DC Velocity - March 2017

ALL OF A SUDDEN, FAST-FOOD WORKERS WHO’VE been oversampling the wares are marching, particularly in favorable weather, with demands—not requests, mind you— for a new minimum wage, most notably $15 per hour.

They are often joined by warehouse workers and custodial operatives, and anyone else who feels aggrieved by receiving part-time wages for part-time work. The premise that an entry-level position should command a wage that permits home purchase and other major life expenditures is a debate for another day.

That the employed, but possibly underpaid, marchers might not be superproductive, as it is, crosses the mind randomly. And it does raise the question of how all the marching and chanting might be further reducing quality and throughput— another debate for another day.

TRANSLATING THE REALITY TO THE ABSTRACT

Amex Open Forum’s weekly e-news-letter, “The Recap,” recently featured a discussion of the possible impact(s)

of an increased entry-level wage. In it, my friend Steve Mulaik probed some current academic research in the field.

Truth to tell, Mulaik has been cosmically involved in matters of distribution center performance for the 20 years I’ve known him. He dabbles in both esoterica and exotica, and does not hesitate to borrow concepts from academics when he is not coming up with new discoveries and ideas on his own.