Actually, No Such Reality, my statements are based entirely on facts. For example…
Labor is equal to about 30% of revenues at a typical family restaurant. I am drawing this data from the latest 10-Q from Ruby Tuesday. I don’t have the data for California Pizza Kitchen (their pizza blows, by the way), but I’m willing to bet it’s similar. If these guys make a 15% OP margin, then labor is actually closer to 40% of costs, on average. To me, that’s material.
And the latest data I have, from the 2003-4 school year, show that median spending per pupil is about $6,800 per year in CA. In districts that serve a relatively high proportion of migrant labor (legal and illegal alike), the median is closer to $4,000 per student. I am pulling this data from some RAND Corp reports that are available via subscription.
Me? I couldn’t care less whether my occasional night out costs $60 or $65. The point I am trying to make is that draining the workforce of an enormous pool of cheap labor will inevitably lead to significant wage inflation. That’s fine with me.
But my own experience has been that the very people who whine about rising costs are the same ones who whine about the presence of illegal labor in this state. They are ultimately related and it’s tough to have one without the other.
