Like many other things the Left likes to describe with inappropriate words, they call ‘forced extra pay’ to people they don’t have to pay themselves as ‘hero’ pay. It implies that those working in their city are heroes for being in the workforce. Many people were able to remain in the workforce, so it sounds like everyone is a hero. This is why I say they use deception to force others to comply.
“The mandate will add an additional $20 million in operating costs over the next 120 days, making it financially unsustainable to continue operating underperforming locations,” Kroger said in a news release. “The Los Angeles City Council disregarded their own Economic Impact Report by not considering that grocery stores – even in a pandemic – operate on razor-thin profit margins in a very competitive landscape.”
Much like community organizers, city council members apparently have no idea how much it costs to run a business nor how much people actually earn in a wages plus benefits. When someone earns $10 an hour, it doesn’t end there. The cost to provide benefits is huge and even though the employee doesn’t see that money, it is still spent on their behalf.
If employees had to spend their own money on those same benefits, they would fully understand exactly how much things cost. Much like the reason the government wants taxes to come out of a person’s paycheck on the front end, so citizens never see their actual money earned, they also don’t want them buying their own insurance. If everyone paid taxes at the end of the year or bought medical insurance on their own, there would be more riots across the country than anyone can imagine.
Kroger, the country’s largest grocery chain, says the hourly wage for a Ralph’s or Food 4 Less employee is $18 on average and comes out to $24 an hour when benefits are factored in. The company says they have invested $2.5 billion in rewards to associates who work during the pandemic, securing pensions and implementing safety measures.
If you asked employees if they would prefer to receive $18 an hour and have a company pay for all benefits VS. getting $24 an hour and no benefits, many would opt for $24 an hour. Instead, the company is incentivized (and often required) to buy and provide the benefits for the employee. Thus, they get $18 an hour.
When the city council comes along and tells a company they must now ‘temporarily’ pay their employees an additional $4 or $5 an hour as ‘hero’ pay, they are telling that company to go out of business. They assume, incorrectly, that the company can suck it up for a period of time and do this out of the kindness of their hearts, giving it all away.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, who supported the pay hike, slammed Kroger for closing the locations.
“The Kroger corporation is closing two markets in Long Beach because our city is requiring temporary hero’s pay for grocery workers during this pandemic,” Garcia tweeted. “Grocers are making record profits. We go to court this month, and we will defend the workers vigorously.”
Yet another mayor of a city that knows nothing about their city nor the businesses that exist there. They had to close locations because they were being regulated out of existence in that city.
And there is no way in the world that the hero’s pay would be temporary! If other businesses did as they were told and gave their employees an additional $5 an hour, what are the odds those employees will demand that it continue?
It’s brilliant, buy votes with someone else’s money