tactic by the corporate oligarchs to convince you that you don't deserve to be paid a living wage for a full-time job.
Minimum wage jobs are designed for entry-level workers, who are expected to increase their skills and move up the wage scale by increasing their value to the company. These jobs are NOT intended to live off of.
Increasing the minimum wage removes jobs, and increases inflation, so that people's spending power is reduced. Anyone on a fixed income then has less buying power. Anyone with a small business is less able to compete with larger ones. Big businesses can adjust through automation, reducing more jobs. This is only one example.
Nah man, if you work full time you're giving 40+ hours of your life away per week. If that isn't enough to sustain one person then that is a wage slave job.
Back in the day a guy could have just one factory job with no college education required and provide for a full family with the picket fence, dog, kids, everything.
And now these cocksucking oligarchs want us to believe that it's okay for places like Walmart to not pay their employees a livable wage and instead pimp out government assistance programs right in their break room because Walmart *KNOWS* they aren't paying their employees enough.
They want us to accept that one man can't provide for a family anymore, that it takes both parents working themselves to death, sometimes having multiple jobs each to provide for a family.
People entering a minimum wage job today are not paid the same value that people were in the past. The economy in the past did just fine when it paid its workers properly.
This corporate oligarchy needs the fucking go. Were the only first world country without Healthcare and I think one of the only first world country says not reimbursing its citizens properly for shutting down during COVID.
The United Kingdom will pay you 85% of your income if their locked down puts you out of work.
Again, it's your individual responsibility to increase your value to the people or company you are working for. The vast majority of people make more than the minimum wage because they increase their value in various ways - they become more skilled, they become better educated, they gain more experience, they build a track record, etc.
You're pretending that someone is going to spend their whole working career making minimum wage. That's nearly unheard of, but I suppose it's possible. Most people making minimum wage are new workers, often working their first or second job ever. Some are immigrants working these jobs as they learn the language and increase their skills. But few spend more than a year or two at minimum wage - they build their value and they either get a raise or they leave for more lucrative work.
But how do people who have never had a job get work experience if they are priced out of the market? Or, how do people who are "retired" and on a fixed income, but who need supplemental income (WalMart greeters, for example), make that money if their jobs are eliminated?
I'm not sure why you're lumping the $15.00 minimum wage that hasn't happened yet, to the Covid layoffs. Last time I was in Best Buy, they didn't have hardly anything for sale. They had demos on the shelves, but they weren't for sale. The best thing they could do for you, is try and order what you want. I could have done that from home.
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