Impact of Higher Minimum Wages on Mystery Shopping

The big news (in my mind) yesterday was the increase in the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 per hour. One of the articles I read showed other cities with comparable minimum wages including San Francisco and Washington, DC. Apparently the entire State of New York is close to matching that. So, for those of you in cities where the minimum wage has gone up recently, has that impacted mystery shopping fees? In my mind, this starts to reset my thought processes around what I need to net per hour. Remember, if you are working for minimum wage, you are getting at least minimal benefits such as unemployment coverage, disability, workmen's compensation, SS, and more. As ICs, we get none of that.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

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From my point of view as a mystery shopper I would say you need to find the state with the lowest minimum wage, not the highest, and then use that to figure out how the msc decide to pay fees. I have been trying to convince one of the companies that they should increase the reimbursement for the pizza shop as it comes up $3 short of the cost for their shop in Los Angeles and there is no fee. I never do it without a bonus. So in my view..when H... freezes over they will raise their fees.

I'll take working for myself part-time over working in a McDonald's for minimum wage. I think the employees work very hard in those kitchens and now their bosses will make them work even harder for the higher minimum wage, so they can squeeze more productivity out of them.

The Seattle area has the $15 minimum wage and everyone has been forced to listen to bosses whine, piss and moan about having to share the wealth. I sympathize with the small business owners but with apartment rents in the $1800 - $2600 range even minimum wage is next to nothing. I'm hoping MSC's and their clients realize they are falling
behind in the fee arena and also realize they get what they pay for.

IMHO, the clients never invisioned mystery shopping as a person's full time resource for income. It is considered supplemental income. The shops are meant to be carried out by regular clients. The shopper pool, through the MSCs, should come from people that are local. This supports the fee structure, in most cases.

Long distance routes came about, mostly, due to lack of shopper resources in more remote areas. This is why so many shoppers get confused as to why MSCs do not consider mileage traveled a factor. They need more shoppers to meet client expectations, not ways to pay the existing pool higher fees. In some areas higher fees will be the only answer, I'd assume as bonuses, as the locations in higher populated areas are well shopped as currently paid.

When a MSC or client hears about shoppers wanting higher pay, their first response will always be to expand their shopper base. They will quietly assess the pay/fee structure.

My posts are solely based on my opinions and for my entertainment, contact a professional if you need real advice.

When you get in debt you become a slave. - Andrew Jackson

Isaiah,
The documented failure rate for most low paid shops is well, well above 50%. You can bet that many MSCs would rather have fewer shoppers of proven reliability. That's why less than 10% of shoppers do about 90% of shops paying above $15. What may happen with higher minimum wages is that fewer low wage workers will be compelled to take a second, or third, job, including doing MS on the side, just to make ends meet. In my metro area you can see the patterns of workers coming home by bus from second, part time jobs late at night (but not as late as getting off of a second full shift) and heavy commuting at traditionally low traffic parts of the day. The Metro transit authority is actually having to revise and expand bus service because of all of these new patterns.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

Seriously, $15 an hour? My husband makes only $3 more than that an hour as a skilled worker in Indiana.

there is no law that says people can't share an apartment...if you don't have the ability to get a skilled labor/professional job and a better income...you get roommates...and don't have kids you can't afford.... and get a second job if necessary.....even if the cheapest minimally safe 2 bedroom apartment is $2000/month....4 people share it each paying $500/month..

its not right to force businesses to pay $15/hour minimum....

not to mention...there is a possibility it will eliminate jobs altogether as businesses will hire less to make up for the expense...and service will be slower because of less employees, etc

As prices continue to rise for everything from gas to food to dry cleaning, it is reasonable to expect some percentage of the increased prices to trickle down to the workers making the business owner money in the first place. That includes mystery shopping and fast food workers. I personally don't buy the claim employment will be reduced. I think it's just another little boy crying wolf.

Presumably, skilled labor rates would go up also, not only in Los Angeles but throughout California and in Indiana as well. Otherwise, even more people will be moving to California. Look what happened to wages in North Dakota due to the oil boom. And to some extent in Pennsylvania due to oil shale. People have been predicting doom and gloom since the very first Federal minimum wage was set in 1938.

@wozswoman wrote:

Seriously, $15 an hour? My husband makes only $3 more than that an hour as a skilled worker in Indiana.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Minimum wage jobs are not suppose to be life time jobs only entry level. Some unskilled workers think they need the same pay as skilled personnel. If they want to make the big bucks they need to get the education and work hard at what you are doing. My preaching for the day.

The minimum wage will increase from $9 to $15 over the course of five years, not all at once. This will have minimal impact on business models like 5 Guys and In-N-Out, who already voluntarily pay more than minimum wage, and are able to make a good profit. Many businesses will have a harder time passing on the costs.

Here the larger employers have less time to implement the minimum wage than the smaller employers. Wonder how this wll affect mystery shopping companies ...

Some workers are simply not worth $15 per hour. Most of those that are worth it are already earning $15 plus because they work harder, are more reliable, more dependable, more trustworthy, continue their education and prove they deserve a higher rate of pay.

The answer to poverty is not a higher mandated minimum wage. The answer is earning and deserving a higher wage.

And I think it will have absolutely no effect on what I do as a shopper.

Just my opinion.

In the mean time, i am still seeing some MSC cut fees.

One MSC that does new home shops recently cut fees from $35 to $28
Intellipshop car fees continue to go down. The german brand is now down $20 a shop form $35 a couple years ago and $25 earlier this year.
I see some cell phone shops down to $9 now from $11 end of last year

Just let the cell phone shops sit on the boards at $9. Not worth doing.

Although we have to calculate and keep better track our taxes our lower due to what we can write off. With that said $15 an hour is really only $12 an hour for those minimal wage workers. And they have set schedules and can't decide when or how much they want to work like oh 10 hours this week 30 hours next week and 20 the week after. I can work 2 weeks on really hard and 2 weeks off if I wanted.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

American workers are some of the most productive workers on Earth. Economic analyses show that if minimum wage reflected this productivity then the minimum wage would be $20+ an hour. But no, because of the childlike sensibilities of the American people, they continue to work like slaves and get a pittance. We have useless wars, rising poverty, mass immigration and psychopathic banks eating up all the wealth of the country. Like good little serfs Americans go along with it.

Bottom line: YES the minimum wage should be higher and YES fees for MSing should be higher. The fees start low because MS companies do a sort of "reverse auction" to minimize payouts. Figure out your expenses and make sure fees more than cover them.

One last thing...has anyone noticed that there are a lot of lower-wage establishments hiring right now (e.g. fast food places, drug stores, etc.)?

Riki - You are correct about this being a sort of reverse auction. We as mystery shoppers don't actually bid the prices down, but some MSCs recognize that if someone takes a shop for $7 in February, that they should offer $6 in March, and if it gets taken, $5 in April. Some take longer to adjust, but the fees generally keep dropping. The shops with bonuses attached are probably a small fraction of all shops. Why should they raise fees if the shops get taken.

My intial question was around my thought that the MSCs will be competing against higher wages in the future. I might look at shops today and say, "better than minimum wage and a lot more fun," but in the future, the dollar threshold will rise. Presumably the cost of FF is going to go up, so the reimbursements for those will rise. The cynics will add, "and the fees will go down to keep the totals the same," and to some extent that may be true because people will say, "look at the value I am getting from my free meal."

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@figs4me wrote:

The minimum wage will increase from $9 to $15 over the course of five years, not all at once. This will have minimal impact on business models like 5 Guys and In-N-Out, who already voluntarily pay more than minimum wage, and are able to make a good profit. Many businesses will have a harder time passing on the costs.

Any business that only pays the bare minimum wage to it's employees(other than when in training) should expect the bare minimum work and effort by it's employees!

You know? I TRULY don't get why nobody GETS this. Prices don't just "rise" by themselves. If a business owner is forced to pay higher wages, his social security payments rise, his workman's comp payments rise, and his contribution to unemployment rise. He has NO RECOURSE but to raise his prices for goods or services renedered. GET REAL, folks! Raising wages results in higher prices for everyone, including the workers, who are not really getting raises when their buying power goes down. Are you really so dense as to not understand that?
Sheesh..

Or their bosses will replace cashiers and other staff with computers or make the cooking process automated. I have been to Panera bread and they have a self check out, so the cashier position is not really needed. If anyone needs a treat or bread the cook can give it to them with the order.

@jilummer wrote:

I'll take working for myself part-time over working in a McDonald's for minimum wage. I think the employees work very hard in those kitchens and now their bosses will make them work even harder for the higher minimum wage, so they can squeeze more productivity out of them.

Raising wages results in higher prices for everyone, including the workers, who are not really getting raises when their buying power goes down. Are you really so dense as to not understand that?
Sheesh..

Time to pull up the big girl or big boy pants! Sounds a lot like "Hurray for me, the Hell with you, I got mine, Eff you". So small, so frightened, so childish ...

As the wages continue up, the FF places and others that are family restaurants will continue automating things. Someone was complaining just in the last week or so that some of the Darden restaurants (Olive Garden I think) was using i-pads for ordering and cashing out, not to mention requesting drink re-fills. Chili’s and Pizza Uno have been doing that as well. In many of the FF restaurants I see drinks for the drive thru being automatically filled.

Machines don't collect social security and don't ask for raises. Higher wages in some industries will lead to less jobs.

And with that said, Costco has figured out if they pay a really good wage, they never have to re-hire and re-train because nobody ever leaves.

I guess I am saying it all depends on the industry and the demographic they are gearing the business to. Let's come back in 5 years and see how this all plays out. In the meantime, shop only the shops that work for you, ignore the rest on the boards and stop wasting time and energy complaining about your wages. We are responsible for our own destiny.

Zero effect. Compensation will not go up as long as shoppers continue to do them for chickenfeed.

Multi billion dollar corporations love when the minimum wage goes up so they can raise their prices more than needed to compensate for the higher wages and make even more money. The real best bet would be to eliminate any sort of monetary system what so ever. Everyone works in jobs and industry they enjoy where it is not work and we learn to maximize resources. No one goes hungry and everyone has shelter and clothing. Will never happen but should. Zeitgeist

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

I think I agree with Warren Buffet. He believes that instead of raising the minimum wage we should use the income tax to make incomes more equal. I am not exactly sure how it would work (maybe dspeakes or someone else out there who knows more about taxes than I do could explain this), but he thinks we should use the earned income tax credit to make incomes more equal.

"Evolve thyself and lose all hate...." Orphaned Land

If the workforce is remunerated better for their time, I think it will have an eventual effect on MSing. Payments and reimbursements being what they are today is largely a result of the financial crises dating back to '07-'08.

When I first started MSing, wages were higher than now and purchase/returns were rare, rather than the norm. Many shops had generous reimbursements because they were trying to entice the existing workforce to to shop in their free time. It wasn't something that was easy to make a living at, but the quality of work as a 'lifestyle shopper' was much better.

When a large amount of unemployed workers suddenly were available for shops and had the attitude of 'something is better than nothing', pricing and reimbursement structures changed. That change was slow and and I think and return to the previous model will also be slow to be adapted, but when MSCs can no longer find shoppers to take $5 shops, it will have to change.

BTW, when I was employed a shopper in CA a few years back (by a company that no longer has an employee shopper model), I was paid more than $15/hour. I think the payment structure for a shopper that attempts to shop full time should be based on earning an average of $15-25 per hour for their time (In California, at least).

@alannajm wrote:

I think I agree with Warren Buffet. He believes that instead of raising the minimum wage we should use the income tax to make incomes more equal.

I believe that is called Socialism.]

@LIJake wrote:

@alannajm wrote:

I think I agree with Warren Buffet. He believes that instead of raising the minimum wage we should use the income tax to make incomes more equal.

I believe that is called Socialism.]

Also sounds a lot like Community-ism

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Impact of Higher Minimum Wages on Mystery Shopping

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