General Minimum Wage Increase strategies by Tim Horton's founders heirs igniting viral argument on social me

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Banchan

The Most Dangerous Dame
Oct 2, 2017
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The heirs of the original founders of the Tim Horton's franchise reducing benefit coverage, paid breaks and off days to absorb costs of the minimum wage hike of $2.40 causing uproar on social media about the wealthy business owners being greedy.

Ontario's premier

"When I read the reports about Ron Joyce, Jr., who is a man whose family founded Tim Hortons, the chain was sold for billions of dollars, and when I read how he was treating his employees, it just felt to me like this was a pretty clear act of bullying," she said.

I'd be happy if this man were making a statement about the government or about the policy," she said. "What I think is really unfair, and where I think the bullying comes in, is that he's taking this out on his employees. He's behaving in a way that I think is so unfair to his employees, people who are trying to make ends meet."

'Clear act of bullying': Wynne slams Tim Hortons franchise owners for cutting staff benefits - Article - BNN

The situation is a bit complicated by the fact that Tim Horton's is a francise and the stores must charge certain amounts for their products and can't raise prices on their own. The head office has no plans to raise prices to offset the minimum wage increase and franchsees say they're being squeezed.

It's a bold move by these particular franchsees because they are the children of the original founders who sold the franchise business for billions of dollars making these particular franchsees heirs to a billionaire dollar fortune. The backlash is in part that these are super wealthy people squeezing poor people to offset the minimum wage. Maybe they did it because they could live with the dip in business from people boycotting their stores and the money isn't that big of a deal to these particular franchsees who chose to make a statement instead. Who is right or wrong here?
 

jason73

Auslander Raus
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im pretty sure owning a tim hortons is a licence to print money
 

Yossarian

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Oct 25, 2015
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Raising minimum wage makes sure we get less benefits, less full-time jobs, etc. A business will decide it's own bottom line, the profit will come from somehwere.
 

Banchan

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Raising minimum wage makes sure we get less benefits, less full-time jobs, etc. A business will decide it's own bottom line, the profit will come from somehwere.
Please watch the video in the link. What do you think about what the guest says disputing that ?
 

Banchan

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I have never heard of this place before reading this thread and the nearest one is thousands of miles from me, so fuck em.
Would you boycott any large franchise that decided to offset minimum wage increases by reducing employee benefits such as paid breaks, medical and dental?
 

RaginCajun

The Reigning Undisputed Monsters Tournament Champ
Oct 25, 2015
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Would you boycott any large franchise that decided to offset minimum wage increases by reducing employee benefits such as paid breaks, medical and dental?
Would you expect the head people to make %1 less so the lower tier workers can make a little more. Of course not. Only the rich should get raises because how else are they gonna pay to sexuality harass people.
 

Banchan

The Most Dangerous Dame
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Would you expect the head people to make %1 less so the lower tier workers can make a little more. Of course not. Only the rich should get raises because how else are they gonna pay to sexuality harass people.
I assume you agree that the owners look greedy?
 

Yossarian

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Oct 25, 2015
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Please watch the video in the link. What do you think about what the guest says disputing that ?
Did not watch the video, but this is the reality of minimum wage going up. This is how we got people working two jobs now making less now than they did previously with minimum wage down. There's aneed for minimum wage, I understand, but there's only so much a boss is willing to pay his workers for a certain task. That is decided by market mostly, and government should stay out of it as much as possible.
 

RaginCajun

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I assume you agree that the owners look greedy?
I don't pretend to know all the details or finance involved but I cannot understand the mindset of a billionaire who has more money than they can ever spend causing harm to another person for a few dollars more. Those benefits mean nothing to the owners but are huge to the people it effects.
 

Banchan

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Did not watch the video, but this is the reality of minimum wage going up. This is how we got people working two jobs now making less now than they did previously with minimum wage down. There's aneed for minimum wage, I understand, but there's only so much a boss is willing to pay his workers for a certain task. That is decided by market mostly, and government should stay out of it as much as possible.
Well maybe you should watch because it completely disputes everything you're saying
 

HEATH VON DOOM

Remember the 5th of November
Oct 21, 2015
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I assume you agree that the owners look greedy?
Is what the owners are doing illegal? Its called cause and effect. The lawmakers were told what would happen and chose to only see one side. Good thing is there will be more people sucking off the government teat and voting liberal now.
 

Leigh

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Well maybe you should watch because it completely disputes everything you're saying
I just watched it. The points this woman is making aren't relevant to the discussion. She's talking averages, which isn't relevant to a specific example. By that, I mean you can't say that on average businesses are increasing their profits, therefore Tim Hortons should pay its employees more.

Stating that employment rises following minimum wage increases is even less relevant. Correlation is not causation.
 
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jason73

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this same group of owners has been suing tim hortons for the last couple years over the inability to set their own prices
 

Greenbean

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I don't pretend to know all the details or finance involved but I cannot understand the mindset of a billionaire who has more money than they can ever spend causing harm to another person for a few dollars more. Those benefits mean nothing to the owners but are huge to the people it effects.
The billionaire didn’t become a billionaire by running a franchise restaurant. They became billionaires by selling the chain and it looks like they held on to a couple restaurants to still be part of it. Likely their franchise is netting them less than $100,000.

Also, where it says

“I'd be happy if this man were making a statement about the government or about the policy," she said. "What I think is really unfair, and where I think the bullying comes in, is that he's taking this out on his employees. He's behaving in a way that I think is so unfair to his employees, people who are trying to make ends meet."

I believe that he is sending a message to government with these actions. Sucks that the employees are caught in the middle and they’re the ones paying for the message to be sent. However, min wage increase will probably hurt the company more than the bad PR of this move.

Who is going to want to buy into a franchise that was once capable of netting $100,000 that will now only net $45,000 annually? The company will probably stop growing if potential franchisees are no longer interested.

Here’s the payroll math. Say it takes on average 4 employees to run a store (busy hours there will be more and slow hours will be less, but on average 4). Hortons is open 16 hrs a day. For 1 employee to be there for 16 hrs, it will cost an extra $38.40 a day. For 4 employees you simply multiply that by 4. That’s $153.60 per day extra to keep the doors open. That’s $1,075.20 per week. Since there are 52 weeks in a year that’s $55,910.40 in additional payroll per year. Now depending on how much a franchisee typically takes home at the end of the year, that could very well be cutting ones salary (salary assuming they are a hands on operator and not absentee owned) in half.

The median franchise owner salary is $82,033 (per An Investigative Report on Franchise Profits (According to a report on food franchising by Franchise Business Review, 51.5 percent of food franchises earn profits of less than $50,000 a year; roughly 7 percent top $250,000, with the average profit for all restaurants coming in at $82,033. That doesn't sound too bad, until you factor in the initial investment. Though some basic restaurant concepts cost less than $100,000 to open, many established brands require as much as $500,000 to start. And a full-service restaurant may require an initial investment of $1 million or more.)) so netting $100,000 as my initial assumption is probably not unreasonable.

Anyway, that is a long drawn out reason why investors and potential franchisees will take their money elsewhere. Smart people with lots of money don’t simply say aw shucks, Tim Horton is no longer a good investment but I like their coffee so I’m still all in. No, what’s more likely to happen is that franchise package they’ve been going over will get tossed in the garbage and they will adapt their investment strategy to something more lucrative and worthwhile. Money is all around us and Tim Horton is not the end all be all opportunity.
 

RaginCajun

The Reigning Undisputed Monsters Tournament Champ
Oct 25, 2015
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The billionaire didn’t become a billionaire by running a franchise restaurant. They became billionaires by selling the chain and it looks like they held on to a couple restaurants to still be part of it. Likely their franchise is netting them less than $100,000.

Also, where it says

“I'd be happy if this man were making a statement about the government or about the policy," she said. "What I think is really unfair, and where I think the bullying comes in, is that he's taking this out on his employees. He's behaving in a way that I think is so unfair to his employees, people who are trying to make ends meet."

I believe that he is sending a message to government with these actions. Sucks that the employees are caught in the middle and they’re the ones paying for the message to be sent. However, min wage increase will probably hurt the company more than the bad PR of this move.

Who is going to want to buy into a franchise that was once capable of netting $100,000 that will now only net $45,000 annually? The company will probably stop growing if potential franchisees are no longer interested.

Here’s the payroll math. Say it takes on average 4 employees to run a store (busy hours there will be more and slow hours will be less, but on average 4). Hortons is open 16 hrs a day. For 1 employee to be there for 16 hrs, it will cost an extra $38.40 a day. For 4 employees you simply multiply that by 4. That’s $153.60 per day extra to keep the doors open. That’s $1,075.20 per week. Since there are 52 weeks in a year that’s $55,910.40 in additional payroll per year. Now depending on how much a franchisee typically takes home at the end of the year, that could very well be cutting ones salary (salary assuming they are a hands on operator and not absentee owned) in half.

The median franchise owner salary is $82,033 (per An Investigative Report on Franchise Profits (According to a report on food franchising by Franchise Business Review, 51.5 percent of food franchises earn profits of less than $50,000 a year; roughly 7 percent top $250,000, with the average profit for all restaurants coming in at $82,033. That doesn't sound too bad, until you factor in the initial investment. Though some basic restaurant concepts cost less than $100,000 to open, many established brands require as much as $500,000 to start. And a full-service restaurant may require an initial investment of $1 million or more.)) so netting $100,000 as my initial assumption is probably not unreasonable.

Anyway, that is a long drawn out reason why investors and potential franchisees will take their money elsewhere. Smart people with lots of money don’t simply say aw shucks, Tim Horton is no longer a good investment but I like their coffee so I’m still all in. No, what’s more likely to happen is that franchise package they’ve been going over will get tossed in the garbage and they will adapt their investment strategy to something more lucrative and worthwhile. Money is all around us and Tim Horton is not the end all be all opportunity.
Don't try to muddy the water with facts and details. Just tell me what to think damn it.:D
 

Banchan

The Most Dangerous Dame
Oct 2, 2017
4,515
2,901
Is what the owners are doing illegal? Its called cause and effect. The lawmakers were told what would happen and chose to only see one side. Good thing is there will be more people sucking off the government teat and voting liberal now.
100 percent legal. They were not under any obligation for the benefits they are cutting.
The billionaire didn’t become a billionaire by running a franchise restaurant. They became billionaires by selling the chain and it looks like they held on to a couple restaurants to still be part of it. Likely their franchise is netting them less than $100,000.

Also, where it says

“I'd be happy if this man were making a statement about the government or about the policy," she said. "What I think is really unfair, and where I think the bullying comes in, is that he's taking this out on his employees. He's behaving in a way that I think is so unfair to his employees, people who are trying to make ends meet."

I believe that he is sending a message to government with these actions. Sucks that the employees are caught in the middle and they’re the ones paying for the message to be sent. However, min wage increase will probably hurt the company more than the bad PR of this move.

Who is going to want to buy into a franchise that was once capable of netting $100,000 that will now only net $45,000 annually? The company will probably stop growing if potential franchisees are no longer interested.

Here’s the payroll math. Say it takes on average 4 employees to run a store (busy hours there will be more and slow hours will be less, but on average 4). Hortons is open 16 hrs a day. For 1 employee to be there for 16 hrs, it will cost an extra $38.40 a day. For 4 employees you simply multiply that by 4. That’s $153.60 per day extra to keep the doors open. That’s $1,075.20 per week. Since there are 52 weeks in a year that’s $55,910.40 in additional payroll per year. Now depending on how much a franchisee typically takes home at the end of the year, that could very well be cutting ones salary (salary assuming they are a hands on operator and not absentee owned) in half.

The median franchise owner salary is $82,033 (per An Investigative Report on Franchise Profits (According to a report on food franchising by Franchise Business Review, 51.5 percent of food franchises earn profits of less than $50,000 a year; roughly 7 percent top $250,000, with the average profit for all restaurants coming in at $82,033. That doesn't sound too bad, until you factor in the initial investment. Though some basic restaurant concepts cost less than $100,000 to open, many established brands require as much as $500,000 to start. And a full-service restaurant may require an initial investment of $1 million or more.)) so netting $100,000 as my initial assumption is probably not unreasonable.

Anyway, that is a long drawn out reason why investors and potential franchisees will take their money elsewhere. Smart people with lots of money don’t simply say aw shucks, Tim Horton is no longer a good investment but I like their coffee so I’m still all in. No, what’s more likely to happen is that franchise package they’ve been going over will get tossed in the garbage and they will adapt their investment strategy to something more lucrative and worthwhile. Money is all around us and Tim Horton is not the end all be all opportunity.
A busy franchise is a million dollar venture. Even one doing average should be 500,000 and a poorly one 250, 000.