Pot meet Kettle - minimum wage
From
Watchdog:
On minimum wage issue, Vermonters must choose between Ben & Jerry or Vermont�s grocers
The decision on whether to hike Vermont�s minimum wages may come down to whom lawmakers trust the most: hometown heroes Ben and Jerry, or Vermont�s grocers.
At a recent gathering at the Capitol, Ben & Jerry�s co-founder Ben Cohen endorsed H.552, which would raise Vermont�s minimum wage from $8.73 to $12.50.
Nice folksy people selling Ice Cream -- c'mon, who doesn't like Ice Cream.
Ben and Jerry versus the evil one percent. The capitalists.
Now, let's hear from an eeeevil corporation:
Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Grocers� Association, echoed those claims in comments made to Watchdog.
�Labor is the largest single cost in the retail business, and there�s no magic,� Harrison said. �Food margins are very slim � they�re in the neighborhood of 1 percent to 1.5 percent after all expenses, and the only way to get that money back is either not give raises or benefits that you do to your full-time employees, or cut jobs or hours, or increase prices. None of those scenarios is very attractive.�
I own a small rural grocery store and labor is my highest expense.
Now, let us follow the
ice cream Money:
As a leader in corporate social responsibility over the years, Ben & Jerry�s has led by example. The company offers full-time workers a starting wage of $16.13 an hour. However, relative to the grocery, retail, and restaurant industries, the ice cream business has few low-wage employees, making even a steep minimum wage hike of no real impact on costs.
They run a largely automated factory with a couple highly trained operators and corporate management.
A look at how the minimum wage would affect Ben & Jerry�s scoop shops is revealing.
In a written statement to Watchdog, Sean Greenwood, director of public relations at Ben & Jerry�s, said that the company �starts its non-full-time scoopers at $9.73 � and pays full-time scoopers � those who work approximately 40 hours per week � a livable wage of $16.13.�
How many full-time scoopers work for Ben & Jerry�s in Vermont?
The company owns just three scoop shops in Vermont. In calls made to Ben & Jerry�s parlors across the state, Watchdog learned that one scoop shop in Burlington has about a dozen scoopers � one works full time and thus is eligible for the $16.13 livable wage. The Rutland store has just five scoopers � only one works full time.
Unlike the situation at Ben & Jerry�s, businesses with hundreds of low-wage workers could experience significant costs from a wage hike.
So Ben and Jerry's is a perfect example of the one percent. A crony capitalist. They donate money to progressive politicians and in return, receive tax loopholes and legislation that would bar any new company from coming up to compete with them.
Don't forget that Ben and Jerry's sold out to English and Dutch mega-corporation Unilever back in 2000. Talk about being
Tha Man.
Posted by DaveH at March 30, 2014 8:21 PM